6 months ago
22
Israel's military said Tuesday that it had sent tanks into
Rafah
and established control over the
Gaza Strip
side of the
border crossing
with
Egypt
in what it called a limited operation. The move halted the flow of aid into the enclave, drawing immediate condemnation from international officials.
The military said the incursion was aimed at destroying Hamas fighters and infrastructure in Rafah that were used in an attack that killed four Israeli soldiers over the weekend near the Kerem Shalom border crossing.
It did not appear to be the long-promised full ground invasion of Rafah, which Israel's allies have been working to avert by pushing for a truce deal.
It came after a dizzying day that saw Israel order people to evacuate parts of the city, then Hamas claims that it had accepted the terms of a ceasefire, followed by an announcement by Israel's military that it was carrying out "targeted strikes" in eastern Rafah.
PM Benjamin Netanyahu is facing pressure to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas that is backed by the US and Arab nations and that would secure the release of hostages still held in Gaza. Analysts say Israel's actions in Rafah could either ratchet up the pressure on Hamas to make a deal or sabotage the talks.
But the Israeli PM sounded defiant Tuesday, saying that Hamas' positive response to the ceasefire proposal the previous day "was meant to torpedo" troops' entry into Rafah. "That didn't happen," he said, adding that he had sent a "working-level" delegation back to Cairo to continue the talks while "in tandem, we continue waging the war on Hamas."
The head of a hospital in Rafah said that 27 bodies and 150 wounded people had been brought to his facility since the start of the incursion, and humanitarian agencies said that no aid was passing through the Rafah crossing. UN officials said Israeli troops had now "choked off" both the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings, the two main routes for getting aid into Gaza, and warned that the humanitarian crisis in the enclave would worsen.
Israel's military declined to say how long it planned to stay in Rafah, calling Tuesday's incursion "a very precise" counterterrorism operation. Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said the operation there would continue until the last Hamas brigade in the city was destroyed "or until the return of the first hostage to Israel". Troops found three tunnel shafts in the area near the crossing, and about 20 militants were killed during the operation, the military said in a statement, without offering evidence. Israel has long viewed Gaza's border with Egypt as a main route for smuggling arms into the coastal enclave.
