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Israel launched a major military offensive against Hamas forces in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, seizing control of a key border crossing and cutting off most aid to the territory a day before indirect talks on a ceasefire deal were due to resume.
Images released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) showed tanks waving large Israeli flags, driving through a pillar and crushing a concrete sign reading “I love Gaza”.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Galant said the offensive would continue until Hamas forces in Rafah “and the entire Gaza Strip” are “eliminated” or the militant Islamist organization begins releasing hostages. A government spokesman described the first stage of a broader effort targeting Hamas.
“This is the beginning of our mission to defeat the last four Hamas brigades in Rafah. You should have no doubt about that,” the spokesperson said.
The Israeli operation began hours after announcement from Hamas leaders on Monday evening that they would accept a recent proposal for a ceasefire agreement put forward by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
Any truce would be the first pause in the fighting since then a week-long truce in November during which Hamas released about half of the 250 Israeli and other national hostages captured in a surprise attack in Israel in October. During this exchange, Israel released 240 Palestinians from its prisons.
Since then, periodic talks have failed over Hamas’ refusal to release more hostages without a promise of a permanent end to the conflict and Israel’s insistence that it would only discuss a temporary pause.
Israeli officials on Monday accused Hamas of “grandiosity” as Hamas said Israel was trying to undermine efforts to end the seven-month war that has devastated Gaza and left hundreds of thousands homeless and hungry.
However, Israel has decided to send a delegation to Cairo, where indirect talks are due to resume within days.
White House national security adviser John Kirby appeared optimistic on Tuesday, saying that after reviewing the text of the proposal presented by mediators, the US believes it should be possible to bridge the gap between the two countries.
Reports indicate that the proposal agreed to by Hamas does not include an immediate and definitive cessation of hostilities, but involves three successive phases, with varying ratios of exchanging Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons for hostages, and a series of phased withdrawals of Israeli forces from the areas in Gaza.
Further talks could take many days or even weeks, during which time fighting is likely to continue as both sides seek leverage in negotiations, analysts said.
International powers, including the United States, Israel’s staunchest ally, repeatedly warned Israel against a major military operation in Rafah, which houses more than 1 million people displaced from elsewhere in Gaza. Aid agencies predicted a “humanitarian catastrophe”.
Israel has told the U.S. that its Rafah operation is limited and designed to prevent the smuggling of weapons and funds into Gaza, Kirby said.
Aid officials in the territory said the flow of humanitarian aid through the Rafah border crossing had been completely halted, leaving only enough fuel reserves to continue the massive relief operation in Gaza for another day. Parts of Gaza are facing famine and everywhere there is acute hardship.
“We have less fuel than at a gas station. In general, it is enough to last a day. After that, nothing will move and hospitals will not be able to continue working for more than two or three days,” said Georgios Petropoulos, head of the Gaza sub-office of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
It comes after the US military said it had completed construction of an aid pier for Gaza, but weather conditions meant it was not safe to move the two-part facility into place, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
The port is intended to increase aid deliveries and will cost at least $320 million.
The Kerem Shalom border crossing, another major access point for aid, was closed after rocket fire killed four Israeli soldiers there earlier this week. There were more rocket and mortar strikes on the same target on Tuesday, an Israeli military official said.
The Rafah border crossing was the only exit point for those who needed to leave Gaza for medical treatment, which is no longer available in the territory.
Lama Abu Holi, eight years old, has been in Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza for a month, waiting for a chance to leave for treatment for his injured legs.
“Today my name was on the border and I had to travel to treat my legs,” she said, holding a toy in the hospital bed. “They hurt. I have to have surgery. As the border crossing is closed today, I could not travel. I’m sad because I didn’t leave today.”
An Israeli military official said the target of the Rafah operation was “terrorist infrastructure”.
Gaza’s health ministry said Israeli strikes in the territory killed 54 Palestinians and wounded 96 others in the past 24 hours.
On Sunday, the Israeli military told civilians in the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah to head to what it called an “extended humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi along the coast and around the largely abandoned town of Khan Younis. Thousands left Rafah after the warning in battered trucks, pushcarts, donkey carts and on foot, but aid agencies said neither place could handle another influx.
A total of 34,789 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in the conflict, the Gaza health ministry said.
The October attacks by Hamas killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians in their homes or at a music festival.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s grip on power could slip if he loses the support of far-right coalition allies who oppose any concessions to Hamas, but there is also pressure to free the remaining hostages.
“Capitulating to Hamas’ demands would be a terrible defeat for the State of Israel. It would show a terrible weakness to our friends and to our enemies. This weakness will only bring the next war closer,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Forum for Hostages and Missing Families, a coalition group, said it had called on a number of countries to “influence the Israeli government” and push for an agreement.
“At this crucial time, while a tangible option for the release of the hostages is on the table, it is of the utmost importance that your government demonstrates its strong support for such an agreement,” the group said in a message sent to ambassadors from all countries with nationals among the hostages held from Hamas.
“This is the time to exert your influence on the Israeli government and all other stakeholders to ensure that an agreement is reached that will finally bring all our loved ones home.”
Abu Ubaydah, a spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam, said in a statement on Tuesday that a 70-year-old Israeli hostage had died after succumbing to wounds from Israeli gunfire. There was no independent confirmation of the claim.
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