The Israeli army announced that it had reached the Mediterranean coast of the city Rafah with million of people in the south of the Gaza Strip and thus fully took control of the Philadelphia Corridor, thus isolating the Gaza Strip from the rest of the world, Anadolia reports.
The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) announced last week that it had established “operational control” over the entire road along the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
At the time, it was said that soldiers were deployed along most of the border corridor and that there was a small section remaining near the coast where there were no ground forces, but that the area was controlled by surveillance and fire.
Residents told Reuters that Israeli tanks were advancing further west in Rafah, towards the Mediterranean Sea.
They said that armored vehicles had taken more control along the border with Egypt and that several incursions had been made into the central and western parts of the city.
Health officials announced that two Palestinians were killed and several wounded in artillery fire west of Rafah.
Some residents reported seeing tanks in the Al-Izvi area in the far northwest of Rafah near the Mediterranean coast.
Israel has announced that it is not ready to allow the Palestinian Authority, which rules parts of another Palestinian territory, the occupied West Bank, to participate in the control of the Rafah border crossing, the American portal Axios reported, citing four American and Israeli officials.
The Gaza-Egypt border crossing has been closed since early May when the Israeli army took control of its Palestinian side.
Egypt has said it refuses to reopen it until it is back under Palestinian control, to avoid being complicit in Israel’s military operation in Rafah.
Under pressure from the United States (U.S.), both sides basically agreed last week to open the crossing for humanitarian aid, but there has been no progress towards that goal.
Two Israeli sources told Axios that ahead of a meeting on the matter in Cairo on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet that he was not ready to allow the Palestinian Authority to control the crossing.
E.Dz.
