Israel vows to broaden Rafah sweep amid fighting in parts of Gaza

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Israel made a new push in central Gaza on Monday, bombarded towns in the north of the Strip and said it intended to broaden its military operation in Rafah despite US warnings of the risk of mass casualties in the southern city.

Gaza medics said at least 23 people had been killed in the latest fighting, and residents said battles were intense in Jabalia in the north of the Palestinian enclave.

Israeli tanks also carried out a limited incursion into areas of Wadi Al-Salqa and Al-Karara near Deir Al-Balah, a central Gazan city which Israeli forces have not entered during more than seven months of war, local residents said.

Fighting raged as US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held talks in Israel which the White House had said he would call for Israeli forces to go after Hamas militants in Gaza in a targeted way, not with a full-scale assault on Rafah.

But Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant signalled there would be no let-up in its operation, intended to clear Rafah of Hamas militants and rescue hostages seized in the Hamas-led raid on Israel on 7 October that triggered the war.

“We are committed to broadening the ground operation in Rafah to the end of dismantling Hamas and recovering the hostages,” a statement from Gallant’s office quoted him as telling Sullivan.

Israel describes Rafah, on Gaza’s border with Egypt, as Hamas’ last stronghold. Western powers are concerned over the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians sheltering there, despite Israeli assurances about humanitarian safeguards.

Israel told civilians to evacuate parts of the city on May 6 and began troop and tank incursions. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA estimates that 810 000 people have fled since then, possibly over half Rafah’s wartime population.

Israel’s plan for an all-out assault on Rafah has ignited one of the biggest rifts in generations with its main ally, and Washington held up a weapons shipment over fears of large civilian casualties.