The Israeli army has taken “operational control” of the Palestinian side of Rafah border crossing between Gaza Strip and Egypt .
- Israeli military launched targeted strikes against the Hamas militant group in the southern Gaza city of Rafah following the country’s war cabinet approval on it.
- Since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza, Palestinians have been pushed farther and farther south.
- At least 1.3 million people have now been squeezed into Rafah. More than half of those people fled fighting in other parts of Gaza.
- Rafah is the southernmost post of exit from Gaza and borders Egypt’s Sinai peninsula.
- There are only two other border crossings from and into the Gaza Strip – Erez, a crossing into Israel in northern Gaza, which is for people, and Kerem Shalom, a solely commercial goods junction with Israel in southern Gaza.
