Israeli army pushes forward in Rafah, central Gaza, fighting Palestinian resistance

By Anadolu staff

JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army on Tuesday continued its incursions into Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip and in the territory's central areas amid clashes and fighting with Palestinian resistance groups.

In a military statement, the Israeli army said its Givati Brigade, part of its 162nd Division, engaged in clashes with Palestinian gunmen in Rafah, claiming to have killed several of them, without providing an exact number.

According to an Anadolu reporter in the city, which straddles Gaza's southern border with Egypt, the Israeli army has been heavily shelling the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah since the early morning.

In the central Gaza Strip, Israeli troops in the 99th Division also continued their attacks while jets and artillery pounded the area.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas resistance group, said late on Monday that its fighters targeted two Israeli tanks in Tel al-Sultan with locally-made Yasin 105 anti-tank shells.

On Monday, the Israeli army claimed it had "operational control" over about 70% of Rafah and aims to complete its military campaign in the area within a few weeks.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

More than 37,300 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 85,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar