LAST UPDATE | 7 May
ALL PARTIES, INCLUDING Israel, have reportedly agreed to return to negotiations on a truce in Gaza.
Al-Qahera News, a site linked to Egyptian intelligence services, cited a “senior official” saying that “all parties had agreed to return to the negotiating table” for talks with Hamas, which also include Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators.
The talks are happening as people in Gaza suffer in horrendous conditions in Rafah, where the United Nations said earlier that Israeli forces denied its staff access through the southern Rafah border crossing after the army said it had established “operational control” of the passage overnight.
Footage broadcast on Israeli media showed an Israeli flag flying on the Gaza side of the crossing, though the Israeli army refused to comment on the flag.
“We currently do not have any physical presence at the Rafah crossing as our access … has been denied by COGAT,” the UN’s Jens Laerke told a press conference in Geneva, referring to the Israeli agency that oversees supplies into the Palestinian territories.
Last night, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was carrying out “targeted strikes” in eastern Rafah, where around 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge from the fighting further to the north. Among them are roughly 600,000 children.
The Kuwaiti hospital said 23 people were killed and the Najjar hospital said another four people were killed.
The IDF said 20 Hamas fighters were killed in the operation and claimed to have discovered three tunnel shafts.
In a post on X this evening, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said it is “completely unacceptable that Israel has taken over Rafah crossing”.
“Gaza in the grip of famine & the crossing is now closed to vital humanitarian aid,” Martin said.
“An invasion of Rafah will result in disastrous consequences. An immediate ceasefire & release of hostages is urgently needed.”
Completely unacceptable that Israel has taken over Rafah crossing. Gaza in the grip of famine & the crossing is now closed to vital humanitarian aid.
— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) May 7, 2024
An invasion of Rafah will result in disastrous consequences. An immediate ceasefire & release of hostages is urgently needed.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported “thousands” of Gazans leaving the city’s east.
Israel’s military told those in eastern Rafah to head for the “expanded humanitarian area” at Al-Mawasi on the coast.
But aid groups said Al-Mawasi was not ready for such an influx. Throughout its bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Israel has issued warnings to people telling them to evacuate certain areas but people and humanitarian organisations have repeatedly said that nowhere is safe in the territory.
Asked how many people should move, an Israeli military spokesman said: “The estimate is around 100,000 people.”
The Red Crescent said the designated evacuation zone hosts around 250,000 people, many of them already uprooted from elsewhere.
The crossing, just south of Gaza City, was taken over by Israeli tanks that are part of an armoured brigade, the Israeli Defence Forces and Palestinian officials said.
Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority, said the crossing, the main entry of humanitarian aid to the wartorn strip, was out of service.
“The whole western area (of Rafah) has become a theatre of operations since yesterday. The bombardment has not stopped,” said Abu Omar, adding that crews have fled the facilities because of the bombing.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said that an assault on Rafah would be “a strategic mistake, a political calamity and a humanitarian nightmare”. He urged both parties to secure a ceasefire deal.
Guterres also appealed to “all those with influence over Israel” to do everything within their power to hep avert “even more tragedy”.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said of the Israeli assault and evacuation plans: “I am afraid that this is going to cause again a lot of casualties, civilian casualties, whatever they say”.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said that the invasion of Rafah will have “disastrous effects for over a million people”.
The medical NGO described conditions in the overcrowded city as “extremely precarious” and that further displacement of refugees would further hamper access to basic necessities like drinking water.
MSF said the Israeli offensive will do even more damage to the health system, which is barely functioning.
The Israeli siege, bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip that came after the Hamas-led attack last October has now killed 34,789 people, mostly women and children.
The US military has completed construction of the Gaza aid pier but weather conditions mean it is currently unsafe to move the two-part facility into place, the Pentagon said today.
The pier – which the US military started constructing last month and which will cost at least $320 million – is aimed at boosting deliveries of desperately needed humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
It was reported this evening that three Senate aids and a House aid told news outlet Politico that the Biden administration’s report on whether Israel violated US and international humanitarian law during its conflict in Gaza has been delayed indefinitely.
Israel’s overnight assault came just hours after Hamas announced its acceptance of an Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal. Israel rejected the deal but said it would continue negotiations.
A senior Hamas official, speaking to the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity, said earlier that Israel must decide whether it accepts or “obstructs” a truce.
Egyptian officials said the deal called for a ceasefire in stages starting with a limited hostage release and partial Israeli troop pullbacks within Gaza. The two sides would also negotiate a “permanent calm” that would lead to a full hostage release and greater Israeli withdrawal from the territory, they said.
Qatar sent a delegation to Cairo today to try resume negotiations in the “hope that the talks will culminate in reaching an agreement for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip”.
Hamas had been seeking clearer guarantees for its key demand of a permanent ceasefire, which is has been demanding for months, and a complete Israeli withdrawal in return for the release of all hostages, according to Egyptian officials.
Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have repeatedly rejected the prospect of a permanent ceasefire, vowing to keep up their campaign until Hamas is destroyed.
Last week, Netanyahu said that the Israeli assault on Rafah would go ahead “with or without” a ceasefire deal, despite its closest ally the United States warning against it.
One Hamas official, requesting anonymity to discuss the negotiations, warned that “this will be the last chance for Netanyahu and the families of the Zionist prisoners to return their children”.
Thousands of Israelis rallied around the country tonight calling for an immediate agreement.
About 1,000 protesters gathered near the defence headquarters in Tel Aviv, where police tried to clear the road.
In Jerusalem, about 100 protesters marched toward Netanyahu’s residence with a banner reading: “The blood is on your hands”.
With reporting from Press Association and AFP
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