CAIRO: Israeli forces pushed deep into the ruins of Gaza’s northern edge on Monday to recapture an area where they claimed to have dismantled Hamas months ago, while in the south tanks and troops pushed across a highway into Rafah.
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, which humanitarian groups say is worsening an already dire situation.
Hundreds of thousands of people are being forced to flee again after around half of Gaza’s population took sanctuary there after being pushed south by fighting elsewhere. Gaza’s health authority on Monday appealed for international pressure to reopen access via the southern border to allow in aid and medical supplies. “The wounded and sick suffer a slow death because there is no treatment and supplies and they cannot travel,” it said.
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.
In Rafah, Israel stepped up aerial and ground bombardments on the eastern areas of the city, killing people in an airstrike on a house in the Brazil neighbourhood.