May 7, 2024, 04:33 BST
Updated 31 minutes ago
image captionThe Israeli army releases photos showing tanks and armored vehicles on the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing
The Israeli military has announced that it has taken “operational control” of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
Since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October, Rafah has been a key entry point for aid and the only exit for people who can flee.
After a night of heavy attacks, a tank brigade moved into the crossing area.
The United Nations has warned that the closure of Rafah means the two main aid arteries to Gaza are now “blocked”.
The Israeli military on Monday ordered tens of thousands of civilians to begin evacuating areas near the eastern city of Rafah ahead of a so-called “limited” operation.
Hamas said Israel’s occupation of the Rafah crossing was aimed at undermining attempts by regional mediators to secure a new ceasefire agreement.
The Palestinian armed group announced on Monday that it had accepted offers from Egypt and Qatar. The basis for this is the cessation of weeks of fighting and the release of dozens of hostages still held in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the proposal “falls far short of meeting Israel’s core demands” but that it would send a high-level delegation to Cairo to work toward an acceptable agreement.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he appealed to both sides to “take further steps to materialize this absolutely vital agreement”, adding: “This is an opportunity that cannot be missed.”
Following a cross-border attack by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, Israel launched a military operation to annihilate Hamas in the Gaza Strip, resulting in approximately 1,200 deaths and over 250 hostages.
More than 34,780 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-controlled region’s health ministry.
In a deal reached in November, Hamas released 105 hostages and about 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons in exchange for a week-long ceasefire. Israel announced that 128 hostages were missing, 34 of whom were presumed dead.
image captionResidents in Rafah reported that several homes were destroyed overnight in Israeli airstrikes
Israel has long argued that winning the war requires eliminating the remaining Hamas battalion in Rafah.
But more than a million displaced Palestinians have taken refuge there, and the United Nations and Western countries have warned that a major ground attack could have devastating humanitarian consequences.
Flares lit up the sky over the city on Monday night, and witnesses said Israeli artillery fire continued.
Raed al-Dabi said his wife and children were killed in the strike that destroyed his family home in the western Tal al-Sultan district.
“We will be patient and steadfast here. We are waiting for liberation and this fight will be for the liberation that God wants us to have,” he told Reuters. Ta.
Seven bodies were reportedly found in the rubble of two families’ homes in Al-Juneineh.
The region is one of the eastern regions, where an estimated 100,000 residents were headed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday to the “Extended Humanitarian Area,” which stretches north from al-Mawasi to the city of Khan Yunis and central China. We were ordered to evacuate. The town of Deir Al Bala.
On Tuesday morning, an IDF statement announced that Israeli forces had launched a “precise” operation to “eliminate Hamas terrorists and dismantle Hamas terrorist infrastructure within specific areas of eastern Rafah.”
It added that fighter jets and ground forces also attacked military facilities, underground infrastructure and other locations where Hamas operated in the Rafah region, killing about 20 “terrorists”.
The Israel Defense Forces also announced that troops had “successfully established operational control” of the Gaza side of the Rafah border after receiving information that the border was “being used for terrorist purposes.”
It said mortar fire fired from the area killed four Israeli soldiers and wounded others at the nearby Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing on Sunday, without giving details.
IDF officials said the Rafah crossing is currently closed and they are working to reopen Kerem Shalom when the security situation allows.
Hisham Edwan, spokesman for the Gaza border crossing, said that by closing Rafah, Israel had “sentenced the residents of the Gaza Strip to death.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that Israel had denied its personnel access to both the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings.
“The two main arteries for delivering aid to Gaza are currently closed,” spokesman Jens Rahlke told reporters in Geneva.
He said there was only “one day’s worth of fuel available” in UN storage tanks, adding: “If we don’t get fuel for a long period of time, that would be a very effective way of putting humanitarian operations in the grave. ‘ he warned.
There was no immediate response from the IDF. However, it said it was committed to facilitating the movement of humanitarian aid to and from the Gaza Strip and had set up alternative transit points, including two in the north.
Video caption, watch: Gazans ask “Where do we go from here?”Following Rafah’s evacuation order
Sam Rose of the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency Unruwa, Gaza’s largest humanitarian organization, told the BBC from Rafah that fuel is “the basis of everything in Gaza”.
“Fuel powers our water supplies, allows our health centers to operate, and allows our hospitals to provide life-saving treatment. When that fuel runs out, everything shuts down,” he said.
Mr Rose also described the situation for civilians on the ground in Rafah as “absolutely terrible”.
“The streets are crowded with people on the move. Not only people inside the evacuation zone, but also people outside… there are also people who have decided to move early,” he said.
But, he added, “nowhere was safe for them.”
“Half of the safe zone is on top of the dunes and cannot be occupied for long periods of time. The other half is inside Khan Yunis, which has been under heavy shelling for the past few weeks.”
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry condemned the IDF operation in Rafah and the occupation of the Rafah crossing, calling it a “dangerous escalation” that threatened the lives of Palestinian civilians.
It called on Israel to “exercise utmost restraint and avoid pursuing brinkmanship policies that could jeopardize ceasefire negotiations.”
