Monday 06 / May / 2024
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have continued to bomb the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip ahead of a planned ground offensive against what it says are four Hamas units holding out in the city.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said the country's War Cabinet would be meeting on Thursday "to discuss how to destroy the last battalions of Hamas."
A senior Israeli defense official told the Reuters news agency that preparations were complete and that the IDF was ready to launch an offensive as soon as ordered.
US media have quoted Egyptian officials has saying that Israeli troops would enter Rafah in stages.
The IDF said on Thursday that its aircraft had struck more than 30 Hamas targets across Gaza over the previous day, while the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the enclave increased its death toll to at least 34,305.
Local authorities reported five airstrikes on Rafah itself early on Thursday which hit three houses and killed at least six people, including a local journalist.
"We are afraid of what will happen in Rafah," the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Ibrahim Khraishi, told the Reuters news agency on Thursday. "The level of alert is very high. Some are leaving, they are afraid for their families but where can they go? They are not being allowed to go to the north and so are confined to a very small area."
Among those killed in an Israeli strike on Rafah included Abdallah Nabhan, 33, who worked for Belgium's Enabel development agency. Brussels said it would summon Israel's ambassador to explain the death.The Israeli military has reportedly been making plans to relocate hundreds of thousands of civilians away from Rafah, but many refugees are already on the move.
Earlier this month, Israeli media reported that 40,000 tents had been purchased to house evacuated civilians. The Reuters news agency quoted Israeli government sources on Wednesday saying each tent could hold between 10 and 12 people.
Satellite images published by the BBC this week showed two new tent encampments outside the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.
On Thursday, The Jerusalem Post reported that "up to 200,000" Palestinians had already left Rafah.
The Palestinian ambassador to Egypt, Diab Allouh, told the AFP news agency that between 80,000 and 100,000 Gazans have crossed into Egypt since the start of the war following Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7.
