Efforts to reach a ceasefire and release hostages are under intense pressure. Concern that Israel will launch a major offensive in Rafah is growing. The news at a glance.
After the Israeli army advanced into the town of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, eyes are once again turning to indirect negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and the Islamist Hamas. The existing gaps between the two sides’ positions could be closed, said US National Security Council communications director John Kirby.
“We will do everything in our power to support this process and achieve this result.” Hamas had declared its approval of a negotiation proposal, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described this as a vain attempt to torpedo the advance in Rafah – which later actually took place. The Islamists’ current offer is far from his government’s requirements, he said.
The US government also rejected claims that Hamas had agreed to a negotiation proposal for a ceasefire shortly before the advance of Israeli troops. “Hamas has responded and made several counter-proposals in its response,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in Washington. “But that’s not the same as accepting a proposal.” Rather, the terrorist organization responded “with requests for changes – you could call it a counter-proposal – and we are currently dealing with these details.”
Israel shows willingness to compromise
Netanyahu said he had instructed the Israeli negotiating team in Cairo to stick to Israel’s conditions. Meanwhile, his Defense Minister Joav Galant made a connection between yesterday’s Rafah operation and the negotiations in Cairo over a ceasefire and the release of hostages.
“We are willing to compromise to get hostages back,” Galant said, according to his office. “But if this option disappears, we will move forward and deepen the effort.” The operation will continue “until we have eliminated Hamas in the Rafah area and the entire Gaza Strip or until the first hostage returns.”
Israeli troops advanced into parts of the city of Rafah the night before last and said they had taken control of the Palestinian side of the border crossing there with Egypt. Both border traffic and the import of humanitarian aid supplies have been suspended for the time being. Israel’s army spoke of a “precise counterterrorism operation on a very limited scale.”
USA: Israel’s deployment in Rafah limited
According to the US government, this was not a large-scale ground offensive, which Washington has repeatedly warned its allies about. The White House believes that Israel’s deployment to capture the Rafah border crossing does not cross US President Joe Biden’s “red line”, two US officials told the news portal Axios.
Israeli officials have assured that it is an “operation of limited scope, scale and duration” aimed at “interrupting Hamas’s ability to transport weapons across the Rafah border,” said the national communications director US Security Council, Kirby. At the same time, he emphasized that we were monitoring the further course of action. According to US media reports, the USA is delaying the sale of further ammunition to Israel due to concerns about a major offensive in Rafah.
The city in southern Gaza is considered Hamas’s last bastion in the coastal area; its leadership and hostages are believed to be there. The capture of the Rafah border crossing now puts the Israeli military in a position to launch a more comprehensive offensive in the event of a complete failure of indirect negotiations over a ceasefire and the release of hostages, wrote the Wall Street Journal.
Philadelphia Corridor
Israel’s leadership has long been concerned that the border area with Egypt represents a route for smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip and a crucial element of Hamas’s military supply chain. Israel is pushing for stricter controls in a section running along the border with Egypt known as the Philadelphia Corridor.
“The corridor is much more important than the four Hamas battalions in Rafah,” the US newspaper quoted a military analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv as saying. However, the US has repeatedly raised concerns about a major ground offensive, including to the Israeli government, because of the large number of refugees in Rafah. Nothing has changed, said Kirby, the National Security Council’s communications director.
Baerbock also warns of a major offensive in Rafah
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also warned Israel again against a major offensive in Rafah. “A million people cannot disappear into thin air. They need protection,” the Green politician wrote on X on the way back from her Indo-Pacific trip to Berlin. “They urgently need continued humanitarian help.” To achieve this, the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings would have to be reopened immediately.
Yesterday, Hamas’ military wing again attacked the Kerem Shalom border crossing with rockets and mortar shells. Just on Sunday, the Kassam Brigades killed four Israeli soldiers in a rocket attack on Kerem Shalom. The most important border crossing for the delivery of aid from Israel to the Gaza Strip was also closed for the time being.
According to the White House, the US government has been informed that Kerem Shalom will reopen today. The Rafah border crossing should also be reopened quickly for humanitarian aid deliveries, it said. After the end of the military operation in Rafah, according to an Israeli media report, a private American security company will take over the management of the border crossing in the city in southern Gaza.
Israel, the USA and Egypt had agreed on this, reported the Haaretz newspaper. It initially remained unclear which company this was supposed to be. When asked, the Israeli government declined to comment on the Israeli newspaper report. Kirby said in Washington that he knew nothing about it.