AGI – Israel struck the city of Rafah, in Gaza, during the night, trying to put “pressure” on Hamas in view of the talks that will be held today in Egypt with the aim of approving a truce proposal that is considered satisfactory on both sides. After promising for weeks to push into the border city, Israel on Monday asked Palestinians in eastern Rafah to leave what it called an “expanded humanitarian zone” ahead of a ground incursion. An AFP correspondent reported heavy shelling throughout the night while the Kuwaiti hospital on the city perimeter said in the early hours of Tuesday that five people had been killed and many others injured in the airstrikes.
The mystery of the truce
After intense new talks, Hamas said it had informed mediators Egypt and Qatar that it “approved their proposal for a ceasefire”, prompting crowds to take to the streets of Rafah. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, judged the agreement as still “far from Israel’s essential requests”, even if the Tel Aviv government made it known that it wanted to send negotiators to “reach an agreement “. Meanwhile, he added, “Israel is continuing the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas in order to secure the release of our hostages and achieve the other objectives of the war.” The United States, a close ally of Israel, said it was “examining” Hamas’ response.
Khalil al-Hayya, one of the most authoritative members of Hamas, told Al Jazeera, a broadcaster based in Qatar and obscured in Israel, that the proposal agreed by Hamas envisages a three-phase truce, and then specified how it includes a complete withdrawal of Israel from Gaza, the return of Palestinians displaced by the conflict and an exchange of hostages-prisonerswith the aim of a “permanent ceasefire”. Qatar said it would send a delegation to Cairo in the morning to resume negotiations. Another Hamas official, speaking to AFP anonymously, said Israel must now decide whether to accept or “obstruct” a truce.
The situation in Rafah
Renewing the appeal to leave Rafah, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari underlined that the actions will not stop for now: “The planes have targeted more than 50 terrorist targets” throughout the city and in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, international alarm continues to grow louder over the possible consequences of an Israeli land invasion in Rafah. An incursion into the city, located near the border with Egypt, would be “intolerable”, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, calling on Israel and Hamas “to go one step further” to reach an agreement. “It is an opportunity that cannot be missed and a ground invasion in Rafah would be intolerable due to its devastating humanitarian consequences and its destabilizing impact on the region,” Guterres added.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry, for its part, warned of “serious humanitarian risks” for the more than million Gazans taking refuge there and urged Israel to “exercise maximum caution”. Jordanian King Abdullah II asked US President Joe Biden to intervene to stop a “new massacre” in Rafah. In a conversation with Netanyahu on Monday, Biden reiterated “his clear position” against an invasion of the city.
Netanyahu, however, pushes ahead, promising to send ground troops to Rafah regardless of any truce and stating that it is necessary to eradicate the remaining Hamas forces to prevent a repeat of the bloody October 7 attacks that sparked the war in Gaza. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 1.2 million people are taking refuge in Rafah. The Forum of Families of Israeli Hostages and Missing Families said in a statement, following Hamas’ announcement of a possible truce, that “the time has come for all parties involved to respect their commitment and turn this into a agreement for the return of all hostages”. Hamas said Israel is planning a large-scale offensive “swithout taking into account the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe” in the besieged Gaza Strip and the fate of the detained hostages.
Israel responded with a “limited” and temporary evacuation order from Rafah, aimed at “getting people out of danger” before direct action. In the statement, the Tel Aviv army urged those in eastern Rafah to head to the “expanded humanitarian zone” of Al-Mawasi on the coast, but aid groups and associations said Al-Mawasi did not is ready to welcome such an influx of people. Palestinian authorities reported “thousands” of Gazesi slowly leaving the eastern part of the city. Asked how many people would have to move, an Israeli military spokesman replied: “The estimate is around 100,000 people” but, according to Palestinian authorities, the designated evacuation zone is already home to around 250,000 people, many of whom have already been uprooted from other places .
Abdul Rahman Abu Jazar, 36, told AFP that the area “doesn’t have enough space for us to even set up tents” because it is already full. “Where can we go?”, he asked. Unicef has warned that, for this very reason, around 600 thousand children crammed into Rafah risk suffering “a further catastrophe”. The main aid group in Gaza, UNRWA, added that an Israeli offensive in Rafah would mean “further civilian suffering and deaths”.
