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 toward the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, fueling fears of a major military offensive. During the night, the military is said to have shelled the Kerem Shalom border crossing and also targeted the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, just a few kilometers away, as Palestinian media as well as the US broadcaster CNN and the news portal “Axios” reported.
Israel’s Defense Minister Joav Galant spoke of a multi-stage invasion that could be stopped if Hamas agreed to a reasonable negotiated solution to exchange the hostages. The US government later announced that it did not assume that the Israeli military’s long-announced major offensive on Rafah had already begun.
Last night, Hamas announced its approval of a ceasefire negotiation proposal. According to Israeli information, however, this proposal does not meet Israeli demands. There will be another meeting of negotiators in the Egyptian capital Cairo today to facilitate a ceasefire, the release of hostages and prisoners and the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the Gulf Emirate of Qatar announced overnight. Qatar, Egypt and the USA act as mediators between Hamas and Israel, which, as a matter of principle, do not negotiate directly with each other.
War Cabinet sticks to military plans
A few hours after Hamas announced it would agree to a ceasefire, the Israeli army attacked targets in eastern Rafah. According to an army spokesman, these were Hamas facilities. The Israeli war cabinet had previously decided to continue the military operation in Rafah in order to increase military pressure on Hamas and achieve its own war goals.
The Kerem Shalom border crossing – the most important for the delivery of aid from Israel to the Gaza Strip – was attacked by tanks and artillery from a distance of 200 meters, Palestinian media reports said. Several houses were destroyed and there was also talk of fatalities, although there was initially no independent confirmation of this.
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.
The UN and USA were on the 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.” 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.
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, the relatives of the hostages abducted by Hamas 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 yesterday 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 yesterday asked about 100,000 Palestinians to leave Rafah for security reasons. Affected residents should go to the Al-Mawasi area near the coast.