Rafah: Fierce fighting as Israeli, Hamas troops clash in southern Gaza Strip

Hamas militants are engaging in “fierce fighting” with Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, the Palestinian militant group says, despite the Israeli encirclement of the enclave’s southern city.

The statement, issued on Telegram, suggests that Hamas is still active in areas where the Israeli military has expanded its control, more than 19 months after the start of Israel’s air and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip.

The group has rarely reported fighting around Rafah in recent months, with most clashes reported in the eastern area of the nearby city of Khan Younis and northern parts of the coastal territory.

Israel said earlier this month it would further extend its offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Israel resumed its offensive in March after the collapse of a fragile, US-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for six weeks.

The foreign ministers of Norway and Iceland said on Thursday that Israeli plans to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip would amount to illegal forceful displacement, would lead to more violence and would undermine efforts to create a Palestinian state.

The pair are part of a group of western European countries - which also includes Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and Luxembourg - which on Wednesday condemned Israel’s plans to step up its military operations in the Gaza Strip as it seeks to remove Hamas.

Israel’s security cabinet this week approved a plan that may include the seizure of the entire enclave of 2.3 million people, as well as control over aid, which it has blocked from entering since March.

“We are alarmed and appalled by what we have heard from the Israeli security cabinet about plans to step up even stronger the military campaign in Gaza and to do what they refer to as an evacuation,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said.