An AFP correspondent in Rafah reported heavy shelling overnight.
Rafah, Palestinian Territories:
Israel carried out attacks on the Gaza city of Rafah overnight as it tried to put “pressure” on Hamas ahead of talks in Egypt on Tuesday aimed at sealing a truce proposal endorsed by the Palestinian group.
After promising for weeks to invade the southern border town, Israel on Monday asked Palestinians in eastern Rafah to leave for an “expanded humanitarian area” before a ground incursion.
An AFP correspondent in the city reported heavy shelling overnight, while the Kuwait hospital reported on Tuesday, in an updated toll, that 11 people were killed and dozens of others were injured in Israeli attacks.
After talks earlier in the day failed to produce an agreement, Hamas said late on Monday that it had informed mediators Egypt and Qatar of its “approval of their proposal regarding a ceasefire” in the seven-month war. , prompting crowds to take to the streets of Rafah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the proposal “falls far short of Israel’s essential demands” but the government would send negotiators to talks “to exhaust the potential for reaching an agreement.”
Meanwhile, he added, “Israel continues the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas in order to advance the release of our hostages and other objectives of the war.”
Israel’s close ally, the United States, said it was “reviewing” Hamas’ response.
Hamas member Khalil al-Hayya told the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel that the proposal agreed by Hamas involved a three-phase truce.
He said it includes a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the return of Palestinians displaced by the war and an exchange of hostages and prisoners, with the aim of a “permanent ceasefire”.
Qatar said it would send a delegation to Cairo on Tuesday morning to resume negotiations in the “hope that the talks culminate in reaching an agreement for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.”
A senior Hamas official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said Israel must now decide whether to accept or “obstruct” a truce.
‘Intolerable’ invasion
Renewing the call for people to leave Rafah on Monday night, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said that “aircraft attacked more than 50 terrorist targets in the Rafah area” throughout the day.
Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas, said late on Monday it fired rockets from Gaza toward southern Israel in response.
International alarm has been steadily rising over the consequences of an Israeli land invasion of Rafah, located on the border with Egypt.
Egypt, the main conduit for transporting aid trucks to Gaza, has been a key mediator in the truce efforts and has resolutely opposed any mass movement of refugees from the strip to its territory.
An Israeli incursion into the city would be “intolerable”, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, calling on Israel and Hamas “to make an extra effort” to reach a ceasefire agreement.
“This is an opportunity that cannot be missed, and a ground invasion of Rafah would be intolerable due to its devastating humanitarian consequences and its destabilizing impact on the region,” Guterres said.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry warned of “serious humanitarian risks” for the more than one million Gazans sheltering there and urged Israel to “exercise maximum restraint.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah II asked US President Joe Biden in talks on Monday to intervene to prevent a “new massacre” in Rafah.
In a conversation with Netanyahu on Monday, Biden reaffirmed “his clear position” of opposition to an invasion of the city, the White House said.
Netanyahu has vowed to eventually send ground troops to Rafah regardless of any truce, saying he needs to root out remaining Hamas forces to avoid a repeat of the bloody October 7 attacks that sparked the war in Gaza.
‘Thousands’ leaving
Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count of official Israeli data.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a retaliatory offensive that killed at least 34,735 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-administered territory.
Hamas also abducted 250 hostages on October 7, of which Israel estimates 128 remain in Gaza, including 35 the military says are dead.
The Forum for Families of Hostages and Missing Families said in a statement following Hamas’s announcement on Monday that “now is the time for all involved to fulfill their commitment and turn this opportunity into an agreement for the return of all hostages.” .
Around 1.2 million people are sheltering in Rafah, the World Health Organization says.
Hamas said Israel was planning a large-scale offensive “without regard to the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe” in the besieged Gaza Strip or the fate of hostages held there.
Israel said its “limited” and temporary evacuation order from Rafah was intended to “get people out of danger.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported “thousands” of Gaza residents leaving the east of the city.
‘Where can we go?’
The Israeli military, in a statement, urged those east of Rafah to head to the “expanded humanitarian area” at Al-Mawasi on the coast.
But aid groups said Al-Mawasi was not prepared for such an influx.
Asked how many people were expected to move, an Israeli military spokesman said: “The estimate is around 100,000 people.”
The Red Crescent said the designated evacuation zone is home to around 250,000 people, many of them already displaced from other places.
Palestinian Abdul Rahman Abu Jazar, 36, said the area “does not have enough space for us to make tents” because it is already full.
“Where can we go?” he asked.
The UN children’s agency warned that around 600,000 children crammed into Rafah face “further catastrophe”.
The main Gaza aid group, UNRWA, said an Israeli offensive on Rafah would mean “more civilian suffering and deaths”, adding that it would “not be an evacuation”.
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