• Intense fighting knocks out communications in Rafah
• Slovenia also moves to recognise Palestinian state

RAFAH: Intense shelling and gunfire rocked Rafah on Thursday after Israel declared it had seized a strategic corridor along the Palestinian territory’s border with Egypt.

Israel said its forces had taken over the 14-kilometre Philadelphi corridor, which it claims was used for weapons smuggling via tunnels.

Egypt, a longtime mediator in the conflict, has rejected claims of smuggling tunnels running beneath the buffer zone.

“Israel is using these allegations to justify continuing the operation on the Palestinian city of Rafah and prolonging the war for political purposes,” a high-level Egyptian source was quoted as saying by state-linked Al-Qahera News.

Egyptian officials have said a potential Israeli takeover of Philadelphi could violate the two countries’ 1979 peace deal, though there has been no official comment from Cairo since the military’s announcement.

In Gaza, communication services have been cut off due to “the ongoing aggression”, telecommunications company Jawa said in a statement on Thursday.

Witnesses reported fighting in central and western Rafah and bombardment in the east that killed at least five people near an aid warehouse.

Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Yunis said at least “four martyrs were brought to the facility following a bombing” in west Rafah.

Witnesses said Israeli forces demolished buildings in east Rafah where the Israeli incursion began on May 7, initially focusing on the vital Rafah border crossing, a key entry point for aid.

An AFP correspondent reported shelling and gunfire in north Gaza, where witnesses saw thick plu­mes of smoke over Jabalia refugee camp and Beit Lahia.

A stream of civilians fled Rafah, taking their belongings on their shoulders, in cars or on donkey-drawn carts.

Food sales in Gaza

Separately, Reuters rep­o­rted that Tel Aviv had lifted a ban on the sale of food to Gaza from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

Army authorities gave Gazan traders the green light to resume their purchases from Israeli and Palestinian suppliers of food such as fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy goods this month, days after Israeli forces launched an assault on the enclave’s southernmost city of Rafah, the agency said, quoting Palestinian officials, businessmen and international aid workers.

But this is not nearly enough. Two distributors inside Gaza declined to say how much they bought and sold goods for.

They pay the West Bank suppliers by bank transfer and take cash from sellers in local markets.

Slovenian recognition

Following in the footsteps of Spain, Norway, and Ireland, the parliament of Slovenia announced its intention to recognise a Palestinian state.

Slovenian lawmakers are to vote on the measure, after the country’s centre-left government sent a decree on recognising a Palestinian state for parliamentary approval, speeding up a procedure that was initially scheduled to end by mid-June.

“This is a message of peace, we believe the moment is now for the whole world to join efforts towards the solution that will bring peace to the Middle East: that is a two-states solution,” Prime Minister Robert Golob told journalists.

During his news conference, a Palestinian flag was hoisted alongside the Slovenian and EU flags on the front of the prime minister’s office in the capital.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2024