by Farrukh Abadi
Israel has begun its ground invasion of Rafah, receiving punishing blows from the Palestinian resistance forces in return. The Israeli army admitted to 50 soldiers wounded on Sunday alone across 3 fronts in the Gaza Strip. In the days leading up to the invasion, four IDF soldiers were killed and ten more injured in a recent rocket attack by Hamas, according to the IDF. About 14 rockets and mortars were fired at a military base near the Karem Abu Salem border crossing between Israel and Gaza. The attack originated from Rafah near the Gazan border with Egypt.
The targeted military base serves as a launching pad for Israeli attacks on Rafah. The Iron Dome system, Israel’s anti-missile defense system, did not stop the attack.
This adds to the two IDF soldiers killed on Monday in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights by a Hezbollah drone attack. Additionally, IDF soldiers in the Netzarim Corridor, which separates north and south Gaza, were targeted by sniper rifle and mortars by Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds Brigades. The resistance forces are also continuing to target IDF build-up sites for their invasion of Rafah with mortars and Yassin anti-armor rockets.
Israel is currently invading not just Rafah but also Zaytoun and Jabaliya in the Gaza strip. Resistance forces wounded Brigadier General Yogav Bar-Shesht during its counter-offensive in Zaytoun, a neighborhood of Gaza City, making Bar-Shesht the highest-ranking Israeli officer casualty in the war so far.
Israel has issued new evacuation orders for eastern Rafah, with 300,000 fleeing so far according to UNRWA. Included in the evacuation are the Rafah crossing, which connects Rafah to Egypt, and al-Najjar hospital, the main medical facility in the region. The Rafah crossing and Karem Abu Salem, which was also closed, are the two routes by which the majority of aid reaches the famine-stricken territory.
Many of those evacuated have already been displaced on multiple occasions over the last several months.
There has been nonstop bombing of residential houses in the eastern part of Rafah for the last week. Dozens of Palestinian civilians have been killed and wounded in the bombings and the raids across the Gaza strip since Israel began ground incursions in the last few days.
This comes as Hamas agreed to a mediated ceasefire proposal with Israel in ongoing talks held in Egypt. The ceasefire involves an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Palestinians returning to their homes in Gaza, and a prisoner swap between the resistance and Israel. Netanyahu has stated that he will not accept the deal, but has sent officials to the talks anyway while simultaneously escalating attacks on Rafah and across Gaza.
photo: Qassam drone drops an anti-armor Yassin warhead onto an IDF tank in the north of Gaza, a tactic used broadly on October 7’s initiation of Al Aqsa Flood
