Israeli forces pushed deep into the ruins of Gaza’s northern edge to recapture an area from Hamas fighters, while in the south tanks and troops pushed across a highway into Rafah, leaving Palestinian civilians scrambling to find safety.
Some of the most intense fighting for weeks is raging in both the north and south. Israeli operations in Rafah, which borders Egypt, have closed a main crossing point for aid.
Humanitarian groups say this has worsened an already dire situation.
Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing Rafah with around half of Gaza’s population having previously taken sanctuary in the city after Israel ordered evacuations from northern Gaza in October.
Gaza’s health authority appealed for international pressure to reopen access via the southern border to allow in aid, medical supplies and fuel to power generators and ambulances.
A foreign UN security staff member was killed yesterday when a UN-marked vehicle travelling to a hospital in Rafah was struck – the first international UN fatality in the Gaza war, a UN spokesperson said, bringing the total death toll of UN personnel to around 190.
In northern Gaza’s Jabalia, a sprawling refugee camp built for displaced Palestinians 75 years ago, Israeli forces pushed into an area where they claimed to have dismantled Hamas months ago.
Residents fled a long rubble-strewn streets carrying bags of belongings. Tank shells landed in the centre of the camp and health officials said they had recovered 20 bodies from overnight airstrikes.
An Israeli air strike on a house in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least eight people, said Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson of the Gaza Civil Emergency Service.
He said several other people were wounded and missing.
The Palestinian death toll in the war has now surpassed 35,000, with 57 killed in the past 24 hours, according to Gaza Health officials, whose figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israeli troops are seeking to wipe out Hamas however a senior US State Department official did not think that the goal of total victory was “likely or possible.”
Read more about the conflict in the Middle East
The militant group, which has said it is committed to Israel’s destruction, burst into Israel on 7 October, killing 1,200 and taking more than 250 hostages, by Israeli tallies.
Hamas’ armed wing said because of Israeli bombardments it had lost contact with militants guarding four Israeli hostages, including US-Israeli citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who appeared in a video released by Hamas in late April.
Attending a Memorial Day ceremony yesterday to mark Israel’s fallen soldiers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war against Hamas was a struggle to secure Israel’s “existence, liberty, security and prosperity”.
In Rafah, Israel stepped up aerial and ground bombardment on eastern areas, killing people in an airstrike on a house.
Residents said Israeli air and ground bombardments were intensifying and tanks had cut off the main north-south Salahuddin road.
Rafah assault splits US and Israel
UNRWA, the main UN aid agency in Gaza, estimated that about 360,000 people had fled the southern city since the Israeli military gave its first evacuation order a week ago.
They are moving to empty tracts of land, including Al-Mawasi, a small strip along the coast, designated as an expanded humanitarian area by Israel.
The assault on Rafah has caused one of the biggest splits in decades between Israel and its main ally the U.S., which paused some deliveries of weapons.
US President Joe Biden, who is running for re-election this year, has faced heavy criticism from his own supporters domestically for his support of Israel. Some of those critics have accused Israel of committing genocide, a claim dismissed by the White House and Israel.
“We do not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide,” US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.
The US says Israel must not assault Rafah without a plan to protect civilians, which it has yet to see.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s office said he had briefed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the “precise operation” in the Rafah area.
US officials said Mr Blinken spoke with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and reaffirmed that the United States does not support a major military ground operation by Israel in Rafah.
Hamas’ armed wing said its fighters were engaged in gun battles with Israeli forces in one of the streets east of Rafah and in the east of Jabalia.
In Israel, the military sounded sirens several times in areas near Gaza, warning of potential Palestinian cross-border rocket and or mortar launches.
Israeli protesters blocked aid trucks headed for Gaza, strewing food packages on the road at Tarqumiya checkpoint, west of Hebron in the Israeli occupied West Bank.
Mr Sullivan expressed concern about reports of Israeli settlers attacking a humanitarian aid convoy on its way to Erez Crossing In northern Gaza, the second such incident in less than a week.
“It is a total outrage that there are people who are attacking and looting these conveys,” Mr Sullivan said.
“It is completely and utterly unacceptable behaviour.”
