Heavy clashes and bombardment rocked Rafah on Saturday, as Israel pressed an assault against Hamas militants that has led hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee the
southern Gaza city.
The Israeli military said its air forces hit more than 70 targets across the Gaza Strip while ground troops conducted "targeted raids" in eastern Rafah, killing 50 militants and locating dozens of tunnel shafts.
Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said it fired a barrage of rockets towards the Israeli city of Ashkelon and targeted an Israeli command centre at the Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip.
An AFP reporter said air strikes and artillery shells pounded eastern Rafah as warplanes criss-crossed over the city on Gaza's border with Egypt.
More than 10 days into what the army called a "limited" operation in Rafah that sparked an exodus of Palestinians, fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants has also flared again in northern Gaza.
Israel said in early January it had dismantled Hamas's command structure in the north, but the army said Hamas -- whose October 7 attack sparked the war -- had been "in complete control here in Jabalia until we arrived a few days ago".
![News | Israel War on Gaza Hospitals in south Gaza running out of fuel, WHO warns The already critically undersupplied hospitals have only three days of fuel left, WHO chief warns as aid shipments also impeded. Medics care for patients at a clinic set up by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) treating severe injuries and burns sustained in Israeli bombardment, at the Rafah Indonesian Field Hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip [Mohammed Abed/AFP] Published On 8 May 2024 8 May 2024 Save articles to read later and create your own reading list. There is enough fuel to run hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip for only three more days, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) warns after Israeli forces seized control of the Rafah border crossing. Israel on Tuesday sent ground troops and tanks into the city of Rafah and seized the nearby crossing into Egypt that is the main conduit for aid into the besieged Palestinian territory. KEEP READING list of 3 items list 1 of 3 ‘Hands off Rafah’ say protesters in New York list 2 of 3 Support from lecturers and no arrests as Spanish students protest for Gaza list 3 of 3 Israel says reopening key Gaza border point as it steps up Rafah attacks end of list WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said fuel that the United Nations health agency had expected to be allowed in on Wednesday had been blocked. Israeli authorities control the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. “The closure of the border crossing continues to prevent the UN from bringing fuel. Without fuel all humanitarian operations will stop. Border closures are also impeding delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” Tedros said on X, formerly Twitter. “Hospitals in the south of Gaza only have three days of fuel left, which means services may soon come to a halt.” gaza An injured Palestinian boy awaits treatment at the Kuwaiti hospital following Israeli strikes in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip AFP](https://images.bfirst.news/smartcrop?width=1600&height=900&format=webp&quality=85&path=mediaImages/2024-May-09_663c2a8fbfa5b_1715219087.jpg)
