Israeli tanks push into 5 west Rafah neighbourhoods: Report
Residents of Rafah say that Israeli tanks – supported by fighter jets and drones – have moved into five neighbourhoods in the west of the city, Reuters reports. Heavy shelling and gunfire also targeted the tents of displaced families in the al-Mawasi area – located further to the west of Rafah, Reuters reports.
Nuseirat and Rafah face relentless attacks
Up until the early hours of this morning, we could clearly hear the sound of heavy artillery in the eastern part of central Gaza.
The central area is very small and overcrowded, so anything in the refugee camps in the east can be heard clearly. Israel’s military operation there is part of its plan to establish a buffer zone that is already shrinking the Strip.
In a separate attack, the Israeli military struck the Nuseirat refugee camp with at least one drone missile, firing it into an apartment. Two young women were reportedly killed. Multiple injuries have also been reported.
Heavy artillery shelling could also be heard targeting public facilities and residential buildings in the camp, which has been relentlessly targeted during the war by land, air and sea.
In Rafah city, the Israeli military continues to push deeper into the central and western parts, destroying more residential buildings and pushing more people into internal displacement.
Women and children among Nuseirat victims
As we reported earlier, two people have been killed and 12 wounded from Israeli bombardment of a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The Wafa news agency is now reporting that the two people killed were women, adding that women and children were among the 12 wounded.
Elsewhere in central Gaza, the Israeli military also carried out raids in the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps, as well as to the north of Nuseirat, Wafa added.
Hamas ‘preserves’ fighting force in Rafah, does not see battle as ‘decisive’: Monitors
Hamas fighters are avoiding decisive battles with the Israeli military in Gaza’s southern Rafah city, where Israeli forces have found few of the Palestinian group’s units above ground, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) report.
Hamas fighters are remaining in combat tunnel networks in Rafah, while remotely detonating buildings in the city that were “rigged to explode prior to the arrival of Israeli forces”, the US-based think tanks report in their latest battlefield update.
“The use of prepared explosively rigged buildings and tunnels suggests that Hamas’ units in Rafah prepared to preserve their strength by avoiding direct engagements,” the ISW/CTP say in their joint report.
Hamas fighters also launched an attack drone towards an Israeli town near the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, and rockets were fired from Gaza targeting Israel’s Ashkelon and another town bordering the north of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, according to the report.
NEW | Hamas is preserving its forces in Rafah rather than engaging the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), likely because Hamas does not believe Israel’s Rafah operation will be decisive. pic.twitter.com/nZJdb09j3c
— Critical Threats (@criticalthreats) June 20, 2024
Gaza’s death toll rises
At least 37,431 people have been killed and 85,653 wounded in Israeli military attacks on Gaza since October 7, the enclave’s Health Ministry says. Of those, 35 Palestinians were killed and 130 wounded in the past 24-hour reporting period, the ministry added.
