Israel pushes deeper into Rafah and battles a regrouping Hamas in northern Gaza

[Pelican Press 0]

******* pushes deeper into Rafah and battles a regrouping ****** in northern Gaza

Children stand behind barbed-wire along a slope near a camp housing displaced Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 30, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in the ************ territory between ******* and the militant group ******. 

– | Afp | Getty Images

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — ******** forces pushed deeper into Gaza’s southern city of Rafah on Sunday and battled ****** in parts of the devastated north that the military said 

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 but where militants have regrouped.

Warnings continued against the growing offensive in Rafah, considered the last refuge in Gaza for more than a million civilians as well as ******’ last stronghold. Some 300,000 people have fled Rafah following evacuation orders from *******, which says it must invade to dismantle ****** and return scores of hostages taken in the Oct. 7 ******* against ******* that sparked the war.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated opposition to a major military ******** on Rafah, telling CBS that ******* would “be left holding the bag on an enduring insurgency” without an exit from Gaza and postwar governance plan.

The expanding Rafah operation has drawn warnings from neighboring Egypt, whose foreign ministry said it intends to formally join South *******’s case at the International Court of Justice 

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 in Gaza, which ******* rejects. The statement cited “the worsening severity and scope of the ******** attacks against ************ civilians.”

“A full-scale offensive on Rafah cannot take place,” ******* Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement, adding he cannot see how it can be reconciled with international humanitarian law.

Gaza has been left without a functioning government, leading to a breakdown in public order and allowing ******’ armed wing to reconstitute itself in even the hardest-hit areas. ******* has yet to offer a detailed plan for postwar governance in Gaza, saying only that it will 

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 over the coastal enclave home to about 2.3 million Palestinians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a 

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 speech vowed to continue fighting until victory in memory of those ******* in the war.

A displaced ************ woman waits to evacuate after ******** forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of Rafah, amid the ongoing conflict between ******* and ******, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 7, 2024. 

Hatem Khaled | Reuters

Netanyahu has rejected postwar plans proposed by the ******* States for the ************ Authority, which administers parts of the ********-occupied West Bank, to govern Gaza with support from ***** and ******* countries. 

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 depend on progress toward the creation of a ************ state, which Netanyahu’s government opposes.

The 

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 ******* ******* around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 250 ********. Militants still hold about 100 captives and the ******** of more than 30. Internationally mediated talks over a cease-***** and ******** release appear to be at a standstill.

*******’s air, land and sea offensive has ******* more than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. ******* says it has ******* over 13,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Heavy bombardment in the north

Palestinians reported heavy ******** bombardment overnight in the urban Jabaliya ******** camp and other areas in northern Gaza, which has suffered widespread devastation and been largely isolated by ******** forces for months. U.N. officials say there is a 

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 there.

Residents said ******** warplanes and artillery struck across the camp and the Zeitoun area east of Gaza City, where troops have battled militants for over a week. They have called on tens of thousands of people to relocate to nearby areas.

“It was a very difficult night,” said Abdel-Kareem Radwan, a 48-year-old from Jabaliya. He said they could hear intense and constant ******** since midday Saturday. “This is madness.”

First responders with the ************ Civil Defense said they were unable to respond to multiple calls for help from both areas, as well as from Rafah.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the top ******** military spokesman, said forces were also operating in Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun. The two towns near Gaza’s northern border with ******* were heavily bombed in the opening days of the war.

“******’ regime cannot be toppled without preparing an alternative to that regime,” columnist Ben Caspit wrote in *******’s Maariv daily, channeling the 

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 more than seven months into the war. “The only people who can govern Gaza after the war are Gazans, with a lot of support and help from the outside.”

Civilians flee in the south

The ******* Nations’ agency for ************ refugees, the main provider of aid in Gaza, said 

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 since the operation began there. Most are heading to the 

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 or Mawasi, a tent camp on the coast where some 450,000 people are already living in squalid conditions.

Rafah was sheltering some 1.3 million Palestinians before the ******** operation began, most of whom had fled fighting elsewhere.

******* has now evacuated the eastern third of Rafah, and Hagari said dozens of militants had been ******* there as “targeted operations continued.” The ******* Nations has warned that a planned full-scale Rafah invasion would 

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 and cause a surge in civilian deaths.

Rafah borders Egypt near the main aid entry points, which are already affected. ******** troops have 

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 of the Rafah crossing, forcing it to shut down. Egypt has refused to coordinate with ******* on the delivery of aid though the crossing because of “the unacceptable ******** escalation,” the state-owned Al Qahera News television channel reported.

Smoke billows after ******** bombardment in central Gaza City on March 18, 2024, amid the ongoing battles between ******* and the militant group ******. 

– | Afp | Getty Images

A senior Egyptian official told The Associated Press that Cairo has lodged protests with *******, the ******* States and ********* governments, saying the offensive has put its 

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 — a cornerstone of regional stability — at high risk. The official was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. President Joe Biden has said he won’t provide offensive weapons to ******* for Rafah. On Friday, his administration said there was “reasonable” 

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 protecting civilians — Washington’s strongest statement yet on the matter.

******* rejects those allegations, saying it tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames ****** for the high toll because the militants ****** in dense, residential areas. But the military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often ***** women and children.

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