Two Palestinian medics were killed by Israeli tank fire in the west of Rafah as they drove in a marked van to rescue wounded people and retrieve bodies in the area.
The Palestinian Red Crescent, part of the International Red Cross, said two of its members, Youdim Tubasi and Sohail Hassuna, were killed in the Tel al-Sultan neighbourhood, the location of numerous Israeli airstrikes in recent days, including Sunday’s deadly attack that killed 45 Palestinians sheltering in makeshift camps.
The Israeli army said its forces fired at a suspicious vehicle that was approaching them. It has opened an investigation into the incident.
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Residents in the southern Gazan city reported intense artillery shelling and gunfire on Thursday, after Israel said it had seized a strategic corridor on the Palestinian territory’s border with Egypt. Gaza medics said that Israeli forces killed at least 12 Palestinians in a dawn airstrike on the city.
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Military officials said Israel had taken control of the Philadelphi corridor, a key area that runs between Egypt and Gaza, as part of the military drive to take over the city of Rafah and rid it of Hamas militants.
“This doesn’t mean that we have boots on the ground across all of the corridor, but it means we can control and have the ability to cut off the oxygen line that Hamas has used for replenishing and movement and in and around that area,” an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) official said on Wednesday.
The corridor, a 8.7-mile strip of land that runs across the entire border area between Egypt and Gaza, is a vital strategic gain for the Israeli military, who say tunnels between the countries can be used to smuggle weapons, Hamas operatives and hostages.
The IDF official also stated that some 82 tunnel shafts had been found in the area, but refused to comment on whether they had been used over the course of the war.
“Some of the tunnels that we found were well known, some of those on the other side of the fence were known to Egypt. Some of them have been dealt with on the Egyptian side,” the official said, adding that the seizure was part of the military plan in Rafah that is “limited but progressing”.
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Israel’s military said on Thursday that two of its soldiers had been killed in a car-ramming attack in the occupied West Bank. Violence in the West Bank has surged throughout the war in Gaza as Israel raids Palestinian towns in the territory. Almost 300 Israeli troops have been killed during the ground offensive in Gaza, according to Israeli media.
• Egypt-Israel relations: how war in Gaza is piling on the pressure
An Israeli spokesman said that some 300 Palestinian gunmen had been killed in the Rafah operation since May 6.
Elsewhere, Slovenia’s government said it would recognise a Palestinian state and could even seek parliamentary approval as early as next week. “All the world should act in the direction of peace,” Robert Golob, Slovenia’s prime minister, said. “The way to achieve peace is a two-state solution.”
He added: “The decision is not directed against anyone, not even Israel, but that it is a message of peace.” Golob’s ruling liberal coalition has a comfortable majority in the 90-member assembly and the vote should be a formality.
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Slovenia’s decision comes after Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognised Palestinian statehood this week.
President Xi of China, has called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and said the war in Gaza “should not continue indefinitely”.
Speaking at a summit with Arab leaders in Beijing on Thursday, he also pledged 500 million yuan (£54 million) in humanitarian aid for Gaza.
“Since last October, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has escalated drastically, throwing people into tremendous suffering,” Xi said in a speech opening the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum. “War should not continue indefinitely. Justice should not be absent forever.”
Xi has called previously for a two-state solution but his latest comments for the war to end came 24 hours after a senior adviser to Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said the war will last at least until the end of the year.
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Despite sustained international pressure calling for a ceasefire, which has intensified since the killing of 45 displaced Palestinians in Rafah at the weekend, Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s national security adviser, said that fighting would carry on throughout the rest of this year and possibly beyond.
“The fighting in Gaza will continue for at least another seven months,” he told the Israeli radio station, Kan.
Also addressing the Beijing conference, President Sisi of Egypt urged the international community to ensure Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were not displaced and “to stop any attempt at forcing Palestinians to flee their land”.
The latest developments all come against a backdrop of continued anger over the deaths of the Palestinians at the weekend, with Saudi Arabia accusing Israel of “genocidal massacres”.
As Israel continues its push into Rafah, its major ally, the US, said Israel has not crossed any of President Biden’s red lines. Biden has threatened to withhold weapon shipments if Israel mounts a major offensive in Rafah but the White House said the scale of the attack in the southern Gazan city was not enough to change American policy.
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• Is Benny Gantz the man who could topple Netanyahu?
The latest airstrikes across the city and the rolling military advance into central Rafah have led aid agencies to warn that humanitarian access has disintegrated across Gaza.
“Aid agencies now fear an acceleration in deaths from starvation, disease and denied medical assistance, while land and sea entry points remain effectively shut to meaningful humanitarian assistance, most desperately fuel, and attacks in areas sheltering civilians intensify,” read a statement signed by several aid agencies including Action Aid, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Oxfam and Save the Children.
“Any attempts to get aid into Gaza by air and sea — which remain inefficient, costly and even dangerous — cannot replace land crossings and risk becoming a distraction from addressing the barriers aid agencies are facing on the ground,” it read, criticising US-led efforts to use a new maritime corridor and temporary jetty to bring in essential aid.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced that the jetty had broken apart because of rough seas.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said that 36,171 people had now been killed since Israel’s assault on the strip began last October.
An initial investigation into Sunday’s deadly strike by Israel’s military said it was probably the blaze that ripped through a Rafah tent camp after airstrikes was caused by a secondary explosion.
