Israeli forces seized the main border crossing between Egypt and southern Gaza on Tuesday, shutting down a vital aid route into the Palestinian enclave that is already close to famine. They also took control of part of the strategically important Gaza-Egypt border road, along with eastern neighbourhoods in Gaza city where more than one million residents have sought refuge from the war.
Israel claims some 20 militants were killed as tanks and infantry troops advanced, although resistance so far has been reported as relatively light. According to Israel, special forces swept buildings in the captured neighbourhoods and three tunnel shafts were discovered.
Militants fired 30 rockets at Israeli border communities from southern Gaza on Tuesday evening.
The Ha’aretz newspaper reported that Israel has told the US and Egypt that it will restrict its operation in Rafah, aiming only to deny Hamas authority over the border crossing and concentrating on the eastern neighbourhoods. The parties have agreed that a private American security company will assume management of the crossing after Israel concludes its operation.
However, Israel is threatening to deepen the operation if no ceasefire and hostage release deal is agreed.
Ahead of the Rafah incursion, Israel warned some 100,000 residents of the eastern neighbourhoods to evacuate immediately towards the al-Mawasi “humanitarian zone” along the coast some 20 kilometres away, where Israel says tents and field hospitals have been prepared. The World Health Organisation has said that the arrival of more people to Israeli-designated sites will exacerbate overcrowding and lead to a shortage of food and water.
Entire families piled into cars or travelled on donkey carts or on foot to flee Rafah. Most had already left their homes in northern or central Gaza earlier in the seven-month war to escape combat zones.
Maher al-Jamal said he had fled from a town near Gaza city in the north of the enclave to Nuseirat in central Gaza before reaching Rafah. “Now they threaten Rafah, they will commit massacres here in Rafah. We honestly don’t know where to go. God is our only support,” he said.
Hamas says the Rafah crossing closure is a continuation of Israel’s policy of “starvation and persecution” of Palestinians, claiming the move will undermine ceasefire efforts.
The Palestinian Authority called on the United States to “intervene immediately”.
[ Timeline: The twists and turns in Gaza ceasefire talksOpens in new window ]
As the military operation in Rafah continued, a mid-level Israeli delegation arrived in Cairo for talks after Hamas declared on Monday night, in a surprise development, that it had accepted a revised ceasefire agreement, prompting celebrations by Gaza residents.
However, the Hamas terms were significantly different from the Egyptian draft on the table for two weeks that had been drawn up in co-ordination with IsraeI. Israeli officials claimed the Hamas announcement was a ruse to stop the Rafah attack and turn international pressure on Israel.
Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu described the Hamas draft as “very far from Israel’s vital demands”.
“We already proved in the previous hostage release – military pressure on Hamas is a precondition for the return of the hostages,” he said.
Defence minister Yoav Gallant said: “The operation in Rafah will not stop until Hamas is eliminated, or until the first hostage returns to Israel.”
Many analysts believe that Mr Netanyahu is reluctant to endorse a ceasefire as this would likely result in the end of his right-wing coalition. Far-right members of the coalition have threatened to leave government in the event of a truce.
However, the entire war cabinet, including centrist ministers, rejected the new Hamas draft and backed sending a delegation to Cairo for more talks.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said “a close assessment of the two sides’ positions suggests that they should be able to close the remaining gaps,” and that CIA chief Bill Burns is in attendance at the Cairo talks.
Far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called the decision to send an Israeli delegation to Cairo “a mistake and a fall into the manipulative trap set for us by Hamas, together with Qatar and Egypt”.
A total of 34,789 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7th, killing about 1,200 people and abducting about 250 others, of whom 133 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
