Egypt’s army chief of staff Ahmed Khalifa has made a surprise visit to inspect the security situation on the border with Gaza, the armed forces spokesman said on Thursday.
The military published a video showing Khalifa speaking with soldiers on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, where he listened to soldiers’ views and questions.
Khalifa stressed that ‘the main task of the armed forces is to protect the country’s borders,’ according to the video.
The visit comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently vowed that Israel will not give up control of the Philadelphi Corridor, a 14-kilometre strip on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
Egypt, which has been trying to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza ruler Hamas along with Qatar and the United States, has repeatedly rejected Israeli presence at the Rafah crossing and the Philadelphi Corridor and demands that Israel withdraws its troops.
Six killed as IDF continues West Bank operation
As little seems to be changing i
n the embattled Gaza Strip after almost 11 months of war, reports of an increasing death toll continued to come out of the occupied West Bank on Thursday amid a large-scale Israeli military operation launched last week.
Five Palestinians died when the car they were travelling in was hit by a rocket fired by an Israeli drone in Tubas in the north of the West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah reported.
Two people were injured in the attack, one of them seriously.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said they had carried out a counterterrorism operation in the Tubas region, in which aerial drones had carried out three targeted attacks on people who were armed and were posing a threat to IDF troops.
According to Palestinian sources, one of those killed was the son of former top Palestinian militant Zakaria Zubeidi, who escaped from an Israeli high security prison through a tunnel along with other prisoners three years ago. He was recaptured days later.
In a separate operation, an IDF drone targe
ted a group that had fired on Israeli forces in the Faraa refugee camp also in the north of the West Bank, the IDF reported.
The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that one person had died in the attack. Palestinian sources identified the dead person as a 16-year-old male. According to Palestinian reports, IDF forces subsequently left Faraa.
Settler attacks have increased
Palestinian reports said that IDF soldiers were continuing operations in Jenin also in the north of the West Bank for the ninth successive day. IDF troops were interrogating residents in the city’s refugee camp, they said.
The reports said that severe damage had been caused to buildings and streets during operations in the region.
Israel launched a military operation in the West Bank last week, targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad, with the IDF justifying the operation on the grounds of a significant rise in the number of attacks on Israelis.
The Health Ministry in Ramallah has reported the deaths of 39 people so far.
The security situ
ation in the West Bank has deteriorated sharply since the war in the Gaza Strip began following the October 7 attacks mounted by Islamists Hamas. Acts of violence perpetrated by extremist Israeli settlers have also increased.
More than 600 Palestinians have been killed in the region, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures.
Over 40,000 have died in Gaza in the war, after more than 1,200 Israelis were killed in the October 7 terrorist attacks.
Source: Ghana News Agency