\n
Displaced Palestinians flee Rafah in southern Gaza – Copyright AFP Odbayar Urkhensuren<\/small><\/em><\/p>\nIsrael struck targets in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after seizing the main border crossing with Egypt, where negotiators were working to make good on their \u201clast chance\u201d to cement a ceasefire deal.<\/p>\n
After weeks of vowing to launch a ground incursion into the border city of Rafah despite international objections, Israeli tanks moved in Tuesday, capturing the crossing that has served as the main conduit for aid into the besieged Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n
The White House condemned the interruption to humanitarian deliveries, with a senior US official later revealing Washington had paused a shipment of bombs last week after Israel failed to address US concerns over its Rafah plans.<\/p>\n
The push into the southern city, which is packed with displaced civilians, came as negotiators and mediators met in Cairo to try and hammer out a hostage release deal and truce in the seven-month war between Israel and the militant group Hamas.<\/p>\n
A senior Hamas official, requesting anonymity, warned this would be Israel\u2019s \u201clast chance\u201d to free the scores of hostages still in militants\u2019 hands.<\/p>\n
Egypt\u2019s state-linked Al-Qahera News reported Tuesday that mediators from Qatar, the United States and Egypt were meeting with a Hamas delegation.<\/p>\n
It later reported that \u201call parties\u201d including Israel had agreed to resume talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier that his country\u2019s delegation was already in Cairo.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s close ally and chief military backer the United States said it was hopeful the two sides could \u201cclose the remaining gaps\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s coming to the table,\u201d US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. \u201cThat\u2019s not insignificant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Ongoing strikes \u2013<\/p>\n
Despite the Cairo talks, witnesses and a local hospital reported Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight into Wednesday morning, including around Rafah.<\/p>\n
One strike on an apartment in devastated Gaza City killed seven members of the same family and wounded several other people early Wednesday, the Al-Ahli hospital said.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s Rafah operation began hours after Hamas announced late Monday it had accepted a truce proposal \u2014 one Israel said was \u201cfar\u201d from what it had previously agreed to.<\/p>\n
Still, the announcement prompted cheering crowds to take to the streets in Gaza, though Rafah resident Abu Aoun al-Najjar said the \u201cindescribable joy\u201d was short-lived.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt turned out to be a bloody night,\u201d he told AFP, as more Israeli bombardments \u201cstole our joy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Aid blocked, bombs \u2018paused\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
Israeli army footage showed tanks taking \u201coperational control\u201d of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu described the operation as \u201ca very important step\u201d in denying Hamas \u201ca passage that was essential for establishing its reign of terror\u201d.<\/p>\n
But UN humanitarian office spokesman Jens Laerke said Israel had also denied his organisation access to both Rafah and Kerem Shalom \u2014 another major aid crossing on the border with Israel.<\/p>\n
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Israel to \u201cimmediately\u201d reopen both crossings, calling the closures \u201cespecially damaging to an already dire humanitarian situation\u201d.<\/p>\n
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre offered a similar view, calling the closures \u201cunacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said the Kerem Shalom crossing\u00a0was expected to reopen on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Hours later, a senior Biden administration official speaking on condition of anonymity revealed the United States had \u201cpaused one shipment of weapons last week\u201d after Israel failed to address its concerns over the Rafah incursion, which Washington has vocally opposed.<\/p>\n
The shipment had consisted of more than 3,500 heavy-duty bombs, the official said.<\/p>\n
It was the first time that Biden had acted on a warning he gave Netanyahu in April \u2014 namely that US policy on Gaza would depend on how Israel treated civilians.<\/p>\n
The US official said Washington was \u201cespecially focused\u201d on the use of the heaviest 2,000-pound (907 kilogram) bombs \u201cand the impact they could have in dense urban settings\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, the official added: \u201cWe have not made a final determination on how to proceed with this shipment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pentagon, meanwhile, said the US military had completed construction of an aid pier off Gaza\u2019s coast, but weather conditions mean it is currently unsafe to move the two-part facility into place.<\/p>\n
The US Central Command announced its leader, General Michael Erik Kurilla, had been in Egypt on Monday and Tuesday to \u201cgain a deeper understanding of the perspectives of Egyptian military leaders on regional security and the status of humanitarian aid\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Until the first hostage returns\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas\u2019s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.<\/p>\n
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a retaliatory offensive that has so far killed at least 34,789 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, the Hamas-run territory\u2019s health ministry said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Militants also took around 250 people hostage on October 7, of whom Israel estimates 128 remain in Gaza, including 36 who are believed to be dead.<\/p>\n
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel might \u201cdeepen\u201d its Gaza operation if negotiations failed to bring the hostages home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis operation will continue until we eliminate Hamas in the Rafah area and the entire Gaza Strip, or until the first hostage returns,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Egypt and Qatar have taken the lead in the truce talks, with Hamas saying Monday it had told officials from both countries of its \u201capproval of their proposal regarding a ceasefire\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hamas member Khalil al-Hayya told the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel that the proposal involved a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the return of Palestinians displaced by the war and a hostage-prisoner exchange, with the goal of a \u201cpermanent ceasefire\u201d.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s office called the proposal \u201cfar from Israel\u2019s essential demands\u201d, but said the government would still send negotiators to Cairo.<\/p>\n
International alarm has been building about the consequences of an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah, where the United Nations says 1.4 million people are sheltering.<\/p>\n
But Netanyahu had repeatedly vowed to send in ground troops regardless of any truce, saying Israel needs to root out remaining Hamas forces.<\/p>\n
Aid groups have warned that the coastal \u201chumanitarian area\u201d of Al-Muwasi \u2014 where Israel\u2019s military told people to go before it launched its Rafah operation \u2014 is unprepared to handle the influx.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Israel launches fresh Gaza strikes as negotiators work towards truce
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#Israel #launches #fresh #Gaza #strikes #negotiators #work #truce<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Displaced Palestinians flee Rafah in southern Gaza – Copyright AFP Odbayar Urkhensuren Israel struck targets…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[3289,446,369,646,683,2206,682,2280],"yoast_head":"\n
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