Israeli restrictions keeping rescuers away from the injured in Rafah

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Distress calls are coming in from people injured by Israeli attacks on Rafah in southern Gaza, but Israeli military vehicles are keeping rescuers out, says the Gaza Civil Defense Agency.

“We’re getting distress calls from injured and trapped people in the Al Qarya as Suwaydiya area in western Rafah, but we can’t reach them due to the Israeli incursion,” Mohammad Al-Mughir, the agency’s director of supply and equipment, told the media.

“When our teams, accompanied by ambulances, tried to rescue the injured in western Rafah, we encountered Israeli military vehicles, which hindered our access,” he added.

Earlier on Friday, the Israeli army took complete control of the Philadelphi Corridor, which separates the Gaza Strip from Egypt, effectively isolating the enclave.

Israeli forces advanced further west to the Mediterranean Sea in Rafah, southern Gaza, controlling the entire corridor, a 14-kilometer demilitarized buffer zone running along the Gaza-Egypt border, eyewitnesses said.

They described that Israeli military vehicles are now stationed on Al-Rashid Street, which runs along Rafah’s western edge.

They added that Israeli snipers have occupied high-rise buildings and are instructed to fire at anyone moving in the area.

Most of the wounded cannot be reached by ambulance because Israeli forces are targeting anyone with gunfire in the area.

The Israeli army bombed several homes in the Azba area west of Al Qarya as well as the Suwaydiya neighborhood, resulting in numerous Palestinian casualties, the witnesses added.

Recently, the Israeli army has intensified its bombing of homes in southern and central Gaza, resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries, coinciding with its incursion into east Deir al-Balah and the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since October 7 despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 36,700 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 83,500 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.