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Territories — Israel bombarded Rafah on Wednesday as the military said ground troops conducted “targeted raids” in the southern Gaza city’s east, with negotiations to halt the seven-month war underway in Cairo.
Israel has defied international objections and sent tanks into Rafah, which is crowded with Palestinian civilians sheltering near the Egyptian border, seizing early Tuesday a crossing that is the main conduit for aid into the besieged territory.
The White House condemned the interruption to humanitarian deliveries, with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin later confirming reports that Washington had paused a shipment of bombs last week after Israel failed to address concerns over its long-threatened Rafah operation.
The Israeli military said Wednesday it was reopening another major aid crossing into Gaza, Kerem Shalom, as well as the Erez crossing.
But the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said the Kerem Shalom crossing — which Israel shut after a rocket attack killed four soldiers on Sunday — remained closed.
Late Wednesday, the army said a soldier was lightly wounded when Kerem Shalom was again targeted by rockets.
It came after a night of heavy Israeli strikes and shelling across Gaza.
AFPTV footage showed Palestinians scrambling in the dark to pull survivors, bloodied and caked in dust, out from under the rubble of a Rafah building.
“We are living in Rafah in extreme fear and endless anxiety,” said Muhanad Ahmad Qishta, 29.
“Places the Israeli army claims to be safe are also being bombed,” he told AFP.
Displaced Gazan Marwan al-Masri, 35, said “the streets are empty” in Rafah’s western areas, and “life has completely ceased”.
