CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — An Israeli tank brigade took control of the Gazan side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, officials said, advancing its offensive on the southern city of the Palestinian enclave even though negotiations for a ceasefire with Hamas still on the limit.
The measure came after hours of tensions in the war between Israel and Hamas, in which the insurgent group said the day before that it accepted the ceasefire proposal mediated by Egypt and Qatar. Israel, for its part, insisted that this agreement did not satisfy its main demands.
The high-level diplomatic initiative and military maneuvers gave a glimmer of hope, albeit small, to close a pact that could at least pause the seven months of war that have devastated the Strip.
The nighttime raid did not appear to be the all-out offensive on Rafah that Israel had planned, but it is currently unknown whether it will be expanded. US President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday against launching an offensive on the southern Gaza city, raising pressure to reach a ceasefire.
Humanitarian aid groups say an attack would be catastrophic for the estimated 1.4 million Palestinians sheltering there from Israel’s crackdown on the rest of the territory.
Israel’s 401st Brigade entered the Rafah crossing early Tuesday, the army said, and took “operational control” of the crucial crossing. Images distributed by the army showed a tank entering the pass. The details of the video matched the known characteristics of the place.
The army also carried out a series of attacks and bombings on Rafah overnight that killed at least 23 Palestinians, including six women and five children, according to hospital records seen by The Associated Press.
The Rafah crossing is the main route of entry for humanitarian aid into the besieged territory and exit for those who may flee to Egypt. Both Rafah and Kerem Shalom, the other major entry point for aid from Israel to the Strip, have been closed for two days. Although there are smaller crossings operational, the closure of these is a major setback to efforts to maintain the flow of food, drugs and other supplies that keep Gazans alive.
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian office, warned that an assault on Rafah could disrupt the fragile aid operation. All the fuel that enters the Strip does so through Rafah, and any interruption will slow down humanitarian efforts.
“It will take this crisis to unprecedented levels of need, including the very real possibility of famine,” he noted.
The Israeli military said it captured the crossing after receiving intelligence that it was “being used for terrorist purposes,” but did not immediately offer evidence to support that claim, although it maintained that the area near the crossing had been used to launch a mortar attack that killed four of his soldiers and wounded others near the Kerem Shalom Pass on Sunday.
According to the military, ground troops and airstrikes hit suspected Hamas positions in Rafah.
Wael Abu Omar, spokesman for the Palestinian authority responsible for the crossings, acknowledged that Israeli forces had taken the step and closed the facilities for the moment. Airstrikes have been hitting the area around the crossing since Monday, he added.
A spokesperson for Egypt’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the Israeli advance.
Egypt had previously warned that the seizure of Rafah — which is supposed to be part of a demilitarized border zone — or any attack that causes Palestinians to flee across the border could jeopardize the 1979 peace deal with Israel, which It has been one of the pillars of regional security.
Israel’s plans to attack Rafah have raised fears of a drastic increase in civilian deaths in the Israeli ground and air campaign, which in the last seven months has claimed the lives of more than 34,700 Palestinians, according to health authorities in the enclave. The operation has devastated large areas of the territory and northern Gaza has entered “total famine,” according to the director of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, on Sunday.
The operation in Rafah has also aggravated differences between Netanyahu and Biden over the conduct of the war. Netanyahu says the offensive on the city — which Israel says is Hamas’ last major stronghold in the territory — is key to his goal of destroying the group following its Oct. 7 cross-border attack.
In that unprecedented Hamas raid, the insurgents killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 more hostage. Israeli critics say Netanyahu is worried about the survival of his government, as his more conservative coalition partners could back out if he signs a deal that prevents the attack on Rafah.
An Egyptian official and a Western diplomat noted that the draft accepted by Hamas contained minor changes in wording from the version previously suggested by the United States, which Israel had approved. The changes were made in consultation with CIA Director William Burns, who approved the draft before sending it to the insurgent group, said the sources, who asked not to be identified to discuss internal discussions.
The White House said Burns was discussing Hamas’s response with the Israelis and other regional leaders.
According to a copy released by Hamas after accepting the proposal, the document contemplates the phased release of the hostages along with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli troops from the entire enclave, and the process would end with a “sustainable calm,” which is defined as a “permanent cessation of military and hostile operations.”
In the first phase of the ceasefire, which would last 42 days, Hamas would release 33 hostages — including women, minors, the elderly and the sick — in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails, and the army would partially withdraw from some parts of the Strip. The parties would then negotiate the terms of the next phase, which would include the release of the remaining civilians and soldiers captured by the insurgents, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the rest of Gaza.
Hamas has demanded an end to the war and Israel’s complete withdrawal in exchange for the release of all hostages. Publicly, Israeli leaders have repeatedly rejected those conditions and have pledged to continue their campaign until the group’s destruction.
