Israeli forces intensify assault on Gaza, focus on Rafah
A man stands at a tent camp damaged in an Israeli strikeIsraeli forces pounded Rafah and other areas across the Gaza Strip and engaged in close-quarter combat with fighters led by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, residents, and Israel’s military said., the city on the enclave’s southern edge that has been the focus of an Israeli assault since early May.
Some residents said the pace of the Israeli raid has been accelerated in the past two days. They said sounds ofMore than eight months into the war in Gaza, Israel’s advance is now focused on the two last areas its forces had yet to storm:“The entire city of Rafah is an area of Israeli military operations,” Ahmed Al-Sofi, the mayor of Rafah, said in a statement carried by Hamas media on Friday.
Palestinian and UN figures show that fewer than 100 000 people may have remained in the far western side of the city, which had been sheltering more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people before the Israeli assault began in early May. Hamas’ armed wing said on Thursday its fighters had hit two Israeli tanks with anti-tank rockets in the Shaboura camp in Rafah and killed soldiers who tried to flee through the alleys. There was no immediate Israeli comment on the Hamas claim.
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