In Rafah, Israel deepens a ground offensive that does not speak its name
Announced as imminent for several months and constantly postponed, officially at least, under pressure from the international community which feared a humanitarian disaster, the ground offensive against Hamas in the town of Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip , seems well and truly engaged.
The unexpected announcement, two days ago, of the presence of IDF tanks in the center of what is described by Israeli leaders as the last stronghold of Hamas surprised more than one observer.
Certainly, the Israeli army had announced, on May 6, the launch of“targeted land operations” against Hamas fighters and infrastructure in eastern Rafah. But since, “tanks and troops gradually penetrated the built-up areas of the east and center while moving north along the 14 kilometer border with Egypt,” notes the website of the British channel BBC.
And now“some 30 to 40 percent of Rafah is now under IDF domination, not just a small part of the eastern sector,” added on May 28 the Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post, as Israeli tanks reached the Al-Aouda roundabout, a major intersection in the heart of Rafah, less than a kilometer from the Egyptian border.
“Signal”
Yesterday is a new milestone,
