Israeli tanks reached the center of Rafah for the first time on Tuesday, witnesses said, as the military pressed its incursion into Gaza’s southernmost city despite mounting international opposition to the operation.
The tanks were spotted near Al-Awda mosque, a central Rafah landmark, the witnesses told Reuters. The Israeli military said its forces continued to operate in the Rafah area without commenting on reported advances into the city center.
Footage from Al Jazeera posted to social media purported to show the tanks advancing into Rafah.
There was no immediate comment from the IDF on the witness accounts, with the military saying it will issue a statement on the Rafah operation later in the day.
Amid mounting international pressure, Israel insists that the military operation in Rafah is crucial to its goal of eliminating Hamas and freeing the hostages seized during the terror group’s October 7 massacre.
International criticism escalated after Israeli airstrikes near Rafah on Sunday night, with Hamas health authorities reporting that 45 people were killed and dozens injured in the attack and in an ensuing blaze in a camp housing displaced civilians.
The Israel Defense Forces said it had targeted a Hamas compound and eliminated two commanders in the terror group’s ranks, and that it is investigating what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “tragic mishap.”
Amid the mounting criticism, the IDF said Tuesday it deployed an additional brigade to southern Gaza’s Rafah.
The Bislamach Brigade — the School for Infantry Corps Professions and Squad Commanders in peacetime — joined the 162nd Division’s other brigades that have been operating in Rafah since earlier this month.
The military said it operated along the Philadelphi Corridor overnight, following information on infrastructure belonging to terror groups in the area. The IDF said troops located tunnels and weapons, and killed numerous operatives in the Rafah area.
So far amid the operation in southern Gaza’s Rafah, the IDF has captured around 70 percent of the Philadelphi Corridor — which runs for a total of 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) all along the Gaza-Egypt border — according to Hebrew media reports in recent days.
Meanwhile fighting continued in northern and central Gaza.
Dozens of sites belonging to terror groups were also destroyed during operations in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya, according to the IDF.
It said the sites in Jabaliya include observation posts, weapon depots, and a building used by Hamas.
Several operatives were killed by troops in Jabaliya in the past day, including a mortar-launching cell that was struck by a fighter jet, the military said.
Still, following the strike, a fire spread in the adjacent complex where Palestinian civilians were sheltering. According to Hamas health authorities in Gaza, 45 people were killed and dozens more were wounded.
The two small missiles on their own would not have been enough to spark the fire, according to the IDF’s initial probe.
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