Rafah military operation begins; Israeli forces take control of Gaza side of Rafah crossing

The Israeli military said 20 Hamas militants were killed in Monday's operation and discovered three tunnels.

The Israeli army has “completely halted the movement of people and aid,” Hamas' transit authority said in a statement.

The troop movement into the area came a day after Israel told residents in parts of eastern Rafah to leave immediately ahead of a possible attack on the town. An Israeli army official said the vast majority of people in an ordered evacuation zone had left.

An Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to immediately comment on the Israeli border seizure. Egypt previously warned that any Rafah dam could see Palestinians flee across the border, a scenario that could threaten a 1979 peace accord with Israel that has been a key element of regional security.

The offensive raised again the risks of an all-out Israeli assault on Rafah, a move the United States strongly opposes and which aid groups warn would be disastrous for some 1.4 million Palestinians that take refuge there.

Ceasefire talks between the two sides continue to drag on. Hamas earlier said it had accepted a proposal from mediators Egypt and Qatar. Israel rejected it, saying it contained demands the Jewish state could not accept; said it did not meet their “basic requirements”. He said he was moving ahead with an assault on Rafah.

Egyptian officials said the proposal called for a multi-stage ceasefire, starting with a limited release of hostages and a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. The two sides would also negotiate a “permanent calm” that would lead to the full release of the hostages and a further Israeli withdrawal from the territory, they said.

Hamas sought clearer guarantees for its key demand of an end to the war and a full withdrawal from Israel in exchange for the release of all hostages, but it was unclear if any changes were made.

Israeli leaders have repeatedly rejected that commitment, vowing to maintain their campaign until Hamas is destroyed after its October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war.

Israel's war cabinet decided to continue the Rafah operation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Monday.

Israeli airstrikes also hit other locations in Rafah on Tuesday (AEST), killing at least five people, including a child and a woman, hospital officials said.

US President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu and reiterated American concerns about an invasion of Rafah. US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said US officials were reviewing Hamas' response “and discussing it with our partners in the region”. A US official said the US was examining whether what Hamas accepted was the version signed by Israel and international negotiators or something else.

It was not immediately known whether the proposal Hamas agreed to was substantially different from the one US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed the militant group to accept last week, which Blinken said included significant Israeli concessions .

Egyptian officials said the proposal called for a multi-stage ceasefire, starting with a limited release of hostages and a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. The two sides would also negotiate a “permanent calm” that would lead to the full release of the hostages and a further Israeli withdrawal from the territory, they said.

Hamas sought clearer guarantees for its key demand for an end to the war and a full withdrawal from Israel in exchange for the release of all hostages, but it was unclear if any changes were made.

Israeli leaders have repeatedly rejected that commitment, vowing to maintain their campaign until Hamas is destroyed after its October 7 attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and triggered the war.

Netanyahu is under pressure from hard-line coalition partners who are demanding an attack on Rafah and may bring down his government if he signs a deal. But he also faces pressure from the families of the hostages to reach a deal for their release.

Thousands of Israelis rallied across the country calling for an immediate deal. About a thousand protesters gathered near the defense headquarters in Tel Aviv, where police tried to clear the road. In Jerusalem, a hundred protesters marched to Netanyahu's residence holding a banner that read: “Blood is on your hands.”

Israel says Rafah is Hamas' last major stronghold in Gaza, and Netanyahu said the offensive against the city was vital to ensure the militants could not rebuild their military capabilities.

The imminent operation has raised the alarm worldwide. Aid agencies have warned that an offensive will cause more civilian deaths in an Israeli campaign that has already killed 34,000 people and devastated the territory. It could also ruin the Rafah-based humanitarian aid operation that keeps Palestinians in the Gaza Strip alive, they say.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, described the evacuation order as inhumane.

“The people of Gaza continue to receive bombs, disease and even hunger. And today, they have been told to move again,” he said. “It will only expose them to more danger and misery.”

Israeli leaflets, text messages and radio broadcasts ordered Palestinians to evacuate the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah, warning that an attack was imminent and that anyone who stayed “puts themselves and their families at risk.”

The army told people to move to an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone called al-Mawasi, a makeshift camp on the coast. He said Israel has expanded the size of the area and it includes tents, food, water and field hospitals.

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Some 450,000 displaced Palestinians are already taking refuge in al-Mawasi.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said it has been providing them with aid. But conditions are dire, with few sanitation facilities in the mostly rural area, forcing families to dig private latrines.

AP, Reuters, Bloomberg

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