FALCON POWERS – Residents and media outlets affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) reported that Israeli tanks infiltrated under heavy air and ground cover into Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip on Monday. Tanks and forces also crossed into a major highway on the outskirts of Rafah in the south. In Jabalia, tanks attempted to advance towards the center of the camp, which is the largest of the eight refugee camps in Gaza. Residents reported tank shells falling in the camp’s center, and airstrikes destroyed several houses.
Residents and paramedics stated that several people were killed and injured in a series of airstrikes on the camp during the night. Paramedics were unable to send teams to some areas due to the intensity of Israeli shelling but have received reports of casualties. In Rafah near the border with Egypt, Israel intensified aerial and ground bombardment in the eastern areas of the city. Fatalities occurred in an airstrike on a house in the Brazil neighborhood.
Residents reported that Israeli tanks cut off Salah al-Din Street, which divides the eastern part of the city, and the eastern part of Rafah remains a “ghost town.”
Residents reported escalating fighting and sightings of Israeli forces and tanks in the southeast of the Rafah area.
US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew stated on Sunday that the incursion into Rafah remained within an acceptable range for Washington. Lew referred to US President Joe Biden’s announcement in an interview with CNN last week of suspending bomb shipments to Israel as a warning against “entering Rafah.”
Lew told Israeli Channel 12 TV, “The President was clear in the interview that what Israel has done so far has not exceeded the limit of our disagreements,” but he did not clarify what that limit was.
He added, “I hope we don’t end up in a real dispute.”
The military wing of Hamas stated that its fighters engaged in armed battles with Israeli forces in one of the streets east of Rafah and in the east of Jabalia. In Israel, the army sounded the alarm sirens several times in areas near Gaza, warning of the possibility of Palestinian rockets or mortar shells being fired across the border.
The Israeli army stated late on Saturday that its forces in Jabalia were preventing Hamas from rebuilding its military capabilities in Gaza.
Saeed, a 45-year-old resident of Jabalia, told Reuters via a messaging app on Sunday, “The bombing from the air and the ground hasn’t stopped since yesterday. They were shelling everywhere, near the schools where displaced people who lost their homes are staying.”
He added, “It’s as if the war in Jabalia is starting all over again. This is what’s happening… The new incursion has forced many families to evacuate their homes.”
The Ministry of Health in Gaza states that the number of Palestinian casualties in the Israeli military operation has exceeded at least 35,000. The bombardment has devastated the coastal enclave and caused a severe humanitarian crisis.
The war erupted after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of around 1,200 people and the holding of over 250 hostages, according to Israeli estimates.
Israel states that 620 soldiers were killed in the fighting, with more than half of them falling in the Hamas attack.
