May 20, 2024
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Heavy fighting was reported Friday between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Israel's plans for a full-scale invasion of Rafah appear to be on hold for now, with the United States deeply opposed and stepping up pressure by threatening to withhold arms.
Heavy fighting was also underway in northern Gaza, where Hamas appeared to have once again regrouped in an area where Israel has already launched punishing assaults.
Over a million Palestinians have fled to Rafah to escape fighting elsewhere, with many packed into U.N.-run shelters or tent camps. The city on the border with Egypt is also a crucial hub for bringing in food, medicine, fuel and other goods.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, says about 110,000 people have fled Rafah. Georgios Petropoulos, an OCHA official working in Rafah, said the two main crossings near the city remain closed.
Israeli troops captured the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, forcing it to shut down. Rafah was the main point of entry for fuel needed to power vehicles, as well as the generators on which hospitals and water treatment plants rely.
Israel says the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing — Gaza's main cargo terminal — is open on its side, but the U.N. says it remains inaccessible on the Gaza side because of ongoing fighting.
Israeli troops are battling Palestinian militants in eastern Rafah, not far from the crossings.
The military said in a statement that it had located several tunnels and eliminated militants “during close-quarters combat and with an aerial strike.”
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' Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war.
But Hamas has repeatedly regrouped, even in the hardest-hit parts of Gaza.
Heavy battles erupted this week in the Zeitoun area on the outskirts of Gaza City in the northern part of the territory. Northern Gaza was the first target of the ground offensive, and Israel said late last year that it had mostly dismantled Hamas there.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to proceed with the offensive with or without U.S. arms, saying “we will fight with our fingernails” if needed in a defiant statement late Thursday. The Israeli military says it has what it needs for the missions it has planned, including in Rafah.
The war began with Hamas’ surprise attack into southern Israel last year, in which it killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 250 hostage. The militants are still holding some 100 captives and the remains of more than 30 after most of the rest were released during a cease-fire last year.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry claims the war has killed over 34,800 Palestinians.
Israel's incursion into Rafah complicated what had been months of efforts by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt to broker a cease-fire and the release of hostages. Hamas this week said it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but Israel says the plan does not meet its “core” demands. Hamas has demanded guarantees for an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as part of any deal — steps Israel has ruled out.
