Spain, Ireland and Norway officially recognized the Palestinian state on Tuesday.
Several Israeli tanks reached the center of Rafah today, eyewitnesses said, three weeks after the ground operation began in the city in the southern Gaza Strip.
Tanks were spotted near the Al-Avda mosque, the central landmark of Rafah, Reuters reported.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the reports, saying that an announcement on the operation in Rafah would be made at a later date.
Meanwhile, soldiers continued to attack the city from the air and with tank fire, continuing their offensive despite international condemnation of Sunday's attack.
The attack, which targeted two Hamas officials, caused a major fire in a tented camp where displaced people took shelter and killed 45 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry.
The UN Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) announced today that around one million people have fled Rafah in the past three weeks.
As stated, this happened even though "nowhere is safe and in the midst of bombing, lack of food and water, piles of waste and inadequate living conditions", while assistance and protection is now becoming almost "impossible".
Since early May, the Israeli military has been conducting what it claims is a limited operation in Rafah to kill fighters and destroy infrastructure used by Hamas.
She told the civilians to go to the "expanded humanitarian zone", about 20 kilometers away.
Al Jazeera TV footage was released on Platform X, showing tanks advancing further west of Rafah, Israeli media reports.
(BETA)
About one million people have fled the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip in the past three weeks, the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) said.
In a small city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, more than a million Palestinians who fled from other parts of the coastal enclave have found refuge before Israeli attacks.
Since early May, the Israeli military has been conducting what it says is a limited operation in Rafah to kill Hamas fighters and destroy infrastructure used by the Palestinian group, which the US and EU consider a terrorist organization.
Israel told civilians to go to an "extended humanitarian zone" some 20 kilometers away.
Many Palestinians have complained of being subjected to Israeli attacks wherever they go and up and down the Gaza Strip in recent months.
UNRWA said the escape from Rafah "happened without a safe place to go and amidst bombardment, lack of food and water, piles of waste and inadequate living conditions".
Providing aid and protection is becoming almost "impossible," the agency said.
(Radio Free Europe)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the Spanish government will recognize a Palestinian state at a meeting on Tuesday morning as the rift between the European Union and Israel widens.
He said a Palestinian state comprising the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, united under a Palestinian National Authority with East Jerusalem as its capital, would be recognized.
Spain, Ireland and Norway will officially recognize a Palestinian state today, which Israel condemns as a reward to Hamas for more than seven months of war in Gaza.
European Union foreign ministers held talks in Brussels with diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar as part of a diplomatic effort for a two-state solution after the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Josep Borelj said that the two sides will see if they can combine their efforts to establish a joint conference on how to implement the two-state solution.
The push in Europe for a Palestinian state gained momentum last week when Ireland, Spain and Norway said they would recognize it starting May 28.
(Reuters/RTS)
Conflict between Israel and Hamas - 235th day.
The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting today on the Israeli attack on the camp of displaced people in Rafah, in which dozens of Palestinians were killed.
Journalists from France Presse reported early this morning about new Israeli attacks last night on the border town in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Two Hamas members were targeted by an Israeli attack in Rafah on Sunday evening that set off a camp fire, killing 45 people, according to the Ministry of Health there.
The attack drew international condemnation, with Palestinians and many Arab countries calling it a massacre. Israel said they were investigating the tragic accident.
"There is no safe place in Gaza. This horror must stop," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced on social media.
The head of the UN for humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths, pointed to the warnings of danger to civilians that preceded the incursion into Rafah.
"We saw the consequences last night of a completely unacceptable attack," he said, adding that calling it a mistake means nothing to those who were killed, those who mourn and those who are trying to save their lives.
Algeria called today's emergency meeting of the Security Council to discuss the attack.
A spokesman for the UN Security Council said that Israel must take every possible precaution to protect civilians.
The EU's high commissioner for foreign policy and security said he was horrified by the attack, and the French president was appalled.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last night in the Israeli parliament (Knesset) that people died "despite the best efforts to save civilians".
The attack came ahead of the planned official recognition of a Palestinian state by Spain, Ireland and Norway.
On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz banned Spain's consulate in Jerusalem from providing consular services to Palestinians starting June 1 as a preliminary punitive measure.
Israel launched a deadly attack on Rafah late Sunday hours after Hamas fired a barrage of rockets into the Tel Aviv area for the first time in months, most of the rockets being intercepted.
The military said its plane hit a Hamas facility in the city and named the slain senior officials of the extremist organization from another Palestinian territory in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinians in Ramallah in the West Bank protested the attack on Rafah, which drew sharp condemnation from Egypt and Qatar, key brokers in efforts to reach a ceasefire and exchange hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
The war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7 last year after an attack by Palestinian extremists led by Hamas from Gaza on southern Israel, when more than 1.170 people, mostly civilians, were killed, according to France Press.
The extremists took 252 hostages and 121 are still being held, including 37 who the military says are no longer alive.
The Israeli offensive then killed at least 36.050 people in Gaza, most of them civilians according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
(BETA)
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