by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Israeli tanks reached the center of Rafah for the first time on Tuesday, according to witnesses, as the military continued its incursion into Gaza’s southernmost city despite growing international opposition to the operation.
According to security sources and an official UNRWA notice, over one million Gazans have already evacuated Rafah. Some have relocated to northern Rafah, while others have moved to humanitarian areas in Al Mawasi, Khan Yunis, and central Gaza.
“The operation is being carried out alongside efforts to prevent harm to those uninvolved,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated. “The forces are waging battles with terrorists, locating underground tunnel shafts in the area, weapons, and additional terror infrastructure.”
In response to the tragedy earlier this week that led to the deaths of dozens of civilians, the Israel Defense Forces stated Tuesday that a hidden weapons store might have caused the deadly blaze in southern Gaza’s Rafah.
The IDF noted that an adjacent airstrike used small munitions incapable of igniting such a fire independently. The military suspects a secondary explosion from these munitions or another unknown combustible substance led to the fire that spread in a complex housing displaced Gazans, resulting in scores of deaths.
This attack and the resulting fatalities prompted international condemnation, with Palestinians and many Arab countries labeling it a “massacre.” The United Nations Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on the incident, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “tragic mishap.”
In an update on its ongoing investigation, the IDF reported that it had been tracking Hamas commanders Yassin Rabia and Khaled Najjar ahead of the Sunday night strike on a compound in the Tel Sultan neighborhood of western Rafah.
According to IDF intelligence, the area had been used for Hamas activity, with a rocket launcher located just a few dozen meters from where the two commanders were killed.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, in a press conference on Tuesday, said the military is still investigating the tragedy while providing evidence that the fire was caused by something else in the area.
“On Sunday, we eliminated senior Hamas terrorists in a targeted strike on a compound used by Hamas in Rafah. The strike was based on precise intelligence indicating that these terrorists, responsible for orchestrating and executing terror attacks against Israelis, were meeting inside the targeted structure,” Hagari said.
“We took several steps prior to the strike to avoid civilian casualties, including aerial surveillance, using specific munitions to minimize collateral damage, delaying the attack to assess the expected civilian presence, and other measures,” the spokesman added.
The IDF also reported that it expanded its operations along the Philadelphi Corridor overnight, targeting infrastructure belonging to terror groups in the area. Troops located tunnels and weapons, and killed numerous operatives in the Rafah region.
According to recent Hebrew media reports, the IDF has captured approximately 70 percent of the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs for 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) along the Gaza-Egypt border.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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