Israel’s Defence Forces (IDF) are poised to launch a major ground offensive in Rafah as they wait for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s order, a senior military official has said.
The Israeli military has been hammering the Gaza Strip with bombs ever since the Hamas terror attacks on October 7.
Around 1.5 million Palestinians are currently taking shelter in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza, as strikes continue to rain down on the territory. But the city is also thought to be Hamas’ “final holdout”.
Now, a planned Israeli military ground operation in Rafah looms. A spokesperson for Netanyahu told Reuters that it was “moving ahead” with these plans, but gave no timeline.
They added the IDF has purchased 40,000 tents which can hold 10 to 12 people each to house Palestinians relocated from Rafah ahead of the planned attack.
Government sources told the outlet Israel’s war cabinet has arranged to meet in the next two weeks to authorise civilian evacuations, which could take up to a month.
US President Joe Biden told Netanyahu in March that a ground invasion of Rafah would be a “mistake”.
But his stance appeared to change as last week the White House announced that the US and Israel have a “shared objective to see Hamas defeated in Rafah.”
Meanwhile, air strikes across Gaza intensified on Wednesday, with three members of a family in Rafah killed. Those on the ground described the attacks as the heaviest shelling in weeks.
The IDF has told civilians in northern they are now in a “dangerous combat zone” as it continues to unleash devastating shelling in Rafah.
Strikes by air and shelling from tanks on the ground were also reported in central and southern areas of the Gaza Strip in what residents said were almost non-stop bombardments.
Shelling was particularly heavy east of Beit Hanoun and Jabaliai and in areas such as Zeitoun, one of Gaza City’s oldest suburbs.
Residents reported at least 10 strikes in a matter of seconds along the main road.
Um Mohammad, 53, a mother-of-six living 700 metres from Zeitoun, said: “It was one of those nights of horror that we have lived in at the start of the war. The bombing from tanks and planes didn’t stop.
“I had to gather with my children and my sisters who came to shelter with me in one place and pray for our lives as the house kept shaking.”
Officials also made a horror discovery of a mass grave inside the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis on the southern Gaza Strip.
More than 300 bodies have been recovered from the site since the withdrawal of Israeli forces on April 7.
The death toll in Gaza reportedly surpassed 34,000 earlier this week, according to estimates from the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
