“Our forces have destroyed many tunnels in the area, and more will be destroyed soon. This operation will intensify, and Hamas is not able to renew itself now,” Gallant said during a visit to the headquarters of the army’s Division 162, which is operating in Rafah.

“This operation will continue as additional forces will enter the area,” he added.

The Israeli army launched a ground offensive on May 6 in Rafah, home to around 1.5 million displaced Palestinians, with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) estimating that around 600,000 people have fled the city since the start of the Israeli attack.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh warned on Wednesday that the Israeli onslaught on Rafah undermines negotiations for a Gaza cease-fire and hostage swap deal with Israel.

Israel continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in the enclave.

More than 35,200 Palestinians have since been killed, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and over 79,200 others since last October following a Hamas attack.

More than seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered Tel Aviv to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

The “Manama Declaration” issued by the 22-member bloc called for “international protection and peacekeeping forces of the United Nations in the occupied Palestinian territories” until a two-state solution is implemented.

The meeting is the first time the bloc has come together since an extraordinary summit in Riyadh, capital of neighbouring Saudi Arabia, in November that also involved leaders from the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

At that meeting, leaders condemned Israeli forces for their “barbaric” actions in the besieged enclave.

Arab leaders and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres have attended the 33rd Arab League summit in Manama on Thursday, with the talks to include a call for an international peace conference to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli crisis.

The leaders specifically condemned the Israeli takeover of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, aimed at tightening the blockade on civilians, which has halted the operation of the crossing and the flow of humanitarian aid.

They demanded an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an end to all pushes at forced displacement, the lifting of all forms of the Israeli siege, and the unimpeded and sustained access to humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip. The leaders also called for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from Rafah.

Additionally, the leaders denounced the targeting of humanitarian and UN organizations in Gaza by Israeli soldiers, the obstruction of their operations and the attacks on aid convoys.

The Arab leaders urged the international community and influential global powers to move beyond political calculations and double standards in addressing international crises.

They called on these entities to uphold their ethical and legal responsibilities in confronting Israeli aggressive practices and to clearly characterize them as flagrant violations of international and humanitarian law.

Israeli forces have killed more than 35,000 Palestinians and wounded nearly 80,000 in Gaza since the war started on 7 October, following the Hamas-led attack on Israel that left nearly 1,200 Israelis killed and 250 taken captive.

But more than seven months later, Israel has failed to achieve its declared goals of dismantling Hamas’ military and governance capabilities, or returning the captives.

Hamas and other Palestinian factions previously rejected the presence of any foreign forces in Gaza after the war, stressing that governance of the strip was an internal Palestinian matter.

On Wednesday, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh downplayed any post-war plans that exclude the Palestinian movement, saying “Hamas was here to stay”.

He added that the post-war administration of the Gaza Strip will be decided by Hamas in consultation with other Palestinian parties.

Speaking at the court in The Hague on Thursday, South Africa’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusimuzi Madonsela, said that Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza had “reached a new and horrific stage”.

“South Africa had hoped, when we last appeared before this court, to halt this genocidal process to preserve Palestine and its people,” Madonsela told the ICJ.

He noted, however, that the attack on the enclave had “continued apace”.

Following the original application by South Africa last year, the ICJ ordered that Israel take all measures within its power to prevent genocide in Gaza, as well as allow aid to enter the enclave, along with a number of other measures.

However, South Africa and many other analysts say Israel has failed to comply with the ICJ orders.

South African delegate Max du Plessis on Thursday told the ICJ that instead of complying with the orders it issued in January, Israel had defied the court by “trapping, besieging and bombarding overcrowded Rafah”.

He added that Israel’s current offensive on the city, where more than a million Palestinians have sought refuge, is the “deadliest phase of this ongoing genocide”.

Du Plessis stated the court’s initial orders were made because the right of existence of the Palestinian population in Gaza is currently at risk of prejudice, and the only effective way of preserving this right was through prevention.

South Africa is seeking these new measures before it is too late for prevention to be possible, he continued.

Echoing the UN’s previous assessment, du Plessis emphasised that “no one in Gaza is safe”.

Some 600,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah following Israeli orders last week for Palestinians in the eastern parts of the city to leave.

They were instructed to relocate to the nearby “humanitarian zone” of al-Mawasi, an area that the aid agency UNRWA says is already overcrowded and lacks basic services.

Last week, South Africa called on the ICJ to order additional emergency measures against Israel over its military assault on Rafah.

In a 10-page document submitted to the ICJ, South Africa asked it to order Israel to “immediately withdraw and cease its military offensive in the Rafah Governorate” and to facilitate “unimpeded access” to humanitarian aid and assistance to the population of Gaza, the document reads.

It also demanded the entry of “internationally mandated bodies or officials, investigators, and journalists into the country” for the purpose of “retaining evidence” and also for Israel to submit an open report to the ICJ within one week of Friday, detailing the measures Israel has taken to comply with “all previous provisional measures” detailed by the court.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed he would push on with his plans to invade Rafah in order to uproot Hamas, which was responsible for an attack in Israel on 7 October that killed 1,200 people and saw hundreds of captured Israelis and others taken to Gaza.

More than 35,200 Palestinians have since been killed, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and over 79,200 others injured since last October.