Israel’s government is sticking to its planned major offensive on Rafah. Hamas agrees to a ceasefire – but probably under conditions that Israel does not accept. The news at a glance.
Israeli forces have advanced into parts of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, fueling fears of a serious military offensive. The Rafah border crossing into Egypt is under “operational Israeli control” on the Palestinian side, a senior Israeli military official said.
Army video footage showed tanks rolling into the Rafah border area. A large Israeli national flag flew on one of the tanks. Most civilians and representatives of international aid organizations had already left the area on Monday after the army called for evacuation, the military said.
An offensive on Rafah has been planned for a long time in Israel’s fight against the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip. There are international concerns that the military operation could have serious consequences, particularly for the civilian population.
UN: Israel’s military action could constitute war crimes
The United Nations humanitarian agencies have condemned Israel’s advance on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. There are no safe routes to the north and no safe havens with sufficient sanitation and food supplies for the civilian population who have been asked to evacuate certain zones in Rafah.
These are basic requirements for evacuations, said UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani on Tuesday in Geneva. If these are not met, it is a case of forced relocations, which could constitute war crimes. “There are strong indications that (this military operation) is being carried out in a manner that violates international law,” she said.
The Israeli war cabinet decided on Monday to continue the military operation in Rafah in order to increase military pressure on Hamas and achieve its own war goals. The US government does not yet assume that the long-announced major offensive on Rafah has already begun.
On Monday evening, Hamas declared its approval of a negotiation proposal for a ceasefire. According to Israeli information, however, this proposal does not meet Israeli demands. The Israeli military said it was studying the proposal.
A Qatari delegation has now arrived in the Egyptian capital Cairo. The Foreign Ministry in Doha had previously said that the representatives from Qatar would travel to Egypt for further indirect negotiations between Israel and the Islamist Hamas. According to the Israeli military, a team from Israel will also take part in the new mediation talks in Cairo. Qatar, Egypt and the USA act as intermediaries between Hamas and Israel, which do not negotiate directly with each other.
“Precise counterterrorism operations on a very limited scale”
The Israeli military representative said of the current developments that it was a “precise anti-terror operation on a very limited scale.” Special troops searched the Rafah crossing for terrorists. There are indications that Hamas has misused the Gaza side of the crossing for terrorist purposes.
Members of the Hamas military wing fired rockets from the area on Sunday at the Israeli border crossing at Kerem Shalom. Four Israeli soldiers were killed. The border crossing for humanitarian aid remains closed after the attack, but they want to reopen it as quickly as possible. Kerem Shalom is the main border crossing for the delivery of aid from Israel to the Gaza Strip. Hamas also attacked the border crossing with rockets today.
The news portal Axios reported, citing Israeli government officials, that the deployment of tanks and ground units east of Rafah was to be understood as the first phase of the offensive. The takeover of the Rafah border crossing was not only intended to demonstrate Hamas’ loss of power in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians with no connection to the Islamists should then be involved in the distribution of aid coming from Egypt to the isolated coastal area.
UN and USA warn of ground offensive
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on the parties to the conflict to do everything they can to finally reach an agreement. “A ground offensive in Rafah would be unacceptable due to the devastating humanitarian consequences and destabilizing consequences for the region.” State Secretary for Development Jochen Flasbarth also described the advance of the Israeli armed forces on the city of Rafah as worrying.
After a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Washington, US President Joe Biden also appealed for the release of all hostages, a permanent ceasefire and humanitarian aid to be urgently needed. With regard to Rafah, National Security Council Communications Director John Kirby reiterated that the US government does not support an operation that puts more than a million people at great risk.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell sharply criticizes the advance of Israeli forces. “Despite this warning and this request, the attack began last night,” said the Spaniard, speaking of a ground offensive. Borrell expressed fears that there would again be many civilian casualties and pointed out that there were hundreds of thousands of children living in the Gaza Strip. Borrell was also disappointed that negotiations for a ceasefire have apparently failed for the time being.
Hamas foreign chief Ismail Haniya said he had informed the Qatari prime minister and the Egyptian intelligence chief by telephone about the Islamist organization’s decision to accept a compromise proposal from the mediators. And the Qatari Foreign Ministry said Hamas’ response “can be described as positive.” But little is officially known about the content of these proposals.
Hamas is said to have agreed to a three-stage plan
CNN reported that the version accepted by Hamas contained three 42-day phases. The first provides, among other things, for the release of 33 hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, a gradual partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and freedom of movement for unarmed Palestinians in the coastal area.
The second phase has not been worked out in detail, but amounts to the release of all remaining hostages, the complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza and a permanent break in fighting. In the third phase, a three to five year process to rebuild Gaza will begin.
Hamas’s announcement that it had signaled its approval sparked jubilant scenes on the streets of the Gaza Strip. In Rafah, Gaza City and other places, people poured into the streets to celebrate. However, the Israeli side’s reaction and subsequent events raised doubts as to whether a breakthrough had really been achieved.
“All possible clauses” added to proposal
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Hamas’s proposal was far from what Israel was demanding. The war cabinet has agreed to stick to the planned offensive in Rafah. The mediation proposal is no longer the same one that Israel and Egypt agreed on ten days ago and which was the basis for indirect negotiations, the Israeli side said. “All sorts of clauses” had been inserted, Channel 12 reported.
Israeli Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir described Hamas’ approval as a tactical gimmick. “There is only one answer to Hamas’s tricks and games: an immediate order to capture Rafah, increase military pressure and continue to harass Hamas until complete defeat,” Israeli media quoted the right-wing politician as saying.
Hostage relatives demonstrate in Israel
In a statement from the relatives of the hostages abducted by Hamas on Monday evening, they said that the Islamists’ announcement should pave the way for the return of those abducted. Representatives of the relatives welcomed the Netanyahu government’s announcement that it would send a negotiating delegation to talks with the mediators. There were demonstrations in several Israeli cities on Monday evening calling for a negotiated solution to release the hostages.
With the military operation in Rafah, Israel wants to destroy the remaining battalions of the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas, which it has been fighting in Gaza since October. The Hamas leadership and hostages are believed to be in the city. The Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre with more than 1,200 deaths that terrorists from Hamas and other groups carried out in Israel on October 7th.
In recent weeks, Israel’s allies have repeatedly criticized the expected ground offensive in Rafah and tried to dissuade Israel’s government from doing so, as the crowded city is home to numerous refugees who have sought refuge from fighting in other parts of the Gaza Strip. Israel on Monday asked about 100,000 Palestinians to leave Rafah for security reasons. Affected residents should go to the Al-Mawasi area near the coast.