'Seun Ibukun-Oni, Abuja
DAILY COURIER - At least 12 people have been reported killed in attacks on Rafah overnight as the Associated Press news agency reports that Israeli tanks have pushed close to Rafah’s border crossing with Egypt.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh says the group has accepted a Gaza ceasefire proposal put forward by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
The Israeli military has killed several Palestinians in separate air attacks across Gaza, the Wafa news agency reports.
An Israeli bomb has struck a house in central Rafah’s administrative district, killing one person and injuring others, Wafa reports. Earlier we reported that at least 12 people were killed in three separate strikes on Rafah, as the Israeli military intensifies its attacks on the city in southern Gaza.
Wafa also reports that three people were killed in an Israeli air attack on a house in the al-Sabra neighbourhood south of Gaza City, while another person was killed when an Israeli bomb struck a house in the al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City.
Hamas says it has agreed to an Egyptian-Qatari proposal to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza, but Israel says the deal falls short of its demands.
According to a copy of the proposal that Hamas says it has agreed to, there will be three phases to ending Israel’s war on Gaza.
In phase one, there will be a temporary cessation of hostilities between Hamas and Israel as well as a withdrawal of Israeli forces to the east and the current border region between Israel and the Palestinian territory.
During the same phase, Israeli warplanes and drones would also stop flying over Gaza for 10 hours each day, and for 12 hours on days when captives are to be released.
Israeli tanks enter Rafah, push close to border crossing with Egypt: Report
A Palestinian security official and an Egyptian official have told the Associated Press (AP) news agency that Israeli tanks have entered Rafah, reaching to within 200 meters (almost 220 yards) from Rafah’s border crossing with neighbouring Egypt.
The Egyptian official told AP that the operation appeared to be limited in scope. The official, as well as Al-Aqsa TV, said Israeli officials had informed the Egyptians that its forces would withdraw after completing the operation.
The Israeli military declined to comment on the reported tank incursion.
AP said the Egyptian official, located on the Egyptian side of Rafah, and the Palestinian security official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the press.
‘Starvation is the point’: Israeli assault on Rafah puts aid in jeopardy for Gaza’s starving
Antony Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory, which focuses on Israel’s military-technological complex, said the Israeli military’s attacks on Rafah threatens to exacerbate the famine being imposed on Gaza.
“Every aid organisation is saying for months that there is a literal famine going on in the northern part of Gaza and many other parts of Gaza, and a key entry point for the aid that is getting in is … Rafah,” Loewenstein told Al Jazeera.
“So if that shuts, what that essentially shows – which has been clear for months – is that starvation is the point.
“I think for a lot of people in the international community the idea that a state – that we see as democratic … would deliberately starve a Palestinian population is seen as so outrageous…. But in fact, that’s what they are doing right now.
“Even the areas… that Israel has claimed as so-called safe zones – and there are no safe zones in Gaza – are being bombed.
“And yet again, we see that the US and frankly much of the international community… will not put a brake on Israel, which they could.”
Rafah ground invasion would be ‘intolerable’, says UN chief
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that a ground invasion of Rafah would be “intolerable” and called on Israel and Hamas “to go an extra mile” to reach a truce deal.
“This is an opportunity that cannot be missed, and a ground invasion in Rafah would be intolerable because of its devastating humanitarian consequences, and because of its destabilising impact in the region,” Guterres said ahead of a meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella in New York.
Hamas said on Monday that it had accepted a Qatar- and Egypt-brokered deal, but Israel said the agreement did not meet some of its key demands.
Israel’s war cabinet also announced that the Israeli military is pushing ahead with an assault on Rafah “in order to apply military pressure on Hamas”.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has warned that Israel is “jeopardizing the deal by bombing Rafah”.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
