Israel Steps Up Rafah Assault As War Cabinet Splits Deepen

Party led by Benny Gantz has proposed a bill calling for the Israeli parliament to be dissolved, reports Chris Stevenson

- Chris Stevenson

There has been intense shelling and gunfire in the Gaza border city of Rafah in the wake of Israel saying it is now in effective control of Gaza’s entire land border, having taken over key a buffer zone along the border with Egypt.

Palestinian medics said that at least 12 Palestinians had been killed in a dawn airstrike on Rafah. Israel’s military said there had been clashes in southern, central and northern Gaza but did not immediately comment on the reported deaths in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering. Communication services were also cut in the southern city yesterday evening because of “the ongoing aggression”, Palestinian telecommunications company Jawa said in a statement.

The Israeli military has continued its offensive on Rafah despite an order from the UN’s top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), to end attacks on the city, where half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people had previously taken refuge.

In a televised briefing, chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces had gained “operational” control over the “Philadelphi Corridor”, using the Israeli military’s codename for the 14 km (9 mile) corridor along the Gaza Strip’s only border with Egypt. “The Philadelphi Corridor served as an oxygen line for Hamas, which it regularly used to smuggle weapons into the area of the Gaza Strip,” Mr Hagari said.