The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday that it took control of the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt overnight, marking its first ground incursion into the southern Gazan city. Wael Abu Omar, a Gaza border official, said travel and the flow of aid into the Strip “stopped completely” as a result. Hamas said it agreed to a Qatari-Egyptian cease-fire and hostage-release proposal, and Israel said it would send mediators to Egypt on Tuesday to negotiate a deal, renewing hopes for a pause in fighting even as it vowed to press on with its military operation in Rafah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas’s proposal was designed to “undermine” Israel’s entry into Rafah. “That didn’t happen,” he said in a statement Tuesday, adding that the proposal from Hamas fell “well below Israel’s essential requirements.”
Hamas called Israel’s “storming” of the Rafah border crossing overnight a “dangerous escalation.” The group accused Israel of trying to “exacerbate the humanitarian situation in the Strip by closing” the crossing, through which aid flows into Gaza and patients leave for medical treatment in other countries.
A Hamas delegation will arrive in Cairo on Tuesday to continue negotiations over a cease-fire and hostage-release deal, an Egyptian former official said. Netanyahu said an Israeli delegation was also traveling to Egypt. “I instructed the mid-level delegation that left for Cairo to remain firm on the conditions necessary for the release of our hostages and the essential requirements for the security of Israel,” he said.
Israeli authorities said mortars were launched from the area of Rafah toward the Kerem Shalom border crossing Tuesday. The barrage caused no damage or casualties, the IDF said. Hamas claimed responsibility for a Sunday attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing that killed four Israeli soldiers.
At least 34,789 people have been killed and 78,204 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.
Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 267 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza.
1/6
End of carousel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas’s proposal was designed to “undermine” Israel’s entry into Rafah. “That didn’t happen,” he said in a statement Tuesday, adding that the proposal from Hamas fell “well below Israel’s essential requirements.”
Hamas called Israel’s “storming” of the Rafah border crossing overnight a “dangerous escalation.” The group accused Israel of trying to “exacerbate the humanitarian situation in the Strip by closing” the crossing, through which aid flows into Gaza and patients leave for medical treatment in other countries.
A Hamas delegation will arrive in Cairo on Tuesday to continue negotiations over a cease-fire and hostage-release deal, an Egyptian former official said. Netanyahu said an Israeli delegation was also traveling to Egypt. “I instructed the mid-level delegation that left for Cairo to remain firm on the conditions necessary for the release of our hostages and the essential requirements for the security of Israel,” he said.
Israeli authorities said mortars were launched from the area of Rafah toward the Kerem Shalom border crossing Tuesday. The barrage caused no damage or casualties, the IDF said. Hamas claimed responsibility for a Sunday attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing that killed four Israeli soldiers.
At least 34,789 people have been killed and 78,204 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.
Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 267 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza.
End of carousel