Israeli tanks pushed deeper into eastern Rafah on Tuesday morning, entering the neighborhoods of Al-Jneina, Al-Salam and Al-Brazil, residents said.
"The tanks advanced this morning west of Salahuddin Road into the Brzail and Jneina neighborhoods. They are in the streets inside the built-up area and there are clashes," one resident told Reuters via a chat app.
Video on social media showed one tank on George Street in Al-Jneina neighborhood. Reuters could not verify the video.
The IDF said that “troops continue their operations against terror targets in the area of eastern Rafah and on the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing. IDF troops eliminated several armed terrorist cells in close-quarters encounters on the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing.
“In eastern Rafah, IDF troops eliminated a number of terrorists and located weapons. An IAF aircraft struck a terrorist cell that was exiting a launch site. In addition, the IDF struck a launch post from which additional terrorists operated and fired at IDF troops.”
Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said on Tuesday at an economic forum in Doha that talks over a cease-fire in Gaza have reached a stalemate as Israel's operation in Rafah has sent things backward.
Al-Thani, whose country has mediated heavily between Hamas and Israel throughout the 7-month war, said Qatar will continue its role.
Meanwhile, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday that its estimates that some 450,000 people have been "forcibly displaced" from Rafah since May 6, when IDF forces entered the eastern part of the city,
UNRWA added that "people are dealing with ongoing exhaustion, hunger and fear. No place is safe. An immediate cease-fire is the only hope."
The IDF said on Tuesday that an airstrike on a vehicle in Rafah the day before that killed a Palestinian driver and injured a foreign national, both of whom were employed by the World Health Organization (WHO), occurred in an "active combat zone."
“[A]n initial inquiry conducted indicates that the vehicle was hit in an area declared an active combat zone. The IDF had not been made aware of the route of the vehicle,” the army told CNN.
Meanwhile, the International Red Cross and partners are opening a field hospital in southern Gaza on Tuesday to try to meet what it described as "overwhelming" demand for health services since Israel's military operation on Rafah began last week.
Some health clinics have suspended activities while patients and medics have fled from a major hospital as Israel has stepped up bombardments in the southern sliver of Gaza where hundreds of thousands of uprooted people are crowded together.
"People in Gaza are struggling to access the medical care they urgently need due, in part, to the overwhelming demands for health services and the reduced number of functioning health facilities," the International Committee of the Red Cross said. "Doctors and nurses have been working around the clock, but their capacity has been stretched beyond its limit."
Staff at the new facility will be able to treat around 200 people a day and can provide emergency surgical care and manage mass casualties as well as provide pediatric and other services, the ICRC said.
"Medical staff are faced with people arriving with severe injuries, increasing communicable diseases which could lead to potential outbreaks, and complication related to chronic diseases untreated that should have been treated days earlier."
The ICRC will maintain medical supplies to the facility while the Red Cross societies from 11 countries including Canada, Germany, Norway and Japan are providing staff and equipment.