Israel on the advance

Army now in buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt

View from Israel into the Gaza Strip

(Bild: AFP/APA/JACK GUEZ)

The Israeli army has taken control of three quarters of the buffer zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. This was announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security advisor. He assumed that the army would control the entire so-called Philadelphi Corridor.

Meanwhile, the health authority of the militant Palestinian organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip demanded safe passage for aid supplies. Fuel and medical aid are urgently needed in Rafah in the south and in areas in the north of the Gaza Strip, a Hamas spokesman told the media. In addition, field hospitals must be set up and paramedics and doctors must be deployed immediately.

Israeli soldiers killed in Rafah
According to media reports on Wednesday, three Israeli soldiers were killed when a booby trap exploded in a building in Rafah. The Israeli army only announced on Wednesday that three soldiers from the Nachal infantry brigade had been killed in fighting in the southern Gaza Strip the previous day. During the operation in the coastal strip, Israeli soldiers went from house to house in search of weapons, among other things. According to the military, many buildings are rigged with deadly booby traps.

With Tuesday's incident, 639 soldiers have been killed and more than 3,600 others injured on the Israeli side since the beginning of the Gaza war on October 7, according to the army. The war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre of more than 1,200 people killed by terrorists from Hamas and other groups in Israel on October 7.

According to the latest figures from the health authority controlled by the militant Palestinian organization Hamas, more than 36,100 Palestinians have been killed and more than 81,400 others injured in the ensuing war. The authority does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. The figures cannot currently be independently verified.

"Genocidal massacre"
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia described Israel's actions in Rafah as a "genocidal massacre". In a statement on X on Wednesday night, the Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the recent attacks by the Israeli army "targeting the tents of defenseless Palestinian refugees". Israel "blatantly" violated all international resolutions, laws and norms. Saudi Arabia called on the international community to stop the "massacre against the Palestinian people" and to hold those responsible to account. The influential Gulf state, like Israel an ally of the USA, has already strongly condemned Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip on several occasions.

On Tuesday evening, Israel's army denied reports that it had attacked a humanitarian zone on Sunday. Instead, a nearby Hamas facility was attacked. It is being investigated whether weapons were stored there that exploded during the air strike and caused the deadly fire in the tent camp. According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, at least 45 people were killed, including many women and minors. The airstrike in Rafah sparked international criticism and horror.