Israel attacks Rafah in Gaza

Shortly after Hamas on Monday night agreed to a ceasefire proposal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that they would continue the planned ground operation in Rafah.

This is the latest development in Rafah now:

• Israeli tanks have entered the city on the night of Tuesday, according to AP.
• The IDF says on Tuesday morning that it has taken control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing.
• According to the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza, several people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on the night of Tuesday.

A video and photos shared by the IDF show several Israeli tanks and Israeli flags erected on the border.

Hamas: Aid stopped

At 6 o’clock, all aid over the Rafah border is completely stopped, writes Hamas’ spokesperson for the Rafah border, Wael abo Omar, on X.

He writes that the eastern part of Rafah has been continuously bombed since Monday, and that the border crossing has been out of order since Monday afternoon.

– The border crossing is occupied by the Israeli Defense Forces, writes Omar in a message to VG.

The Rafah border has been central throughout the war.

This is where most of the emergency aid has come through, and international aid workers have also used this border crossing to get into the war-torn exclave.

A video published on Tuesday morning in several Palestinian media shows an Israeli tank driving towards the Gaza sign on the Rafah border.

VG has verified the location of the video.

Ordered evacuation

On Monday, the IDF announced that it would evacuate 100,000 Palestinian civilians before an expected military operation.

They were ordered to go to a so-called “expanded humanitarian area” in Khan Younis and al-Mawasi. Israel did not set a time frame for the evacuation.

Around 1.4 million Palestinians, many of them displaced, have been staying in Rafah in recent months.

According to Reuters, the Israeli defense forces say that they are operating in a specific area east of Rafah and claim that most have been evacuated from this area.

Qatar: Negotiations continue

Qatar’s foreign ministry said in a statement Monday night that its negotiating team will return to the negotiating table in Cairo on Tuesday.

They refer to Hamas’ attitudes to the proposal for an agreement as “positive”.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s office also says that Israel will send a delegation to Egypt to explore the possibilities of a deal that they could agree to.

Hamas has also said it will send a delegation to Cairo in the next few days.

This shall be the agreement:

One of the advisers to the political leader of the Hamas movement, Ismail Haniyeh, Taher Al-Nono, tells the Reuters news agency that the ceasefire proposal they agreed to included, among other things, a ceasefire, reconstruction, the return of displaced people and a prisoner exchange.

According to Reuters, these must be parts of the content of the plan that Hamas has agreed to.

Phase 1:

• 42-day ceasefire
• Hamas releases 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons
• Israel implements a partial withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and allows free movement of Palestinians from southern to northern Gaza

Phase 2:

• New period of 42-day ceasefire
• The vast majority of Israeli soldiers are withdrawn from the Gaza Strip
• Hamas releases Israeli reservists and some soldiers held hostage in exchange for Israel releasing more Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails

Phase 3:

• Exchange of dead hostages and Palestinian prisoners
• Implement the reconstruction plans overseen by Qatar, Egypt and the United States
• Ending the complete blockade of the Gaza Strip

Source: NTB

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