Israel’s military seizes control of the strategically important Rafah crossing into Egypt

Tuesday saw Israeli tanks take control of Gaza’s crucial Rafah border crossing as Israel advanced into the southern city despite grave warnings from close allies, even as cease-fire talks with Hamas remained precarious.

Following hours of turbulence in the Israel-Hamas conflict, the terrorist group announced on Monday that it has agreed to a cease-fire agreement negotiated by Qatar and Egypt. But Israel maintained that its fundamental demands were not met by the agreement.

There was a ray of optimism, if small, for an agreement that may at least temporarily halt the seven-month-old conflict that has destroyed the Gaza Strip because of the high-stakes political maneuvers and military brinkmanship.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the Israeli assault overnight would grow into the full-fledged offensive into Rafah that Israel has planned. Instead, it seemed to be limited. The impending operation has alarmed people all over the world about what will happen to the 1.3 million Palestinians who are packed into the city and has the potential to worsen tensions between Israel and its primary ally, the United States.

President of the United States Joe Biden issued a fresh warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday against initiating an invasion of the city following Israel’s ultimatum for 100,000 Palestinians to leave Rafah’s eastern neighborhoods.

According to the Israeli military, the 401st Brigade of Israel crossed into Gaza early on Tuesday, assuming “operational control” over the vital border crossing. Israeli flags were seen flying from tanks that had taken control of the region in footage made public by the military. The video’s details matched the crossing’s well-known characteristics.

The two primary lines of entry for supplies into the embattled enclave, the Rafah crossing and the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza, have both been closed for at least the last two days. The closure is a blow to efforts to sustain the flow of food, medicine, and other supplies that are keeping Gaza’s inhabitants alive at a time when officials claim the northern portion of the enclave is already facing “full-blown famine,” even if smaller entrance crossings are still operational.

The U.N. humanitarian affairs office, or OCHA, has been denied entrance to the Rafah crossing by Israeli officials, according to Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the organization. He said that all of the fuel needed to keep the humanitarian effort going comes through the crossing, and that any stoppage at Rafah may bring down the already precarious assistance operation.

He declared, “It will push this crisis into previously unheard-of levels of need, including the very real possibility of a famine.” “All warnings about what this could mean for civilians and for the humanitarian operation across the Gaza Strip are being ignored,” according to the Israeli military.

According to hospital records seen by The Associated Press, the IDF also carried out a flurry of attacks and bombing over Rafah overnight, killing at least 23 Palestinians, including at least six women and five children.

Mohamed Abu Amra claimed that while they were asleep, a strike destroyed his home, killing his wife, two brothers, sister, and niece. “We took no action. “Hamas is not here,” he declared. It was fire that was consuming us. Everything in the home was upside down.

Following intelligence that the Rafah border was “being used for terrorist purposes,” the Israeli military declared that it had taken control of the crossing. The military said that on Sunday, four Israeli soldiers were killed and several others were injured in a mortar strike at Kerem Shalom by Hamas gunmen near the crossing, but it did not immediately offer any proof to back up the claim.

The military added that suspected Hamas positions in Rafah were the target of airstrikes and ground forces.

A spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry declined to react right away on the Israeli capture of the crossing.

Egypt has issued warnings in the past that any offensive forcing Palestinians to escape over the border into Egypt or the seizing of Rafah, which is intended to be part of a demilitarized border zone, would jeopardize the 1979 peace deal with Israel, which has served as a cornerstone for regional security.

Concerns of a sharp increase in civilian casualties in the wake of Israel’s preparations to strike Rafah have also been voiced. According to Gaza health officials, over 34,700 Palestinians have been killed in a campaign of bombardments and offensives. Large portions of the region have been leveled by the attack, and people are frantically searching for food, water, and medical supplies.

The disagreement between Netanyahu and Biden about how to handle the war has also gotten wider as a result of the Rafah operation. Netanyahu asserts that eliminating Hamas following its attack on southern Israel on October 7 depends on taking on Rafah, which Israel claims to be the organization’s final significant bastion in the region.

another 1,200 people were slain and another 250 more were kidnapped by terrorists in that historic Hamas raid and taken back to Gaza as hostages. According to Israeli critics, Netanyahu worries about the future of his administration because if he signs a deal before a Rafah invasion, his coalition’s hard-line allies would withdraw.

During their Monday call, Biden informed Netanyahu that the best approach to secure the release of the about 100 captives that Hamas is believed to still be holding, as well as the remains of another thirty or so, would be to reach a cease-fire agreement.

Israel declared that it would continue its operations in Rafah and that the cease-fire plan that Hamas had accepted did not adhere to its “fundamental demands.” However, it declared that it will dispatch a delegation to carry on talks in Egypt.

According to Western diplomats and Egyptian officials, the version of the text that Hamas accepted contained only slight alterations from the one that the United States had earlier lobbied for and Israel had approved. The adjustments were made after consulting with CIA Director William Burns, who approved the copy before forwarding it to the Palestinian organization, the official and diplomat stated, discussing the internal discussions under condition of anonymity.

According to the White House, Burns was speaking with Israelis and other regional officials about Hamas’s response.

The proposal calls for a gradual release of the hostages along with the Israeli military’s withdrawal from the entire enclave, culminating in a “sustainable calm,” which is defined as a “permanent cessation of military and hostile operations,” according to a copy that Hamas issued following its adoption.

In exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from certain areas of Gaza, Hamas would release 33 hostages, including women, children, elderly people, and the sick, during the first 42 days of the cease-fire. Following that, the parties would negotiate the conditions of the following phase, which called for the release of the last civilians and soldiers and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the remainder of Gaza.

To free all hostages, Hamas has demanded an end to the war and an Israeli retreat to the fullest extent possible. Officially, Israeli officials reject that compromise, announcing that the conflict will go on until all captives are freed and Hamas is eliminated.