by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Mohammad Salem and Jarrett Renshaw
CAIRO/RAFAH, Gaza Strip/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Israeli tanks and planes bombarded areas of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, even as the United States expressed opposition to an offensive major in the city considered the last relative refuge for Palestinian civilians, threatening to suspend their arms deliveries.
On the sidelines of Israel’s military operations, the latest round of indirect negotiations in Cairo between the Jewish state and Palestinian groups ended without an agreement, said a senior Israeli representative, adding that the delegation dispatched to the Egyptian capital had expressed his reservations regarding Hamas’s proposals and returned to Israel.
Two Egyptian security sources reported progress in negotiations aimed at concluding a ceasefire and allowing the release of hostages, while confirming the absence of an agreement.
The Hamas delegation returned to Doha in Qatar, where its political office is located, blaming Israel for the lack of any agreement.
Israel says it is open to a truce but has rejected one of Hamas’ main demands – a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The Jewish state will continue its operations as planned in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, and in other areas of the Gaza Strip, said the senior Israeli representative, echoing comments from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
ASSAULT TANKS MASSED AT THE GATES OF RAFAH
Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they fired rockets and mortars at Israeli tanks massed on the eastern outskirts of Rafah, the only town in the Gaza Strip where the Israeli army has not yet carried out an attack. land invasion since the start of the total siege of the enclave launched in response to the Hamas attack on October 7.
An IDF attack on a mosque in eastern Rafah killed at least three people and injured several others, according to residents and doctors.
Videos show the minaret strewn over ruins and two corpses wrapped in blankets.
An Israeli helicopter opened fire in a neighborhood on the eastern tip of Rafah, residents said, adding that drones flew over homes, sometimes skimming their roofs.
Israel says it wants to eradicate the last bastion of Hamas in Rafah, an objective described as a priority for the security of its state.
Several Western countries and the United Nations have warned that an assault in Rafah, where nearly half of the 2.3 million Gazans who have fled the fighting are massed, could cause a humanitarian catastrophe.
US President Joe Biden believes a major Israeli military operation in Rafah will not advance the goal of eradicating Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the White House said Thursday.
“IF NECESSARY, WE WILL FIGHT WITH OUR NAILS”
Joe Biden has repeatedly expressed his opposition to an assault on Rafah without a plan to protect Palestinian civilians massed in the city, considered the last relative shelter since the start of fighting in the enclave.
He decided to “pause” a delivery of munitions to Israel, as indicated by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and threatened to suspend arms deliveries to Israel if a large-scale operation was launched. in Rafah.
“I made it clear that if they enter Rafah (…) I am not providing the weapons,” Joe Biden declared in an interview with the American channel CNN on Wednesday evening.
The United States, Israel’s long-time ally, is the Jewish state’s main arms supplier. They accelerated deliveries and stepped up military aid following the Hamas attack last October.
In a video released Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to ignore Joe Biden’s statements, declaring that “if necessary, we will fight with our nails.”
The Israeli Defense Minister, for his part, warned Israel’s “friends and enemies” that it will achieve its objectives in the Gaza Strip. “The State of Israel cannot be subjugated,” said Yoav Gallant. “We will achieve our goals; we will hit Hamas, we will hit (Lebanese) Hezbollah, and we will achieve security.”
DISPLACED CIVILIANS FEAR AN INVASION
In Rafah, one of those displaced by the fighting in the Gaza Strip said he feared that the Israeli bombings were a prelude to an invasion of the city, through which a large part of the humanitarian aid had passed since the start of the total siege of the Palestinian enclave.
“It reminds me of what happened before Israeli tanks broke into residential areas of Gaza City,” said Mohammad Abder-Rahman, 42.
“Heavy bombardment usually allows tanks to advance into areas they intend to invade,” he added via a messaging app.
Nearly 35,000 people, most of them civilians according to Gaza health authorities, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the offensive launched by Israel in response to the Hamas attack in which 1,200 people were killed .
A new phase of the IDF’s total siege of the enclave appears to have begun earlier this week, with the takeover of the Palestinian part of the Rafah border crossing.
“THE MEDICAL SECTOR HAS COLLAPSED”
According to the UN, advances by the Israeli army forced 80,000 people to flee Rafah this week.
Almost all residents of the Gaza Strip have been displaced at least once since fighting began in the enclave.
“The toll paid by these families is unbearable. No place is safe,” lamented the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on the social network .
In a daily statement on its operations in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the Israeli army made no mention of the town of Rafah.
According to residents, Israeli strikes were carried out in different points of the Palestinian enclave, notably in the north of the territory, in one of the neighborhoods of Gaza City, forcing hundreds of families to flee. The IDF said it was securing the area and striking “terrorist targets.”
In the heart of the Gaza Strip, the town of Deir al-Balah has seen the arrival of many people who fled Rafah in recent days. A drone strike killed two people there, including a woman, Palestinian doctors reported.
The Israeli army’s blockade of the Rafah crossing point is preventing the evacuation of the wounded and sick as well as the delivery of medical supplies, the Gaza Ministry of Health said.
“Medical help used to arrive, but that is no longer the case,” lamented Ali Abou Khourma, a Jordanian surgeon working as a volunteer at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. “The entire medical sector has collapsed.”
(Reporting Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Mohammad Salem in Rafah, Jarrett Renshaw in Washington, with Maytaal Angel in Jerusalem, Ahmed Mohamed Hassan in Cairo, Doaa Rouqa in Gaza; written by Jean Terzian)
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