Jerusalem — An Israeli tank brigade took control Tuesday of the Gaza Strip side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, authorities said, appearing to move forward with an offensive in the southern city even as cease-fire negotiations with Hamas remain on a knife’s edge.
The move came after hours of whiplash in the Israel-Hamas war, with the militant group saying Monday that it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari mediated cease-fire proposal. Israel, however, insisted the deal didn’t meet its core demands and rejected it, though it has said it will continue discussing the proposal.
The high-stakes diplomatic moves and military brinkmanship left a glimmer of hope alive — but only barely — for an accord that could bring at least a pause in the 7-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip.
Israel takes “operational control” of Rafah crossing
The Israeli 401st Brigade entered the Rafah crossing early Tuesday morning, the Israeli military said, taking “operational control” of the crucial crossing. Israel had already fully controlled all of Gaza’s border crossings since it launched its war on Hamas seven months ago, but the tanks rolling in on Tuesday marked a significant increase in the Israeli military presence at the Rafah crossing.
Rafah is the primary route for aid entering the besieged enclave and the exit for those able to flee into Egypt.
Video released by the Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday showed tanks flying Israeli flags positioned around the Rafah border gate, with no other activity visible around the border checkpoint.
The Israeli military claimed it seized the crossing after receiving intelligence it was “being used for terrorist purposes.” The military didn’t provide evidence to immediately support the assertion, though it alleged the area around the crossing had been used to launch a mortar attack that killed four Israeli troops and wounded others near the Kerem Shalom Crossing.
Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority, acknowledged Israeli forces had seized the Rafah crossing and had closed the facility for the time being. He said strikes had targeted the area around the crossing since Monday.
The military also confirmed that ground troops and airstrikes had targeted suspected Hamas positions in Rafah on Monday. Palestinian health officials in the Hamas-run enclave said 20 people were killed and several others wounded in strikes that hit at least four houses.
The Israel Defense Forces, in a Tuesday statement, described the ongoing operations in Rafah as “a precise counterterrorism operation to eliminate Hamas terrorists and infrastructure within specific areas” in the east of the city.
The IDF did not further characterize its actions or say whether they constituted the beginning of its long-promised ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah. U.S. officials said Monday that the Biden administration does not believe the incursion thus far amounts to a major military operation in the city, which it has warned repeatedly against.
U.N. says Rafah closure will exacerbate “catastrophic hunger”
Jens Laerke, the spokesperson for the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA, said Tuesday in Geneva that U.N. aid agencies vital access to the Rafah crossing was being “denied by COGAT,” the Israeli agency that oversees supplies into the Palestinian territories.
UNRWA, the U.N. agency tasked specifically with providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and across the region, said in a tweet that “continued interruption of the entry of aid and fuel supplies” through the Rafah border gate would severely impact aid distribution across the entire Palestinian territory, warning that “catastrophic hunger faced by people especially in northern Gaza will get much worse if these supply routes are interrupted.”
An Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson declined to immediately comment on the Israeli seizure. Egypt previously has warned any seizure of Rafah could see Palestinians fleeing over the border, a scenario that could threaten a 1979 peace deal with Israel that’s been a linchpin of regional security.
The offensive again raised the risks of an all-out Israeli assault on Rafah, a move the United States strongly opposes and that aid groups warn will be disastrous for some 1.4 million Palestinians taking refuge there.
What’s in the cease-fire proposal backed by Hamas?
CBS News has obtained a copy of the proposal that Hamas said it had agreed to on Monday. The agreement breaks down the hypothetical de-escalation process into three stages, each six weeks long. By the end of that period, it envisions a permanent cease-fire, a swap of all remaining hostages held by Hamas for Palestinians in Israeli jails, and allowing displaced Gazans to return to their homes — with no restrictions.
An Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters that the proposal was a watered-down version of an Egyptian offer that had aspects Israel couldn’t accept.
“This would appear to be a ruse intended to make Israel look like the side refusing a deal,” the Israeli official said.
Israeli leaders have repeatedly rejected any trade-off that involves a definitive end to the war and complete withdrawal, vowing to keep up their military campaign until Hamas is destroyed in retaliation for its Oct. 7 terrorist attack, which saw the militants kill some 1,200 people, triggering the war.
Reuters said Qatar’s foreign ministry said its delegation would go to Cairo Tuesday to resume indirect talks between Israel and Hamas.
