Fierce fighting has broken out between Israeli and Palestinian troops in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses said, as fears grow of a wider regional war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Eyewitnesses stated that clashes continued in this city during the night, and the Israeli army announced that its air force had hit a rocket launch site.
UN agencies have announced that ten children in Gaza lose one or both legs every day, and half a million Palestinians in the besieged territory suffer from catastrophic hunger.
Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip continued days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled that the “intense phase” of the war was coming to an end and as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant visited Washington to discuss the crisis.
As the war in Gaza approaches its tenth month, Israel’s main ally the US has warned of the risk of a major conflict with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, following an escalation of cross-border fire, AFP reported.
“Another war between Israel and Hezbollah could easily become a regional war, with dire consequences for the Middle East,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told his Israeli counterpart Galant.
