Reuters:
CAIRO/GAZA, July 3 – Many Palestinians were seeking shelter on Wednesday after fleeing their homes in southern Gaza and complained of water shortages as Israel pressed on with its military offensive in the densely populated enclave.
Israeli forces carried out new military strikes in the southern city of Rafah amid fierce fighting with Palestinian militants overnight, residents said. At least 12 people were killed in new strikes in central and northern Gaza, health officials said.
Israel’s leaders have said they are winding down the phase of intense fighting against Hamas, the Islamist group that has governed Gaza since 2007, and will soon shift to more targeted operations in the nearly nine-month-old war in Gaza.
But fighting continued overnight in two locations at the centre of Rafah, where tanks have seized several districts and advanced further west and north of the city in recent days, and concerns about the plight of hundreds of thousands of displaced people are growing.
The Israeli military said its forces had continued targeted, intelligence-based operations in Rafah, dismantled several military sites and killed Palestinian militants.
Hamas’ armed wing said it had shelled two Israeli tanks in a neighbourhood west of Rafah and fired mortar bombs at Israeli forces attacking Shejaia, an eastern suburb of Gaza City in the centre of the enclave.
The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, an allied group, said it h
