Palestinians in Rafah ‘awaiting execution’ as pressure grows on Israel to stop assault and agree ceasefire

Palestinian civilians fleeing Israel’s assault on east Rafah have said they have been “sentenced to death" and are "awaiting execution”, as international pressure mounts on Israel to agree to a Gaza ceasefire in negotiations in Cairo.

On Monday Israel ordered a partial evacuation of Rafah, before tanks and troops moved in seizing control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt. The military has pushed into eastern areas of the border city, which is sheltering 1.4 million people, the majority families displaced from other parts of the strip.

United Nations officials told The Independent that Israel's military operation has severed the critical “arteries” of humanitarian aid to the besieged strip, and a further assault could lead to a “bloodbath” as civilians have nowhere safe to evacuate to.

The decision to go into Rafah came just hours after Israel rejected a ceasefire hostage deal that Hamas agreed, piling pressure on ongoing talks for a truce still ongoing in Cairo.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has hailed the Rafah offensive as “a very significant step” towards destroying Hamas, is facing mounting domestic and international calls to agree to a truce.

Protests have spread across the world. Qatar has asked for international intervention to prevent the rest of Rafah being invaded. And even the US., Israel’s closest ally and main weapons supplier, is withholding a delivery of bombs over the lack of civilian safeguards.

Washington has reportedly carefully reviewed the delivery of weapons that might be used in Rafah, and as a result paused a shipment consisting of 1,800 bombs weighing 2,000 pounds each and 1,700 lighter 500-pound bombs.

"We've been very clear... from the very beginning that Israel shouldn't launch a major attack into the Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians that are in that battlespace,” the US Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin, told a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

“And again, as we have assessed the situation, we have paused one shipment of high payload munitions.”

In Rafah, where battles raged, families said that some prices had doubled due to the closure of the Rafah crossing. Israel said it has reopened another crossing. Kerem Shalom, but the UN said there had been no aid deliveries through it.

Sahar, who is five times displaced across Gaza, said her family were heading for so-called humanitarian zones identified by the Israeli military but even they were not even safe. She warned of hunger as some food and supply items like sugar chickpeas and cooking gas had started disappearing from shelves.

“Prices have increased, especially for baby milk and gas cooking, diapers, and plive oil too. There are people who cannot afford this,” he said.

“The negotiations were on the verge of success, and they told us that there was great progress. But suddenly, it failed and we appear have gone right back to zero. We have no hope,” he added.

Iyad, who also fled East Rafah, told The Independent panicked families had little hope Israel would agree to a ceasefire deal, before widening their offensive.

“People fled carrying their tent, clothes and mattress and ran through the streets. I see we are sentenced to death and awaiting execution,” he said in desperation.

“I think the deal will be signed after they have finished the invasion of Rafah. Today a girl begged for my help getting a tent for her blind father. I am afraid that I will die and that no one will bury me."

Israel has launched a punishing assault on Gaza and imposed a siege in retaliation for the 7 October attacks by Hamas on southern Israel, during which around 1,200 people were killed and another 250, including children, taken hostage.

Since then, Palestinian health officials say Israel’s assault has killed nearly 35,000 people, the majority women and children. The UN has warned of a looming famine and said that more than half the 2.3 million strong population of Gaza is experiencing catastrophic levels of hunger.

Despite global calls for a ceasefire, Israel this week rejected an Egyptian and Qatari negotiated three-phase deal which Hamas accepted saying it fell short of their demands.

The proposal reportledy includes a first phase with a six-week ceasefire, an influx of aid to Gaza, the return of 33 Israeli hostages, alive or dead, and the release by Israel of 30 detained Palestinian children and women for each released Israeli hostage.

Israel said it was too watered down and talks continue in Cairo, where delegations from Hamas, Israel, the US, Egypt and Qatar are meeting.

Mr Netanyahu is facing increasing anger in Israel, where opinion is divided over the military offensive. Families of the hostages have held protests in Tel Aviv, demanding the government sign a deal to bring their loved ones home, and prioritise that over any military gains. Several family members told The Independent they were terrified that their loved ones would be killed in the crossfire.

CIA chief William Burns, who has been shuttling around the region for talks on the ceasefire deal, reportedly met Mr Netanahu on Wednesday to discuss closed-door negotiations.

Qatar's Ministry of foreign affairs, meanwhile, said that it strongly condemns Israel's Rafah incursion and called for international intervention to prevent the city from being invaded.

Gershon Baskin , a political activist and veteran negotiator who helped broker the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from Gaza in 2011, said an ongoing military offensive will not bring home the hostages safe and alive.

“The military offensive will only kill more hostages,” he told The Independent bluntly, adding he was concerned there was no way to bridge the gaps between Hamas and Israel’s versions of a truce deal. Hamas wants an end to the war and Mr Netanyahu’s government does not.

“There’s a dead end here and I don’t know how you get it around it,” he added.

He said he believed the Israeli government’s plan was to finish the military offensive before any truce and that Mr Netanyahu, whose popularity has plummeted, wants to prolong the war to stave off potential elections and “to keep himself in power".

Israel has denied restrictions on aid or allegations civilians were dying in the Rafah offensive. Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman said on Wednesday that Israel opened the Kerem Shalom land crossing to Gaza and claimed there “surplus of aid” in Gaza, and that Hamas is restricting it.

But the UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, said no aid was getting into Gaza, despite desperate need. "We're not receiving any aid into the #GazaStrip," Scott Anderson, deputy director at UNRWA Affairs in Gaza, posted on X.

Ali, 46, who had fled to the areas just past Israel's designated evacuation zone, said people in the south were starting to go hungry.

“There are not enough places for tents and prices -which were already expensive - have increase,” he said, describing the situation in east Rafah as “frightening’

Hasan, 53 said he feared some would not be able to evacuate if the assault widened “because they do not have enough money for transportation or tents.”

“We are preparing ourselves for the worst.”