Israel pushes deeper into Gaza's south

RAFAH — Israeli tanks pushed deeper into Rafah on Tuesday, reaching some residential areas of the southern Gaza border city where more than a million people had sought shelter, and its forces pounded the enclave's north in some of the fiercest attacks in months.

Clashes have rocked the densely crowded Rafah, but also flared again in northern and central Gaza months after troops and tanks first entered those areas.

Israel's international allies and aid groups have repeatedly warned against a ground incursion into Rafah, where many Palestinians fled and Israel said four Hamas battalions are holed up. Israel says it must root out the remaining fighters.

The White House said US national security adviser Jake Sullivan will visit Israel and Saudi Arabia this weekend. US President Joe Biden's administration declined to comment on a report by news site Axios that Israel agreed not to expand its Rafah operation significantly before Sullivan's visit.

A United States official who declined to be identified told Reuters that Israel promised not to make a major move in Rafah without advising Washington.

Israeli spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a briefing that Israeli forces had killed about 100 militant fighters, located 10 tunnel routes and found many weapons in Rafah since the start of the operation a week ago.

Fighting has intensified elsewhere across the Gaza Strip in recent days, including in the north, with the Israeli military returning to areas where it had claimed to have already dismantled Hamas. The clashes on Tuesday were the fiercest in months, residents and militant sources said.

Nearly 450,000 Palestinians have been displaced from Rafah since May 6, and about 100,000 from northern Gaza, United Nations agencies said.

That means about a quarter of Gaza's population of 2.4 million people have been displaced again in about one week.

UN chief Antonio Guterres is "appalled" by Israel's escalating military activity in and around Rafah, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

Much of Gaza's population is on the brink of famine, the UN said, and desperate for fuel and other essential supplies such as medicine. Relief organizations, the UN and major powers such as the US have urged Israel to facilitate a massive influx of aid.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that Egypt must be "persuaded" to reopen the Rafah border crossing to "allow the continued delivery of international humanitarian aid" into Gaza.

His comment prompted an angry response from Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who said in a statement that Israel's seizure of the Rafah crossing and its military operations in the area were the main obstacles to aid entering Gaza.

Israel told merchants in Gaza to retrieve commercial goods that had been stuck at the Kerem Shalom border crossing in Israel since Hamas' Oct 7 attack, residents and Palestinian media said.

On Tuesday, Israel marked Independence Day, commemorating the state's creation in 1948.

Palestinians remember Israel's establishment as the "Nakba", or catastrophe, when around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes during the conflict that led to Israel's creation.

Agencies - Xinhua