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Israeli military operations in Rafah expand from airstrikes to ground operations, satellite images show
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/08/middleeast/rafah-israel-idf-ground-operation-intl-latam/index.html
Israel’s attack in the southern Gaza city of Rafah has expanded from airstrikes to ground operations, new satellite images obtained by CNN from Planet Labs show.
The images, which bear a striking resemblance to the early stages of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza last year, show the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are active outside of the immediate border crossing area between Egypt and Gaza, which Israel took control of on Monday evening.
The images, which span from May 5 to 7, suggest some buildings have been bulldozed and show what appear to be mustering areas for IDF vehicles. Some of the IDF forces have penetrated more than a mile inside the Palestinian enclave from the Rafah crossing gate, the images also show.
These ground operations follow a series of airstrikes on Rafah that have completely destroyed several buildings in the past 24 hours, and killed at least four people, according to a local hospital. Satellite images suggest these strikes are continuing, with one picture showing smoke still rising from one location.
People could be seen running through the streets of Rafah in the aftermath of a strike on Wednesday in other footage obtained by CNN. Several carried children in their arms, some apparently bleeding and unconscious, towards Al Kuwaiti hospital.
CNN footage also showed panicked children arriving in ambulances without their parents and one barely responsive child with a heavily bandaged arm being carried on a stretcher. Two body bags were also visible outside the hospital.
Four people were killed and around two dozen injured by Israeli airstrikes in the Tal Al Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah on Wednesday, the hospital said.
‘Completely unacceptable’: Torture and disappearance of health workers
The co-founder of Health Workers 4 Palestine says hospital staff are being tortured and disappeared in Gaza, and there is an urgent need to protect them.
“There’s over 200 cases of disappearances or abductions essentially of healthcare workers, many of whom we don’t know if they’re still alive or dead,” Dr Omar Abdel-Mannan told Al Jazeera. “We’ve taken testimonies from a number of healthcare workers … one of whom was captured for 62 days. He was talking of daily torture.”
Abdel-Mannan, a pediatric neurologist, urged the international medical community to highlight the plight of health workers in Gaza. “I think it’s important for them to start speaking up. Medical institutions like the Royal College of the UK and the British Medical Association need to start making statements about the sanctity of healthcare, and the fact it is completely unacceptable to be attacking [and] killing healthcare workers.”
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