Israel takes control of key Gaza crossing at Rafah
CAIRO — Israeli troops seized control of Gaza’s vital Rafah border crossing on Tuesday in what the White House described as a limited operation, as fears mount of a full-scale invasion of the southern city as talks with Hamas over a ceasefire and hostage release remain on a knife’s edge.
The UN warned of a potential collapse of the flow of aid to Palestinians from the closure of Rafah and the other main crossing into Gaza, Kerem Shalom, at a time when officials say northern Gaza is experiencing “fullblown famine.”
The Israeli foray overnight came after hours of whiplash in the now seven-month-old IsraelHamas war, with the militant group saying Monday it accepted a ceasefire proposal that Israel insisted fell short of its own core demands.
The high-stakes diplomatic moves and military brinkmanship left a glimmer of hope alive — if only barely — for a deal to bring at least a pause in the war, which has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and has devastated the Gaza Strip.
By capturing the Rafah crossing, Israel gained full control over the entry and exit of people and goods for the first time since it withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005, though it has long maintained a blockade of the coastal enclave in co-operation with Egypt.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the capture of the crossing an “important step” toward dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would “deepen” the Rafah operation if the talks on the hostage deal failed.
Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official based in Beirut, said the militant group would not respond to military pressure or threats and would not accept any “occupying force” at the Rafah crossing.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the operation along the Gaza-Egypt border in eastern Rafah was not a full-on invasion of the city that President Joe Biden has repeatedly warned against on humanitarian grounds. He said Israel had described it as “an operation of limited scale and duration” aimed at cutting off Hamas arms smuggling.
Kirby also expressed optimism about the negotiations, saying Israel and Hamas “should be able to close the remaining gaps” to complete an agreement, without offering a timetable. He said CIA chief William Burns will attend further talks in Cairo with representatives from Israel, Egypt and Qatar. Hamas also sent a delegation to Cairo, which will meet separately with the Arab mediators.
“Everybody is coming to the table,” Kirby said.
Fighting forced the evacuation of the Abu Youssef alNajjar Hospital, one of the main medical centres receiving people wounded in airstrikes on Rafah in recent weeks. It was not immediately clear how many patients had been moved to other facilities.
The looming operation threatens to widen a rift between Israel and its main backer, the United States, which says it is concerned over the fate of 1.3 million Palestinians crammed into Rafah, most of whom fled fighting elsewhere.