Western Daily Press (Saturday)
More than 100,000 have now fled Rafah, says UN
HEAVY fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Rafah has left crucial nearby aid crossings inaccessible and caused more than 100,000 people to flee north, a United Nations official said on Friday.
Israel’s plans for a full-scale invasion of Rafah appear to be on hold for now, with the US deeply opposed and stepping up pressure by threatening to withhold arms. But even the more limited incursion launched earlier this week threatens to worsen Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe.
Heavy fighting was also under way in northern Gaza, where Hamas appeared to have once again regrouped in an area where Israel has already launched punishing assaults.
About 110,000 people have fled Rafah and food and fuel supplies in the area are critically low, a UN official has said. All crossings into southern Gaza remain closed, cutting off supplies and preventing medical evacuations and the movement of humanitarian staff, said Georgios Petropoulos, an official for the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs working in Rafah. Some 1.3 million Palestinians –more than half Gaza’s population – had sought refuge in Rafah. The World Food Programme will run out of food for distribution in southern Gaza by Saturday unless more aid arrives, Mr Petropoulos said.
“We simply have no tents, we have no blankets, no bedding, none of the items that you would expect a population on the move to be able to get from the humanitarian system,” he said. UN officials warn that the lack of fuel is undermining medical facilities, water supplies and sewage systems across Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that a US threat to withhold some weapons would not deter Israel from expanding its offensive in Gaza. A limited
Israeli operation earlier this week captured the Gaza side of Rafah’s border crossing with Egypt, throwing humanitarian operations into crisis.
Israel says the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing – Gaza’s main cargo terminal – is open on its side, but the UN says it remains inaccessible on the Gaza side due to ongoing fighting. Israeli troops are battling Palestinian militants in eastern Rafah, not far from the crossings. An Associated Press reporter in the city heard heavy artillery and gunfire throughout the night into Friday. The military said in a statement that it had located several tunnels and eliminated militants “during close-quarters combat and with an aerial strike”.
Hamas’s military wing said it carried out a complex attack in which it struck a house where Israeli troops had taken up position, an armoured personnel carrier and soldiers operating on foot. There was no comment from the Israeli military – it is not possible to independently confirm battlefield accounts from either side.
Hamas also said it launched a number of mortar rounds at the Kerem Shalom crossing, close to where Israeli troops are operating. The military said it intercepted two launches. The crossing was initially closed after a Hamas rocket attack last weekend that killed four Israeli soldiers.
Israel says Rafah is the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza and key to its goal of dismantling the group’s military and governing capabilities and returning scores of hostages captured in Hamas’s October 7 attack that triggered the war. But Hamas has repeatedly regrouped, even in the hardest-hit parts of Gaza.
The north remains largely isolated by Israeli troops, and the UN says the estimated 300,000 people there are experiencing “full-blown famine”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to proceed with the offensive with or without US arms, saying “we will fight with our fingernails” if needed in a defiant statement late on Thursday.