Rafah: Palestinian militants battled Israeli forces in devastated northern Gaza and launched a barrage of rockets from farther south on Tuesday in a show of force more that 100 days into Israel’s massive air and ground campaign against the tiny coastal enclave.
The fighting in the north, which was the first target of Israel’s offensive and where entire neighbourhoods have been pulverised, showed how far Israel remains
from achieving its goals of dismantling Hamas and returning scores of hostages captured in the Oct 7 attack that sparked the war.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s humanitarian crisis is worsening, with 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians having fled their homes and UN agencies warning of mass starvation and disease.
The conflict threatens to widen after the US and Israel traded strikes with Iranian-backed groups across the region.
Israel has vowed to crush Hamas’ military and governing capabilities to ensure that the Oct 7 attack is never repeated.
Militants stormed into Israel from Gaza that day, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing around 250 people.
With strong diplomatic and military support from the United States, Israel has resisted international calls for a cease-fire.
Nearly half of the hostages were released during a weeklong truce in November, but more than 100 remain in captivity. Hamas has said it will not release any others until Israel ends the war.
The longer the war goes on, the more it threatens to ignite other fronts across the region.
Iran fired missiles late Monday at what it said were Israeli “spy headquarters” in an upscale neighbourhood near the sprawling US Consulate in Irbil, the seat of Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
Iraq and the US condemned the strikes, which killed several civilians, and Baghdad recalled its ambassador to Iran in protest.
Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Syria have carried out dozens of attacks on bases housing US forces, and a US airstrike in Baghdad killed an Iranian-backed militia leader earlier this month.