Hamas warns truce deal unlikely amid Israeli Rafah push

Hamas official Osama Hamdan has warned that if Israel’s military aggression continues in Rafah, there will be no ceasefire deal.

Hamdan’s comments were made during a press conference in Beirut as a delegation from Hamas, the group that runs the Gaza Strip, arrived in Cairo from Doha to continue ceasefire negotiations, a statement from the group said on Tuesday.

“We affirm that the military operation in Rafah, if carried out by Israel, will not be a picnic for the (Israeli) army,” Hamdan said.

“The ball is in (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s court,” he added, saying that the latest ceasefire proposal which Hamas agreed to “represents the minimum that responds to the demands of our people and our resistance.”

Israeli forces seized the main border crossing between Egypt and southern Gaza earlier on Tuesday, shutting down an aid route into the Palestinian enclave that is already on the brink of famine.

“The Rafah crossing was and will remain a purely Egyptian-Palestinian crossing,” Hamdan said.

Israeli army footage showed tanks rolling through the Rafah crossing complex and the Israeli flag raised on the Gaza side.

Netanyahu said seizing the crossing was a “very significant step” towards its stated aim of destroying Hamas’ military capabilities.

Residents reported heavy tank shelling on Tuesday evening in some areas of eastern Rafah.

“They have gone crazy, tanks are firing shells and smoke bombs cover the skies and with smoke over al-Salam and Jneinah neighborhoods,” said Emad Joudat, 55, a Gaza city resident displaced in Rafah.

“I am now seriously thinking of heading north, maybe to the central Gaza area. If they move further into Rafah it will be the mother of massacres,” he told Reuters via a chat app.

United Nations and other international aid agencies said the closing of the two crossings into southern Gaza - Rafah and Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom - had virtually cut the enclave off from outside aid and very few stores were available inside.

Red Crescent sources in Egypt said shipments had completely halted.

As well as a key entry point for aid, the crossing was the only exit point for those needing to leave Gaza for medical treatment that is no longer available in the enclave.

Lama Abu Holi, 8, has been in al-Aqsa hospital for a month, waiting for a chance to leave for treatment for her injured legs.

“Today my name was at the border, and I should travel to get my legs treated,” she said, holding a toy in her hospital bed.

“They hurt. I am supposed to have an operation. Because the border crossing is shut today, I could not travel.”

The seizure of the Rafah crossing came despite weeks of calls from the US, other countries and international bodies for Israel to hold off from a big offensive in the Rafah area - said by Israel to be the Hamas fighters’ last stronghold but also the refuge of more than a million displaced Palestinian civilians.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to Israel and Hamas to spare no effort to get a truce deal and urged Israel to reopen the border crossings immediately, saying Gaza risks running out of fuel on Tuesday evening.

“Make no mistake - a full-scale assault on Rafah would be a human catastrophe,” Guterres said.

Hamas said late on Monday it had told Qatari and Egyptian mediators it had agreed to a ceasefire proposal but Netanyahu said the proposal falls “far short” of Israel’s demands.

However, the various players appeared willing to talk again on Tuesday.

An official briefed on the talks said the Israeli delegation had arrived in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

Hamas said in a statement its delegation had arrived in Cairo from Doha to follow up on ceasefire talks.