Israel Expands Rafah Offensive, Claims Control Over Entire Gaza-Egypt Border

 

Israel's military announced on Wednesday that it has taken control of the entire length of Gaza's border with Egypt, without providing additional details. Capturing the strategic Philadelphi Corridor indicates that Israel has intensified its offensive in southern Gaza.

Palestinians in the border city of Rafah reported heavy fighting on Wednesday. Previously, Israel stated it was conducting limited operations in eastern Rafah along the Gaza-Egypt border. The United States and other allies have warned against a full-scale offensive in the city, citing the risk of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Fighting in Rafah has already caused more than 1 million Palestinians to flee, many of whom were already displaced by the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. They now seek refuge in makeshift tent camps and other devastated areas, where they lack essential resources such as shelter, food, and water, according to the U.N.

Earlier on Wednesday, a senior Israeli official stated that the conflict with Hamas is likely to continue until the end of the year. Israel has committed to eliminating Hamas militants throughout the Gaza Strip through a strategy of systematic destruction, which has resulted in significant civilian casualties.

According to the Health Ministry, Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, though it does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Israel initiated its military campaign in Gaza following Hamas' attack on October 7, during which militants infiltrated southern Israel, killed approximately 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Israel reports that about 100 hostages remain captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 others.

Currently:

— Israeli strikes have killed at least 37 Palestinians, most of whom were in tents, near Gaza’s Rafah.

— Missile attacks have damaged a ship in the Red Sea off Yemen’s coast, near previous Houthi rebel assaults.

— A U.S.-built pier will be removed from the Gaza coast and repaired after sustaining damage from rough seas.

— Algeria has proposed a Security Council resolution demanding that Israel halt its offensive in Rafah.

— The Palestinian prime minister is visiting Madrid after Spain, Norway, and Ireland recognized the Palestinian state.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at [AP News - Israel Hamas War](https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war).

Here's the latest:

UNITED NATIONS — The amount of humanitarian aid flowing into Gaza has dropped by two-thirds since Israel launched its ground offensive in Rafah three weeks ago, reported the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Wednesday.

The significant decline in food, fuel, medicine, and other aid is due to the closure of the border crossing from Egypt to Rafah, a key transit point, and the inability to safely retrieve supplies from the Palestinian side of Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, along with limited deliveries through other points, according to U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

OCHA reports that health, humanitarian relief, and social services in Rafah are being forced to close due to the intensified fighting, insecurity, Israeli evacuation orders, and the need to transfer resources to other areas after more than a million Palestinians fled Rafah.

The U.N. World Health Organization reports that only one hospital in Rafah, the Al Emirati Maternity Hospital, remains partially functional.

WASHINGTON — White House national security spokesman John Kirby declined to confirm that Israel had seized all of the Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza's border with Egypt, stating, “It’s not our operation.”

However, he noted that the move aligns with the “limited” ground operation that Israeli officials briefed President Joe Biden’s team on for Rafah.

“When they briefed us on their plans for Rafah, it included moving along that corridor and out of the city proper to put pressure on Hamas in the city,” Kirby told reporters on Wednesday.

The U.S. and other allies have warned against a full-scale offensive in Rafah, with the Biden administration asserting that such an action would cross a “red line” and refusing to provide offensive arms for such an undertaking. Nonetheless, the U.S. has not attempted to halt Israel’s advances through the city.

Israel stated on Wednesday that it seized the Philadelphi Corridor to cut off smuggling tunnels and has vowed to defeat Hamas’ remaining fighters in Rafah.

The military reported that a fifth brigade, comprising up to several thousand soldiers, joined troops operating in the city on Tuesday.

Last week, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its Rafah offensive as part of South Africa’s case accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, a charge Israel vehemently denies.

UNITED NATIONS — The United States stated that a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and a halt to Israel’s military operations in Rafah “is not going to be helpful.”

Algeria, the Arab representative on the Security Council, circulated the draft resolution to all 15 members after emergency council consultations about Rafah.

