Under air cover, Israeli forces advanced into the town of Rafah on Friday, which has become the epicenter of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
According to witnesses, Israeli strikes targeted Rafah, from which around a million Palestinians have fled since Israeli tanks entered the east of the city on May 7.
The army confirmed the presence of its forces in the center of the city, indicating that its “commandos” had discovered Hamas “rocket launchers”, “tunnels” and “weapons” there.
On Wednesday, the army took control of an area of approximately 14 km from east to west, bordering the Egyptian border, called the “Philadelphia Corridor” in Rafah. Via this corridor, Hamas “regularly transited weapons to Gaza”, according to the army.
Despite the wave of international indignation raised by the bombing on Sunday of a displaced persons camp in Rafah, which left 45 dead, including children according to Hamas, the army continues its offensive in this overpopulated city, launched with the declared objective to eliminate the last battalions of the Palestinian movement.
Some 300 Hamas fighters have been killed since May 7, according to the army.
Israel has vowed to “destroy” Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007 and considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, after the attack carried out on October 7 by commandos of the Islamist movement infiltrated from Gaza in southern Israel.
