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Fierce fighting raged across much of the devastated north of Gaza on Sunday, with heavy bombing and airstrikes reported as Israeli forces attacked Hamas fighters in areas that had already seen repeated fighting.
The fresh clashes underscored the failure of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to secure much of the territory, analysts said, after a campaign that resulted in massive destruction, the displacement of some 2 million people and the deaths of some 35,000, mostly women and children.
Clashes were also reported in southern Gaza, where there are tens of thousands fled the city of Rafah on Sunday, following a bombardment and warnings from the IDF to clear the central and eastern neighborhoods ahead of planned offensives.
Aid workers there estimate that the total number of those who have left the city may be around 350,000.
“The streets that used to be full of [people] living in makeshift tents, most of these tents were dismantled and people fled. The area around the UN building [in the city centre] is unrecognizable … all the people who sought some degree of refuge there have fled,” said Dr. James Smith, a British medic currently in Rafah.
In the north, the Israeli military said forces were operating in the Jabalia camp and Zeitoun, east of Gaza City, as well as in the far north of the territory in Beit Hanun and Beit Lahiya.
Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007, has been able to reassert its authority in many areas of the territory in recent months, controlling markets, running Islamic courts and intimidating opponents. Militants used the remaining tunnels to ambush Israeli forces and continued to fire rockets at Israel.
“We have identified in recent weeks attempts by Hamas to restore its military capacity in Jabalia. We are operating there to eliminate those attempts,” Admiral Daniel Hagari, Israel’s military spokesman, told reporters. Previous Israeli attempt to stop Hamas recovers his strength in Zeytun was held in March.
Witnesses described near-continuous airstrikes and artillery fire.
“The bombing from the air and the ground has not stopped since yesterday, they bombed everywhere, including near schools where people who lost their homes are housed. The war is starting again, this is what it looks like,” said Saeed, 45, a resident of Jabalia, via a chat app.
Abdel-Karim Radwan, a 48-year-old Palestinian in Jabalia, said he described the intense and sustained bombardment since Saturday lunchtime as “madness”.
Thousands sought rare and expensive transport away from the fighting, with chaotic scenes on crowded streets.
Hagari also said that Israeli forces operating in Zeytoun killed around 30 Palestinian fighters. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the claim, nor reports from local health authorities of multiple civilian casualties.
For economic, domestic political and diplomatic reasons, Israel has withdrawn most of its troops from Gaza, although it has left a strong force stationed along a new road built by its forces that divides the territory south of Gaza City.
The Israeli media is increasingly critical of Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to outline any practical proposal for a new administration in Gaza. That left an anarchic security vacuum that helped Hamas regain control of parts of the territory and its population, they said.
Yedioth Ahronoth, a mass-market newspaper, reported on Sunday that the Israeli military had asked the prime minister to make a decision on the “day after” in Gaza.
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Ben Caspit, a columnist, said that Israel “will continue to pay the price in blood, sweat and many tears so that we never get anywhere … because the Hamas regime cannot be overthrown without preparing an alternative to it mode. More than 270 Israeli soldiers have died in the offensive so far.
There is also some concern about the diplomatic price paid by Israel, although Netanyahu’s recent pledge that the country would “stand alone” if necessary resonated with many Israeli Jews and support for the war remains strong.
Israel’s offensive in Rafah also prompted warnings from Egypt, where officials said it put the country’s decades-old peace treaty with Israel at risk. On Sunday night, Cairo said it intended to formally join South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 250 hostages. They still hold about 100 prisoners and the remains of more than 30, and internationally brokered talks for a ceasefire and hostage release appear to have stalled.
Netanyahu said Rafah was Hamas’s last stronghold and that Israel could achieve military goals — defined as the destruction of the militant Islamist organization — by killing fighters and leaders in the city, ensuring there was no further threat to Israel from Gaza and returning hostages.
Israel’s advance on Rafah has sparked global outrage and strained relations with the US, its staunchest ally.
Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Sunday that a full-scale Israeli attack on Rafah “cannot take place”, insisting that it cannot be brought into line with international law.
“The last one evacuation orders affecting nearly one million people in Rafah. So where should they go now? There is no safe place in Gaza! These exhausted, hungry people, many of whom have already been displaced many times, don’t have good options.”
Israel has told those fleeing fresh fighting in the north and Rafah to head to a designated “humanitarian zone” along the coastal strip. But the area it is already filled with a huge number of displaced people and has limited available water, sanitation, health facilities or food.
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