Fierce fighting in Gaza's north and south, as aid rolls in via US-built pier

Israeli forces battle Palestinian militants in Jabalia as assault on Rafah continues

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Heavy clashes and bombardments on May 18 rocked Gaza's southern city of Rafah, as the Israeli military announced that the first humanitarian aid had entered the besieged territory via an American-built pier.

The Israeli military said its air forces "struck over 70 targets" across Gaza, while ground troops "continue precise operations" in eastern Rafah.

More than 10 days into what Israel called a "limited" operation in Rafah that sparked an exodus of Palestinians sheltering there, fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants has also flared again in Gaza's north.

The Kuwaiti hospital said an overnight Israeli strike killed two people in a displacement camp in Rafah, with witnesses reporting heavy gunfire and shelling in the city's south-east and jets bombarding its eastern areas.

Israeli forces had battled fighters of the militant group Hamas in the narrow alleyways of Jabalia in northern Gaza on May 17 in some of the fiercest engagements since they returned to the area a week ago.

Residents said Israeli armour had thrust as far as the market at the heart of Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, and that bulldozers were demolishing homes and shops in the path of the advance.

"Tanks and planes are wiping out residential districts and markets, shops, restaurants, everything. It is all happening before the one-eyed world," Mr Ayman Rajab, a resident of western Jabalia, said via a chat app.