CAIRO: Israel sent tanks on raids into Rafah on Wednesday and said its war on Hamas in Gaza would likely continue all year, after Washington said the Rafah assault did not amount to a major ground operation that would trigger a change in US policy.
Israeli tanks moved into the heart of Rafah for the first time on Tuesday, despite an order from the International Court of Justice to end its attacks on the city, where many Palestinians had taken refuge from widespread bombardment.
Rafah residents said the tanks had pushed into Tel Al-Sultan in western Rafah and Yibna and near Shaboura in the centre before retreating towards a buffer zone on the border with Egypt, rather than staying put as elsewhere.
“We received distress calls from residents in Tel Al-Sultan where drones targeted displaced citizens as they moved from areas where they were staying toward the safe areas,” the deputy director of ambulance and emergency services in Rafah, Haitham al Hams, said. Israel said its military controlled three quarters of the buffer zone on the Egyptian border and aimed to control all of it to prevent Hamas smuggling in weapons. Palestinian Health Minister Majed Abu Ramadan said there was no indication the Rafah border crossing would be reopened for aid any time soon.
Fighting in Gaza would continue throughout 2024 at least, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi added, signalling that Israel was not ready to end the war as demanded by Hamas, as part of a deal that would see the exchange of hostages is holds for Palestinian prisoners.
“The fighting in Rafah is not a pointless war,” he said, reiterating that the aim was to end Hamas rule in Gaza and stop it and its allies attacking Israel.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, reiterated its opposition to a major Israeli ground offensive in Rafah on Tuesday while saying it did not believe such an operation was under way.