Battles rage around Rafah
Israel bombarded the overcrowded Gaza city of Rafah, as talks resumed yesterday in Cairo aimed at agreeing the terms of a truce in the seven-month offensive.
Hamas said its fighters were battling Israeli troops in the east of the city, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge from combat elsewhere in the enclave.
Palestinians were on the move again, abandoning neighbourhoods of the southern Gaza city and leaving them as ghost towns. The World Health Organization said yesterday that there is only enough fuel to run health services in the south of Gaza for three more days.
A senior US official said President Joe Biden's administration paused a shipment of weapons to Israel last week in an apparent response to the expected Rafah offensive. This would be the first such delay since the Biden administration offered its full support to Israel after October 7 offensive, reports Reuters.
A senior Israeli official, asking not to be named, said "if we have to fight with our fingernails, then we'll do what we have to do."
Israeli forces on Tuesday seized the main border crossing between Gaza and Egypt in Rafah, cutting off a vital route for aid. Residents said tanks, which had moved in to take control of the crossing, had not entered the built-up areas of the city and gun battles were still outside the city limits.
Armed groups of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah said in separate statements that gunfights continued in the central Gaza Strip, while residents of northern Gaza reported heavy Israeli tank shelling against eastern areas of Gaza City and districts.
Gaza health workers yesterday uncovered at least 49 bodies in new mass grave at Al-Shifa hospital, a medical official and Hamas authorities told AFP.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that at least 34,844 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory in Israel's offensive in Gaza. The tally includes at least 55 deaths in the past 24 hours.
Despite the latest Israeli assault in Rafah, the United States said it believes a revised Hamas ceasefire proposal may lead to a breakthrough in the ceasefire impasse.
In Cairo, all five delegations participating in ceasefire talks - Hamas, Israel, the US, Egypt and Qatar - reacted positively to the resumption of negotiations, and meetings were continuing yesterday, two Egyptian sources said.
CIA Director Bill Burns was scheduled to travel from Cairo to Israel later yesterday to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli officials, a source familiar with his travel said.
Israel army, meanwhile, said it reopened the Kerem Shalom border crossing to humanitarian aid for Gaza yesterday, four days after closing it in response to a rocket attack that killed four soldiers.
"Trucks from Egypt carrying humanitarian aid, including food, water, shelter equipment, medicine and medical equipment donated by the international community are already arriving at the crossing," the army said.
- US pauses a shipment of weapons to Israel
- All delegations participate in ceasefire talks in Cairo
- Death toll in enclave rises to 34,844
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