The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday that it took control of the Gazan side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt overnight, marking its first ground incursion into the southern Gazan city. In an address marking the Holocaust Days of Remembrance, President Biden said that “there is no place on any campus in America, any place in America for antisemitism or hate speech or threats of violence of any kind.” In his remarks, Biden avoided any explicit criticism of Israel’s conduct during the war in Gaza.
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End of carouselHamas said it agreed to a Qatari-Egyptian cease-fire and hostage-release proposal Monday, and Israel said it would send mediators to Egypt on Tuesday to negotiate, renewing hopes for a pause in fighting even as Israel vowed to press on with its military operation in Rafah. A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Tuesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas’s proposal was designed to “undermine” Israel’s entry into Rafah. “That didn’t happen,” he said in a statement Tuesday, adding that the proposal from Hamas fell “well below Israel’s essential requirements.”
Hamas called Israel’s “storming” of the Rafah border crossing overnight a “dangerous escalation.” The group accused Israel of trying to “exacerbate the humanitarian situation in the Strip by closing” the crossing. Wael Abu Omar, a Gaza border official, said travel and the flow of aid into the Strip had “stopped completely.”
At a news conference in Beirut on Tuesday, Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the group had made enough concessions in the Qatari-Egyptian brokered talks, and warned that there would be no cease-fire if Israel continued its incursion into Rafah. He said that “the ball is now first in the court of Netanyahu.”
Israeli authorities said mortars were launched from the area of Rafah toward the Kerem Shalom border crossing Tuesday. The barrage caused no damage or casualties, the IDF said. Hamas claimed responsibility for a Sunday attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing that killed four Israeli soldiers.
At least 34,789 people have been killed and 78,204 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.
Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 267 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza.
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End of carouselHamas said it agreed to a Qatari-Egyptian cease-fire and hostage-release proposal Monday, and Israel said it would send mediators to Egypt on Tuesday to negotiate, renewing hopes for a pause in fighting even as Israel vowed to press on with its military operation in Rafah. A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Tuesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas’s proposal was designed to “undermine” Israel’s entry into Rafah. “That didn’t happen,” he said in a statement Tuesday, adding that the proposal from Hamas fell “well below Israel’s essential requirements.”
Hamas called Israel’s “storming” of the Rafah border crossing overnight a “dangerous escalation.” The group accused Israel of trying to “exacerbate the humanitarian situation in the Strip by closing” the crossing. Wael Abu Omar, a Gaza border official, said travel and the flow of aid into the Strip had “stopped completely.”
At a news conference in Beirut on Tuesday, Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the group had made enough concessions in the Qatari-Egyptian brokered talks, and warned that there would be no cease-fire if Israel continued its incursion into Rafah. He said that “the ball is now first in the court of Netanyahu.”
Israeli authorities said mortars were launched from the area of Rafah toward the Kerem Shalom border crossing Tuesday. The barrage caused no damage or casualties, the IDF said. Hamas claimed responsibility for a Sunday attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing that killed four Israeli soldiers.
At least 34,789 people have been killed and 78,204 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.
Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 267 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza.
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