GAZA CITY, Palestine

The Israeli army on Wednesday completely cordoned off the Shaboura camp in central Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip, launching a ground attack after pushing more military vehicles into the camp, as well as airstrikes amid reports of resistance from some Palestinian groups.

According to an Anadolu correspondent, the Israeli army has heavily targeted the Shaboura area with airstrikes and artillery shells but faced opposition from some Palestinian residence groups.

The Israeli army has completely cordoned off the Shaboura camp after bringing in more military vehicles, the correspondent said, citing local sources.

On May 6, the Israeli army invaded Rafah, a small crowded city in the southern Gaza Strip despite international warnings. It also captured the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, a vital route to humanitarian aid into Gaza, worsening the already difficult humanitarian conditions in the territory.

Israel has faced international condemnation for its continued sweeping offensive against Gaza, which has reduced wide swathes of the coastal territory to ruins amid shortages of necessities and ongoing Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries.

Nearly 37,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year which precipitated the current war, most of them women and children, and more than 84,800 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Around 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed in the attack.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar