Israel says it has taken control of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing point with Egypt.
King Abdullah II of Jordan called on Monday evening in Washington the international community to do everything to prevent “a new massacre” in Rafah.
During a meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House, the Jordanian ruler “warned that the Israeli attack on Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians are displaced by the war, threatened to lead to a new massacre,” according to a press release from the kingdom’s embassy in the United States.
An “invasion” of Rafah would be “intolerable”, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres insisted overnight, calling on Israel and Hamas to make an “additional effort” for a truce.
“Today I launched a very strong appeal to the Israeli government and the leaders of Hamas to make an additional effort to materialize a vital agreement,” he declared, repeating the comments expressed Monday through his door spoke earlier in the day after Hamas said it had accepted a truce proposal.
Witnesses and Palestinian security sources reported late Monday and early Tuesday airstrikes but also intense artillery fire across the Gaza Strip, but more particularly in Rafah and its surroundings.
According to these sources, Israeli tanks are stationed near the eponymous crossing point which links the south of the Gaza Strip to neighboring Egypt. And according to the Kuwaiti hospital, located in Rafah, at least five people were killed in Israeli fire.
Welcome to this live to follow with us the events of this Tuesday, May 7 in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.