Israeli army claims killing of around 100 militants in Rafah

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Tuesday that it had killed about 100 militants and uncovered weapons and hideouts in the Shabura area of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

IDF Spokesman Avichay Adraee stated on the social media platform X that, during operations over the past few days, Israeli forces identified and eliminated an armed cell in a precise operation. He noted that booby-trapped buildings, weapons, and hideouts were discovered and subsequently destroyed.

Additionally, the IDF clashed with another armed cell fortified in an apartment within a civilian neighborhood, resulting in the elimination of the militants. Following the clash, Israeli soldiers searched the building, uncovering weapons, vests, and an operational tunnel, according to the statement.

There was no immediate response from Hamas or other Palestinian factions.

The IDF is establishing a buffer zone and conducting extensive excavation along the border, extending up to 1 km inside Rafah, Xinhua reports, citing several witnesses. They also reported extensive bombing in Rafah neighborhoods and claimed that the Israeli army is preventing medical teams and civil defense personnel from accessing these areas.

Meanwhile, at least seven Palestinians, including three children, were killed on Tuesday evening in an Israeli airstrike on a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said.

Palestinian security sources told Xinhua that the airstrike targeted at least one residential home belonging to the Abu Nadda family in the camp.

The Israeli army has not commented on the incident yet.

On the same day, the U.S. approved $20 billion in arms sales to Israel, including scores of fighter jets and advanced air-to-air missiles, according to the State Department announcement.

However, the weapons are not expected to reach Israel anytime soon; they are contracts that will take years to fulfill. Much of what is being sold is to help Israel increase its military capability in the long term, with the earliest systems being delivered under the contract not expected until the 2026 timeframe.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border continue to escalate. Hezbollah attacked the Mount Neria base, a battalion leadership headquarters of Israel's Golani Brigade forces, with volleys of Katyusha rockets late Tuesday night, according to Lebanese TV channel al-Manar.

Earlier, Hezbollah had launched over 20 rockets from southern Lebanon at the Meron base in northern Israel, both al-Manar and Al Jazeera have reported.

Al-Manar reported that heavy rocket fire, explosions, and sirens were heard in Western Galilee.

Hezbollah announced that its fighters targeted an Israeli deployment at the Jal Al-Deir site with a barrage of rockets at 10:00 pm on Tuesday, hitting them directly, according to the National News Agency (NNA).

Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes targeting the Lebanese villages of At Tiri, Haddatha, and Rchaf around midnight, NNA added.

Israeli warplanes also conducted airstrikes on the Lebanese villages of Kafr Kila and Khiam, as well as the municipality of Kunin, it noted.

'Desperate need'

At Tuesday's UN Security Council meeting, senior UN officials once more called for an immediate ceasefire and conditions that would allow full humanitarian access.

Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN's Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, noted that the Security Council convened this meeting in response to Israel's devastating attack on a school on the 10th in Gaza City.

Lisa Doughten, Director of Partnerships at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), emphasized that the attack was "far from an isolated incident."

"These large-scale incidents are, regrettably, just a few examples of the countless ways this horrific conflict is inflicting unbearable suffering and devastation," Doughten remarked.

"It pointed once again to the desperate need to reach a ceasefire, free the hostages and scale up humanitarian aid," DiCarlo said. 

During the meeting, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, Fu Cong, asserted that under international humanitarian law, civilians and civilian infrastructure must not be targeted in military operations—a red line that must not be crossed.

Fu reiterated China's position that a swift, comprehensive, and lasting ceasefire in Gaza is essential to prevent further escalation. He reaffirmed China's commitment to collaborating with the international community to swiftly end the hostilities in Gaza, address the humanitarian crisis, and advance the two-state solution, thereby securing long-term peace and stability in the Middle East.

DiCarlo also noted that as hostilities continue across the Strip, the situation remains catastrophic.

"No place is safe in Gaza, yet civilians continue to be ordered to evacuate to ever shrinking areas," she said.

Nearly 84 percent of the Gaza Strip is under evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army, a UN relief and human development agency said Tuesday.

"People run for their lives, grabbing what they can and leaving everything else behind. They are exhausted and have nowhere safe to go," the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said on social media platform X.

Since the onset of the Gaza war, the Israeli army has demanded that residents in Gaza leave their homes in preparation for military operations. Displaced individuals have been forced to seek refuge in UNRWA shelters, stay with relatives, or set up tents in streets and schools.

According to data from the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, 2 million people out of a total population of 2.3 million in the enclave have been displaced due to the current conflict.

(With input from Agencies)