Earlier today, amidst heavy fighting, Israeli troops have seized the (only operating) Rafah border crossing in Gaza between Palestine and Egypt. At least 27 people died during the hostilities that lasted for several hours.
Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official, has issued a warning that if Israel continues its military operation in Rafah, there will be no ceasefire agreement. Hamdan made these comments during a press conference in Beirut, where a delegation from Hamas had arrived in Cairo from Doha to continue negotiations for a ceasefire.
He emphasized that if Israel carries out the military operation in Rafah, it will not be an easy task for the Israeli army. Hamdan also stated that the latest ceasefire proposal put forward by Hamas is the minimum that meets the demands of the Palestinian people and their resistance.
Israeli forces have recently seized the main border crossing between Egypt and southern Gaza, which Israel and the US claim is a limited offensive rather than a full-scale operation on the city.
Hamdan asserted that the Rafah Crossing is and will remain a purely Egyptian-Palestinian crossing, despite reports suggesting that Israel aims to remove Hamas’s control of the crossing to prevent smuggling activities.
The US State Department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, initially commented that Israel’s seizure of the Rafah crossing appears to be a prelude to a major military operation. However, he later retracted this statement, clarifying that they do not know if it is a prelude or not.
Miller stated that the current Israeli military operation seems to be limited to seizing control of the Rafah crossing and is not targeting civilian areas that have been ordered to be evacuated. The US continues to oppose a major military operation in Rafah.
In the meantime during his visit to the Gaza Strip border near Rafah, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant conveyed to the troops that he had instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to capture the Rafah crossing and fulfill their mission. Gallant emphasized that the operation would persist until Hamas is eradicated from both the Rafah area and the entire Gaza Strip, or until the safe return of the last hostage.