Rafah: Israeli military operations expand from airstrikes to ground operations, satellite images show

cnn
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Israel’s attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah has expanded from airstrikes to ground operations, new satellite images obtained by CNN from Planet Labs show.

The images, which bear a striking resemblance to the early stages of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza last year, show that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are active outside the immediate border crossing area between Egypt and Gaza , which Israel took control on Monday. evening.

The images, covering May 5-7, suggest that some buildings have been demolished and show what appear to be assembly areas for IDF vehicles. Some of the IDF forces have penetrated more than a mile into the Palestinian enclave from the Rafah border crossing, as the images also show.

These ground operations follow a series of airstrikes in Rafah that completely destroyed several buildings in the past 24 hours and killed at least four people, according to a local hospital. Satellite images suggest that these attacks continue; An image shows smoke still rising from one location.

In other images obtained by CNN, people could be seen running through the streets of Rafah after an attack on Wednesday. Several carried children in their arms, some apparently bleeding and unconscious, towards Al Kuwaiti Hospital.

CNN footage also showed panicked children arriving in ambulances without their parents and a barely responsive child with a heavily bandaged arm being carried away on a stretcher. Two body bags were also seen outside the hospital.

Four people were killed and about two dozen wounded Wednesday by Israeli airstrikes in the Tal Al Sultan neighborhood of western Rafah, the hospital said.

CNN has contacted the Israeli military for comment on the incident.

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Rafah has become the central focus of Israel’s war in Gaza, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces increasing pressure from the extreme wing of his coalition to launch a large-scale ground operation in the city to destroy Hamas, while the more moderate wing has urged giving priority to reaching a ceasefire agreement for the hostages.

During nearly seven months of war, more than a million Palestinians have fled to Rafah, where Hamas is believed to have regrouped following Israel’s destruction of much of the northern strip. Gazans began fleeing the densely populated city on Monday after the Israeli military called on residents in eastern Rafah to “evacuate immediately.”

In satellite images, some areas of Rafah show telltale signs of having been bulldozed by bulldozers and other heavy machinery: vehicle tracks and large swaths of disturbed earth.

The new operations shown in the satellite images resemble the initial ground invasion of Gaza in October 2023, and elsewhere in the enclave since then: As the IDF advanced into northern Gaza, it carried out a series of airstrikes shortly before moving ground forces. Once IDF ground forces moved in, armored bulldozers worked with tanks and other military vehicles to knock down and level buildings.

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The IDF said in a statement on Wednesday that it was carrying out a “precise counterterrorism operation in targeted areas of eastern Rafah,” including “targeted raids.” He also claimed to have “eliminated terrorists and discovered terrorist infrastructure as well as underground wells in several locations in the eastern area of ​​Rafah.”

The IDF has released images of its 401st Brigade combat team conducting “operational raids on suspicious buildings” near where it said Hamas militants had fired on its soldiers.

The IDF said that during the operation they “eliminated about 30 terrorists and destroyed large amounts of terrorist infrastructure in the region.”

CNN previously confirmed through hospital sources in Rafah that at least 35 people had died in Rafah since Monday night, including seven women and nine children.

More than 34,600 people have died in Gaza since October, according to Palestinian authorities in Gaza. Aid agencies have been warning Israel against launching a large-scale ground invasion of Rafah, saying that “any ground operation would mean more suffering and death” for the 1.2 million displaced Palestinians sheltering in the city and its surroundings, OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva. .

Northern Gaza is already experiencing a “full-blown famine” that is rapidly spreading across the strip, the World Food Program warned over the weekend.