Israel eyes advancing into Gazans' last refuge: Rafah

GAZA: Israeli forces shelled the outskirts of the last refuge on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip on Friday, where the displaced, penned against the border fence in their hundreds of thousands, said they feared a new assault with nowhere left to flee. More than half of Gaza's 2.3 million residents are now homeless and crammed into Rafah. Tens of thousands more have arrived in recent days, carrying belongings in their arms and pulling children on carts, since Israeli forces launched one of the biggest assaults of the war last week to capture adjacent Khan Younis, the main southern city.

If the Israeli tanks keep coming, "we will be left with two choices: stay and die or climb the walls into Egypt", said Emad, 55, a businessman and father of six. "Most of Gaza's population are in Rafah. If the tanks storm in, it will be a massacre like never before."

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said late on Thursday that troops would now turn to Rafah. "We are achieving our missions in Khan Younis, and we will also reach Rafah and eliminate terror elements that threaten us," Gallant said.

As the only part of Gaza with access to the limited food and medical aid trickling across the border, Rafah and nearby parts of Khan Younis have become a warren of makeshift tents. Wind and cold weather have added to Palestinians' misery. The UN says rescuers can no longer reach the sick and wounded in Khan Younis, and the prospect of combat reaching Rafah is almost unthinkable. "Rafah is a pressure cooker of despair, and we fear for what comes next," Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said.