Israel struck targets in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after seizing the main border crossing with Egypt, where negotiators were working to cement a ceasefire deal.

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.

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.

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.

A senior Hamas official, requesting anonymity, warned this would be Israel’s “last chance” to free the scores of hostages still in militants’ hands.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier that his country’s delegation was already in Cairo.

Israel’s close ally and chief military backing the United States said it was hopeful the two sides could “close the remaining gaps”.

“Everybody’s coming to the table,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. “That’s not insignificant.”
Despite the Cairo talks, witnesses and a local hospital reported Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight into Wednesday morning, including around Rafah.

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.

Israel’s Rafah operation began hours after Hamas announced late Monday it had accepted a truce proposal — one Israel said was “far” from what it had previously agreed to.

Still, the announcement prompted cheering crowds to take to the streets in Gaza, though Rafah resident Abu Aoun al-Najjar said the “indescribable joy” was short-lived.

“It turned out to be a bloody night,” he told AFP, as more Israeli bombardments “stole our joy”.

Israeli army footage showed tanks taking “operational control” of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing on Tuesday.

Netanyahu described the operation as “a very important step” in denying Hamas “a passage that was essential for establishing its reign of terror”.

But UN humanitarian office spokesman Jens Laerke said Israel had also denied his organisation access to both Rafah and Kerem Shalom — another major aid crossing on the border with Israel.

Aid groups have warned that the coastal “humanitarian area” of Al-Muwasi — where Israel’s military told people to go before it launched its Rafah operation — is unprepared to handle the influx.
 
 
AFP