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told reporters ahead of Wednesday’s Security Council monthly meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that “another resolution is not necessarily going to change anything on the ground.”

The U.S. has vetoed multiple previous Security Council resolutions demanding a cease-fire in Gaza.

Wood said the U.S. is focused on securing a temporary pause in the fighting, the release of all hostages taken during Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel, and working towards a long-term end to the war.

U.N. Mideast envoy Tor Wennesland told the council that “agreement on a deal to achieve a cease-fire and secure the release of hostages is blocked — and as Israel rolls out a significant ground operation in and around Rafah, the devastation is only intensifying.”

Majed Bamya, the Palestinian deputy ambassador, told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that adopting the resolution would be an important step “to force Israel to halt its military offensive, withdraw its occupation forces, and ensure an immediate cease-fire.”

The draft resolution circulated by Algeria’s U.N. Ambassador Amar Bendjama demands compliance with previous council resolutions calling for the opening of all border crossings and securing humanitarian access to Gaza’s 2.3 million people who need food and other aid. Over a million people have fled Rafah in recent weeks to other parts of Gaza, but the U.N. stresses that no place is safe.

BEIRUT — Israeli airstrikes in Syria killed a child and wounded at least 10 civilians late Wednesday, according to state media and a war monitor.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the casualties resulted from an Israeli missile and a Syrian air defense missile falling on a house in Baniyas, with the number of wounded civilians reported at 20.

The Syrian news agency SANA said its air defenses confronted the incoming strikes but did not mention falling munitions.

Strikes also targeted the area around Homs, roughly 85 kilometers (50 miles) inland from Baniyas, according to both sources.

The war monitor stated that the strikes near Homs targeted the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is allied with the Syrian government, aiming at a “military site within Hezbollah’s areas of influence in the Homs countryside.” This marked the 42nd apparent Israeli attack on Syria since the beginning of 2024.

Hezbollah, Iran’s most militarily advanced proxy, has engaged in a low-intensity conflict with Israel since the start of the war in Gaza.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on the strikes, which rarely acknowledges its operations in Syria, typically stating that they aim to counter Iranian influence in the country, a key conduit for weapons shipments from Iran to Hezbollah. Homs is roughly 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the border with Lebanon.

An apparent Israeli airstrike on an Iranian consulate in Syria last month triggered a series of escalatory attacks between Iran and Israel, threatening a wider war, although tensions have recently seemed to dial back.

JERUSALEM — Nikki Haley signed an Israeli artillery shell with the words “finish them” while touring the country’s northern border with Lebanon.

Haley, a former contender for the Republican presidential nomination, is visiting the Middle East this week and met on Wednesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and families of Israelis taken hostage into Gaza. She also toured areas struck by Hamas’ October 7 attack.

Haley, who served as U.N. ambassador during the Trump administration, visited an Israeli military post on Tuesday with Israel’s former ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon. His office shared photos of the signed artillery shell.

“Finish them! America (heart) Israel. Always Nikki Haley,” read the message she left on the munition.

Haley's visit comes as Israel faces heightened criticism for not doing enough to protect civilians in Gaza amid its war against Hamas, and days after Israeli airstrikes triggered a fire in a camp for displaced Palestinians that appeared to be one of the war’s deadliest attacks.

Israel has been battling Hezbollah militants in Lebanon along its northern border throughout the war in Gaza.

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations’ Mideast envoy warned that the risk of “a regional conflagration” is mounting every day as the seven-month Israel-Hamas war in Gaza continues.

Tor Wennesland told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that the West Bank “remains a pressure-cooker of negative trends,” with ongoing exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah militants across the Israel-Lebanon border, as well as between Syria and Israel on the Golan Heights.

“In addition to the deeply concerning escalation between Israel and Iran witnessed last month, aerial attacks toward Israel from militants in the region and Houthi attacks against international shipping in the Red Sea persisted,” he said. “This is a combustible mix.”

Wennesland, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said nearly two million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced, many of them multiple times, and around 100,000 Israelis have been displaced in the country’s north