2024-05-08 20:52:03
Tel Aviv: The Israeli army has attacked Rafa, called the last stronghold of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. There are reports that Israel has captured the Rafah crossing adjacent to Egypt. Egypt’s state TV Al Cairo News has confirmed the firing at the Rafah crossing. In a video footage broadcast on TV, heavy firing was heard on the border. Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV says Israeli officials informed Egyptians that troops would withdraw after completing targeted operations. A day earlier, Israel had carried out a massive air attack on Rafah. Since then, there was a suspicion of an attack on Rafa.
Israeli tanks entered Rafa
A Palestinian security official and an Egyptian official confirmed that Israeli tanks had entered the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The Palestinian al-Quds news network claims that five people have been airlifted to a local hospital after a house was bombed in the west of the city. A live feed from Rafah intersection showed little activity apart from the movement of ambulances and journalists. The Israeli army had already ordered the evacuation of a large area of Rafah. Hamas had reacted strongly to this and threatened that this could make the hostage crisis more serious.
UN Chief warns against attack on Rafah
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says a ground offensive on Rafah would be “unbearable”. He called on Israel and Hamas to “make an extra effort” to reach a ceasefire agreement. Guterres, flanked by Italian President Sergio Mattarella, said, “This is an opportunity that cannot be missed, and a ground offensive in Rafah would be intolerable because of its devastating humanitarian consequences and its destabilizing effect in the region.”
Jordan King asks Biden to stop ‘genocide’ in Rafah
Jordan says King Abdullah II asked President Joe Biden in talks on Monday to intervene to prevent a “new massacre” in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. “His Majesty the King warned that the Israeli attack on Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians are internally displaced as a result of the war on Gaza, threatens a new genocide,” said a Jordanian statement after the two leaders met in Washington. ” The statement said Abdullah also warned that the attack on Rafah could lead to the Gaza conflict expanding to other parts of the Middle East, and called for international support for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.