Israeli forces fired from planes, tanks, and ships off the coast, producing a new wave of Hamas terrorists being flushed from the city.
Unfortunately, as war goes, this also included nearly a million displaced people sheltering since previously being forced to flee from other locations in Gaza.
This from newsmax.com.
Tanks were pushing their way into the western and northern parts of Rafah, having already captured the east, south, and center.
Residents and Israel’s military said:
Israeli 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 said:
[T]he Israelis appeared to by trying to complete their capture of Rafah, the city on the enclave’s southern edge that has been the focus of an Israeli assault since early May.
Palestinian health officials said:
[A]t least 12 Palestinians had been killed in separate Israeli military strikes on Friday.
The Israeli military said on Friday:
[I]ts forces were conducting ‘precise, intelligence-based’ actions in the Rafah area, where troops were involved in close-quarter combat and had located tunnels used by militants. It also reported actions elsewhere in the enclave.
Some Rafah residents said:
[T]he pace of the Israeli raid has been accelerated in the past two days.
Further:
[S]ounds of explosions and gunfire indicating fierce fighting have been almost non-stop.
Hatem, 45, reached by text message, said:
Last night was one of the worst nights in western Rafah, drones, planes, tanks, and naval boats bombarded the area. We feel the occupation is trying to complete the control of the city.
They are taking heavy strikes from the resistance fighters, which may be slowing them down.
More 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: Rafah on Gaza’s southern edge and the area surrounding Deir al-Balah in the center.
Ahmed Al-Sofi, the mayor of Rafah, said in a statement carried by Hamas media on Friday:
The entire city of Rafah is an area of Israeli military operations.
Further:
The city lives through a humanitarian catastrophe and people are dying inside their tents because of Israeli bombardment.
And:
[T]here was no medical facility functioning in the city, and remaining residents and displaced families lacked the minimum of their daily needs of food and water.
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.
The military accused Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, an allegation Hamas denies.
In a statement late Thursday, the military said:
The soldiers located inside a civilian residence large quantities of weapons hidden in wardrobes, including grenades, explosives, a launcher and anti-tank missiles, ammunition, and arms.
Hamas’ armed wing said on Thursday:
[I]ts 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 Israeli immediate comment on the Hamas claim.
Medics said:
In nearby Khan Younis, an Israeli air strike on Friday killed three people, including a father and son.
In parallel, Israeli forces continued a new push back into some Gaza City suburbs in the north of the enclave, where they fought with Hamas-led militants. Residents said the army forces had destroyed many homes in the heart of Gaza City on Thursday.
The territory’s Civil Emergency Service said:
Late Friday, an Israeli air strike on a facility of the Gaza City municipality killed five people, including four municipality workers.
Rescue teams were searching the rubble for more missing victims.
Israel’s ground and air campaign has left Gaza in ruins according to Palestinian authorities.
Final thoughts: The words “Israel…has left Gaza in ruins…” are an excellent example of ‘forethought is a terrible thing to neglect.’
At this point, however, with forethought having been neglected, overwhelming deterrence has taken hold.
