The Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday that efforts to broker a ceasefire for the Gaza Strip were back on the front burner after Israel effectively rejected a proposal from international mediators.
Hamas said in a statement that it would consult with Palestinian factions to review its strategy for negotiating an end to the seven-month war sparked by the deadly attack on Israel on October 7.
The United Nations warned hours earlier that aid to Gaza could come to a standstill within days after Israel this week took control of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, a crucial route for supplies to the devastated Palestinian enclave.
Despite fierce US pressure, Israel has said it will press ahead with an attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1 million displaced people have taken refuge and where Israeli forces say Hamas militants are hiding.
Israeli tanks captured the main road dividing the eastern and western parts of Rafah on Friday, effectively surrounding the eastern part of the city in an attack that led Washington to block some military aid to its ally.
Indirect diplomacy has failed to end a war that health authorities say has killed nearly 35,000 people in Hamas-run Gaza since the Oct. 7 attack. According to Israeli figures, about 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken hostage in Israel on October 7.
Ceasefire negotiations in Cairo broke down on Thursday without reaching an agreement to halt fighting and release hostages.
Hamas had said it had agreed early this week to a proposal from Qatari and Egyptian mediators that had previously been accepted by Israel. Israel said Hamas's proposal contains elements it cannot accept.
“Israel's rejection of the mediators' proposal through the amendments it made brought matters back to the first level,” Hamas said in Friday's statement.
“In light of Netanyahu's behavior and the rejection of the mediators' document and the attack on Rafah and the occupation of the border crossing, the leadership of the movement will consult with the brotherly leaders of the Palestinian factions to review our negotiating strategy.”
Explosions and gunfire
Residents described near-constant explosions and gunfire east and northeast of Rafah on Friday, with intense fighting between Israeli forces and militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Hamas said it had ambushed Israeli tanks near a mosque in the east of the city, a sign that the Israelis had pushed into the edge of built-up areas several kilometers from the east.
Israel has ordered civilians to leave the eastern part of Rafah, forcing tens of thousands of people to seek shelter outside the city, previously the last refuge for more than a million people who fled other parts of the enclave during the war.
Israel says it cannot win the war without attacking Rafah and wiping out thousands of Hamas fighters they say are hiding there. Hamas says it will fight to defend it.
Supplies were already tight and relief operations could be halted within days if fuel and food supplies run out, United Nations aid agencies say.
“For five days, no fuel and virtually no humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip, and we are scraping the bottom of the barrel,” said Hamish Young, UNICEF's Senior Emergency Coordinator in the Gaza Strip.
Aid agencies say the fighting has endangered hundreds of thousands of already displaced civilians.
“It is not safe, the whole of Rafah is not safe as tank shells have been landing everywhere since yesterday,” Abu Hassan, 50, a resident of Tel al-Sultan west of Rafah, told Reuters via a chat app.
“I'm trying to leave, but I can't afford the 2,000 shekels ($540) to buy a tent for my family,” he said. “There is an increasing movement of people from Rafah, even from the western areas, although these were not designated as red zones due to the occupation.”
Israeli tanks have already cut off Rafah's east from the south, capturing and closing the only border crossing between the enclave and Egypt. An advance on Friday towards the Salahuddin Road that bisects the Gaza Strip completed the encirclement of the 'red zone', where they have ordered residents to leave.
The Israeli military said its forces had located several tunnel shafts in eastern Rafah, and that troops, backed by an airstrike, fought at close range with groups of Hamas fighters, killing several. It said Israeli fighter jets had hit several locations from which rockets and mortar bombs had been fired into Israel in recent days.
The prospect of a full-scale attack on Rafah has opened one of the biggest rifts in generations between Israel and its close ally the United States, which has blocked arms shipments to Israel for the first time since the war began.
Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel would “fight with our fingernails” if necessary, and he hoped differences with President Joe Biden would be resolved.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)