Fierce street fighting and heavy Israeli bombardment continue in Rafah, after tanks rolled into the center of the southern Gaza city on Wednesday. 

Following are seven updates on the ongoing conflict:

1. Rafah, which shelters hundreds of thousands of civilians, has witnessed Israeli strikes that have killed at least 37 Palestinians, most of them living in tents.
2. Israel’s military has announced the seizure of the entire length of Gaza’s border with Egypt, known as the Philadelphi Corridor.
3. The displacement crisis continues to worsen as a United Nations-run school in Deir el-Balah now shelters 16,000 people. Families, displaced from Rafah, are forced to sleep in hallways or set up makeshift plastic shelters within the school. 
4. The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) reports dire living conditions, with scarce resources, insufficient sanitation facilities, and very limited supplies.
5. More than one million Palestinians have fled Rafah, previously a designated safe zone for Gaza’s displaced population. Many of these refugees have moved to Deir el-Balah or Khan Younis in search of safety.
6. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the latest Israeli attacks have resulted in the deaths of 53 people and injured 357 others in the past 24 hours. 
7. This brings the total number of casualties in Gaza during the conflict to 36,224 killed and 81,777 injured. The ministry also noted that many victims remain trapped under rubble, unreachable by rescuers. (Al Jazeera)

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A four-member Sri Lankan family, who were stranded in Gaza, Palestine safely arrived in Sri Lanka on Friday (Nov 24), Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. 

Issuing a statement, the Ministry said its Consular Affairs Division had facilitated the repatriation of the family. Upon their arrival in Colombo, officials from the Foreign Ministry received the returning Sri Lankans.

The ministry further said the officials from the Sri Lankan Embassy in Cairo, working in coordination with the Egyptian authorities, had visited the Rafah Border between Egypt and Gaza and received the stranded Sri Lankans. 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs facilitated the arrangements of logistics and air transportation for the returnees with the assistance of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

A total number of 15 Sri Lankans have been rescued from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah Border and have been safely repatriated to Sri Lanka.

The repatriation was carried out in coordination with the Sri Lanka Missions in Cairo and Ramallah since the beginning of the outbreak of conflict between Israel and Palestine on October 7, 2023. (NewsWire/ pic: File pic)

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