An injured Palestinian boy stands next to the rubble of a family house that was hit overnight in Israeli bombardment in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah in southern Gaza on Monday — AFP RAFAH, May 20 (Reuters/BBC): Israel made a new push in central Gaza on Monday, bombarded towns in the north of the Strip and said it intended to broaden its military operation in Rafah despite US warnings of the risk of mass casualties in the southern city.
Gaza medics said at least 23 people had been killed in the latest fighting, and residents said battles were intense in Jabalia in the north of the Palestinian enclave.
Israeli tanks also carried out a limited incursion into areas of Wadi Al-Salqa and Al-Karara near Deir Al-Balah, a central Gazan city which Israeli forces have not entered during more than seven months of war, local residents said.
Fighting raged as US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held talks in Israel which the White House had said he would call for Israeli forces to go after Hamas militants in Gaza in a targeted way, not with a full-scale assault on Rafah.
But Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant signalled there would be no let-up in its operation, intended to clear Rafah of Hamas militants and rescue hostages seized in the Hamas-led raid on Israel on Oct 7 that triggered the war.
"We are committed to broadening the ground operation in Rafah to the end of dismantling Hamas and recovering the hostages," a statement from Gallant's office quoted him as telling Sullivan.
Israel describes Rafah, on Gaza's border with Egypt, as Hamas' last stronghold. Western powers are concerned over the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians sheltering there, despite Israeli assurances about humanitarian safeguards.
ICC seeks arrest
warrants for
Netanyahu, 3
Hamas leaders
The International Criminal Court prosecutor's office said on Monday it had requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence chief and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes.
Prosecutor Karim Khan's office said it suspected all five - Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Al-Masri and Ismail Haniyeh - bore criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Israel or the Gaza Strip.
Israel has denied committing war crimes in the Gaza war, triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct 7. The ICC's decision "equates the victim with the executioner", a senior Hamas official told Reuters.
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