CAIRO/WASHINGTON/RAFAH: On the edges of the heavily populated southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, Hamas declared on Wednesday that it was engaged in combat with Israeli forces. This came after a US official stated that Washington had stopped a shipment of potent bombs that Israel could deploy in a full-scale attack.
Resuming talks in Cairo on Wednesday, the United States, which is attempting to prevent an Israeli invasion of Rafah, stated that it thinks a revised proposal from Hamas for a ceasefire may result in a breakthrough in the impasse in negotiations.
Although the UN and Western countries have warned that a full-scale attack on the city would be a humanitarian disaster, Israel has threatened to launch a massive assault on Rafah in an attempt to drive out thousands of Hamas fighters it claims are holed up there.
In the east of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought safety from fighting farther north in the enclave, Hamas reported that its members were engaged in action with Israeli soldiers. According to Islamic Jihad, its fighters used heavy artillery to assault Israeli soldiers and military vehicles close to the airport east of Rafah.
“The sounds of innocent lives lost, families shattered, and houses reduced to rubble resound through the city’s streets. “We are on the verge of an unparalleled humanitarian crisis,” stated Ahmed Al-Sofi, the mayor of Rafah, in a plea to the global community to step in.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, spokeswoman Juliette Touma, stated that since Monday, about 10,000 Palestinians have left Rafah. Tens of thousands, according to the Gaza government media office, which is managed by Hamas.
According to a top US official, President Joe Biden’s administration stopped sending weaponry to Israel last week, ostensibly in reaction to the anticipated Rafah offensive. Both the Pentagon and the White House declined to comment.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official stated that Washington had stopped a supply of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs after carefully reviewing the delivery of weaponry that might be used in Rafah.
This would be the first postponement of this kind since the Biden administration gave Israel its “ironclad” backing following the attack by Hamas on October 7. Washington serves as Israel’s primary arms supplier and closest ally.
The insider stated, “If we have to fight with our fingernails, then we’ll do what we have to do,” but a senior Israeli official declined to confirm the report. According to a military spokesman, issues are settled privately.
On May 7, 2024, Israeli forces conduct a land and air operation in the eastern part of Rafah in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. A Palestinian man observes as smoke rises following Israeli attacks.
On May 7, 2024, Israeli forces conduct a land and air operation in the eastern part of Rafah in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. A Palestinian man observes as smoke rises following Israeli attacks.
On Tuesday, Israeli tanks crossed the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, closing off the only way out for the evacuation of injured patients and a crucial conduit for relief supplies.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported that the complex was blocked for a second day on Wednesday. However, Israel announced that it was reopening Kerem Shalom, the other crossing in southern Gaza, which has been the main route for assistance deliveries to Gaza in recent times.
The Israeli military claimed to have discovered Hamas infrastructure at a number of eastern Rafah areas and to be carrying out airstrikes throughout the Gaza Strip in addition to focused raids on the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing.
It instructed people, many of whom had already experienced multiple displacements, to relocate to a “extended humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi, which is some 20 kilometers (12 miles) away.
While residents of northern Gaza reported intense Israeli tank bombardment of eastern areas of Gaza City, armed groups affiliated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah indicated in separate statements that gunfights were still going on in the center Gaza Strip.
negotiations for a ceasefire
According to two Egyptian sources, delegates from Hamas, Israel, the US, Egypt, and Qatar responded favorably to the negotiations’ reopening on Tuesday, and on Wednesday more sessions were planned.
According to an Israeli government source, CIA Director Bill Burns was scheduled to visit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Mossad counterpart on Wednesday after flying in from Cairo.
Israel said on Monday that the terms of a three-phase agreement that Hamas had endorsed were too soft. A new text released by Hamas, according to White House spokesperson John Kirby, indicates that the remaining gaps can “absolutely be closed.”
According to multiple reports, the proposal comprised a six-week ceasefire in the first phase, an infusion of aid to Gaza, the return of 33 Israeli hostages, living or dead, and the release by Israel of thirty Palestinian women and children arrested for every Israeli hostage freed.
Israel’s insistence on merely a temporary halt and Hamas’s refusal to release more Israeli hostages without a guarantee of a permanent end to the conflict have prevented the two sides from cooperating since a week-long ceasefire in November, the only pause thus far.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 34,844 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel’s offensive in the seven months of fighting in Gaza, the majority of them were civilians.
According to the most recent Israeli statistics, the conflict started on October 7 when Hamas fighters assaulted Israel, murdering over 1,200 people and kidnapping 252 more, of whom 128 are still being held captive in Gaza and 36 have been pronounced dead.
Rafah’s mayor, Al-Sofi, claimed that 1.4 million individuals seeking refuge in the city had nowhere else to go. “Lacks the necessities of life” is the description of the coastal al-Mawasi area, to which residents of eastern neighborhoods were being urged to go.
Health officials reported that some 200 patients from the Israeli army-designated Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah were compelled to evacuate to the west of the city after getting calls telling them to leave. The hospital is located in an area designated as a fighting zone.
