FALCON POWERS – On Wednesday, many Palestinians sought shelter after fleeing their homes in southern Gaza Strip, complaining of water shortages as Israel continued its military offensive on the densely populated enclave.
Residents said the Israeli forces launched new military strikes in the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip amid intense fighting with Palestinian militants overnight. Health officials said at least 12 people were killed in new strikes in central and northern Gaza.
Israeli officials said the forces were about to end the fierce battle with the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, and would soon shift to more precise operations targeting specific objectives as part of the nearly nine-month-long war. But fighting continued overnight at two locations in central Rafah, where Israeli tanks had taken over several neighborhoods and advanced west and north of the city in recent days, raising concerns about the plight of hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
The Israeli military said the forces continued targeted operations in Rafah and destroyed several sites belonging to Palestinian militants, killing a number of them. The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said they targeted two Israeli tanks in the western Rafah area and fired mortar rounds at the forces that attacked the Shejaiya neighborhood in the outskirts of Gaza City in the central Strip.
The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine allied with Hamas, said they targeted an Israeli military bulldozer in Rafah and opened fire on army positions east of Shejaiya. 
Health officials said two Israeli airstrikes on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza Strip killed five Palestinians. In the Shejaiya neighborhood east of Gaza City in the central Strip, medics said an airstrike killed four and injured 17 others.
Health officials added that another airstrike hit a car in the city of Deir Al-Balah in the south of the Strip, killing three. Deir Al-Balah is crowded with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were forced to flee their homes in other areas of Gaza, and residents complain of severe drinking water shortages and a significant rise in the prices of basic foodstuffs.
