Jerusalem: Satellite photos analysed by The Associated Press appear to show a new compound of tents being built near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip as the Israeli military continues to signal it plans an offensive on the city of Rafah.
Khan Younis has been targeted by repeated Israeli military operations over recent weeks. Israel has said it plans to evacuate civilians from Rafah during an anticipated offensive on the southern city, where hundreds of thousands of people have taken refuge during the war, now in its seventh month.
The military said it was not involved in the tent construction.
On Monday, a failed rocket strike was launched at a base housing US-led coalition forces at Rumalyn, Syria, marking the first time since February 4 that Iranian-backed militias have attacked a US facility in Iraq or Syria, a US defence official said. No personnel were injured in the attack, and no group has claimed responsibility.
The conflict has sparked regional unrest pitting Israel and the US against Iran and allied militant groups across the Middle East. Israel and Iran traded fire directly this month, raising fears of all-out war.
The war was sparked by the unprecedented October 7 raid into southern Israel in which Hamas and other militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel says militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, around two-thirds of them children and women. It has devastated Gaza’s two largest cities and left a swath of destruction. Around 80 per cent of the territory’s population have fled to other parts of the besieged coastal enclave.
The US House of Representatives approved a USD 26 billion aid package on Saturday that includes around USD 9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza, which experts say is on the brink of famine, as well as billions for Israel.
The US Senate could pass the package as soon as Tuesday, and President Joe Biden has promised to sign it immediately.
The United Nations’ human rights chief is renewing a warning against a large-scale Israeli offensive in the city of Rafah and decrying recent Israeli strikes on the city.
Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said that a large incursion into Rafah “would risk more deaths, injuries and displacement on a large scale – even further atrocity crimes, for which those responsible would be held accountable,” his office said in a statement.
Türk deplored three strikes in Rafah in recent days that reportedly killed mostly women and children. He said that “the world’s leaders stand united on the imperative of protecting the civilian population trapped in Rafah.”
Israel has carried out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has sought refuge.
It has also vowed to expand its ground offensive against the Hamas militant group to the city on the border with Egypt despite calls for restraint, including from the US An Israeli airstrike on a car in southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed a Hezbollah
official.