Israel Attacks Rafah, as It Questions Hamas Cease-Fire Terms; Israel studies militant group's proposal, which came soon after Israel urged evacuations ahead of offensive
Monday, May 6, 2024, 4:04 PM ET
By Rory Jones, Anat Peled, Fatima AbdulKarim and Summer Said
Wall Street Journal
TEL AVIV—
Israel began hitting targets in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, after Hamas said it had accepted a proposal to pause the fighting that Israel said fell short of what it could accept.
Israel’s military said on Monday night that it was “conducting targeted strikes against Hamas terror targets in eastern Rafah” hours after Israel warned tens of thousands of Palestinians to evacuate parts of the city ahead of an offensive.
The new proposal incorporated Hamas’s own demands, including a cessation of military operations and a withdrawal of Israeli forces before an exchange of hostages in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
Israel said Monday it was sending a delegation to the mediators to try to reach a deal, even though the “Hamas proposal is far from Israel’s necessary requirements.”
The Israeli war cabinet said it decided to continue “the operation in Rafah in order to exert military pressure on Hamas in order to advance the release of our hostages and the other goals of the war,” according to the prime minister’s office.
The U.S. and Israel have called Hamas the obstacle to a deal for much of the past two weeks. The Hamas move, which set off celebrations in Gaza and in Arab capitals, appeared to be designed to pressure Israel to accept a deal, the Egyptian officials said.
Any deal that includes a permanent end to the war is likely to be rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly said Israel won’t accept those terms.
After Hamas’s announcement, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari reiterated the evacuation plans and said that Israel struck 50 militant targets in the Rafah region on Monday.
Still, Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh worked Monday evening to create diplomatic pressure on Israel to accept a deal, calling Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on the international community to pressure Israel to accept a cease-fire.
The proposal accepted by Hamas includes a cessation of military action by both sides, before an exchange of hostages for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, according to a version of the proposal viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The next stage in the deal would be the implementation of a reconstruction plan for the Gaza Strip over three to five years, including homes and civilian infrastructure and compensation for those affected, all under the supervision of Egypt, Qatar, the United Nations and other countries, according to the proposal. The deal would include a lifting of Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the proposal said.
Talks toward a deal had faltered Sunday in Cairo. Israel faulted Hamas and Monday morning warned some Rafah residents via text messages, phone calls, fliers and media broadcasts in Arabic to move to a designated area farther north ahead of an anticipated offensive to rout the militant group in the southern Gazan city.
Officials familiar with the Cairo talks said the main holdup over the weekend was disagreement over whether there should be a permanent end to the fighting, as demanded by Hamas, or just the temporary pause offered by Israel to recover hostages held in Gaza.
More than one million Palestinians are currently sheltering in Rafah, the only city in Gaza that hasn’t been subject to a full-on Israeli ground invasion. Most of them have been displaced from their homes in other parts of the enclave during the seven-month war, which started after a Hamas-led attack on Israel killed some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, on Oct. 7, according to Israel.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to Palestinian authorities, who don’t specify how many were combatants.
The Israeli military said Monday’s evacuation notice would affect an estimated 100,000 people in Rafah. It didn’t give a deadline for when the affected neighborhoods had to be evacuated or indicate when a broader offensive might start.
Israel says it needs to break up four remaining Hamas battalions located in Rafah to achieve its goal of destroying the group’s ability to attack Israel. The U.S. considers Hamas a terrorist organization, but the Biden administration has also warned Israel that an offensive in Rafah risks endangering more Palestinian lives amid growing international concern over the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the enclave.
President Biden, before departing his home in Wilmington, Del., spoke Monday morning with Netanyahu about a potential invasion of Rafah, White House officials said. The White House said Biden updated the Israeli leader on U.S. efforts to agree to a cease-fire and “reiterated his clear position on Rafah.”
The U.S. has repeatedly called on Israel to avoid an operation in the city unless it has a credible plan to limit the loss of Palestinian civilian life, and last week said it hadn’t yet received those reassurances.
Among Palestinians staying in the affected Rafah neighborhoods, the evacuation notice triggered renewed uncertainty over how to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. The messages called on residents to move to the al-Mawasi area north of Rafah, which Israel has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some residents said they were trying to move out of the area on Monday amid Israeli airstrikes that restarted overnight and continued during the day. The Israeli military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the airstrikes in Rafah.
Aid groups have warned that the area lacks sufficient infrastructure, including accommodation, to shelter large numbers of civilians. The Israeli military said Monday that it had expanded the humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi and that there were field hospitals and tents, as well as food, water, medication and other supplies in the area in anticipation of new arrivals from Rafah.
Mohammad Abu Yousef, who had been sheltering with his family in eastern Rafah, said he was packing up a donkey and carriage to move to Khan Younis, another city further north that has been severely damaged in the fighting. It is the sixth time he has been forced to relocate during the war, said the 46-year-old, who lived in Gaza City before the war.
“We don’t know if it’s going to be safer or not,” Abu Yusef said.
Talks over a cease-fire deal broke down on Sunday in Cairo after Hamas failed to formally respond to an Israeli-Egyptian proposal to pause the fighting in exchange for a release of hostages. The group has repeatedly asked for assurances that Israel won’t attack again after a cease-fire, but Netanyahu has refused to do so.
Arab mediators said Monday that the U.S., Egypt and Qatar were intensifying efforts to strike a cease-fire deal in anticipation of an Israeli offensive in Rafah. The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, flew to Doha from Cairo after the weekend talks. Meanwhile, Egyptian officials invited Hamas back to Cairo on Tuesday, but the militant group hadn’t responded, they said.
The Arab mediators were still hopeful that a Rafah ground operation wasn’t imminent and that Israel’s evacuation notice was a pressure tactic to force Hamas to make concessions, Egyptian officials said Monday.
Egypt called on Israel to practice restraint and avoid escalation at what it said was a sensitive moment in the negotiations for a cease-fire. Its security services were placed on high alert, Egyptian officials said. Concerned that an Israeli military push into Rafah will set off a flood of refugees, Egypt has been building an 8-square-mile walled camp near the border to Gaza that could accommodate more than 100,000 people.
Hamas said Monday that Israel’s preparation for a Rafah assault “reaffirms the Netanyahu government’s determination to pursue a war” against Palestinians. The group called on the international community to stop the offensive, which it said threatens the lives of civilians. Still, Hamas’s armed wing was ready to fight, the group added, and warned an operation wouldn’t be easy for the Israeli military.
Hamas’s military arm on Sunday launched rockets and mortars from near Rafah toward a border crossing controlled by Israel, killing four soldiers and wounding several others, the Israeli military said. Hamas’s military arm claimed responsibility for the attack. Israel said it closed the border crossing, one of two main entryways for aid into Gaza, after the attack.
The closure of the border crossing from Israel to Gaza near Rafah on Sunday will hurt the entry of lifesaving humanitarian aid, the United Nations and other relief groups said Monday. Most aid now enters Gaza via two crossings in the south, and often struggles to reach those who need it most further north. Israel recently opened two separate crossings in northern Gaza.
“We’re mostly very alarmed if the fuel doesn’t come in, and the fuel only comes in through Rafah,” said Tamara Alrifai, director of communications and external relations for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees, the largest aid organization working in Gaza.
The U.N. children’s agency, Unicef, said a military siege in Rafah would pose catastrophic risks to what it said were hundreds of thousands of children sheltering there, many of whom are injured, sick, malnourished, traumatized or living with a disability.
“People in Rafah are now faced with an impossible choice,” said Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, chief executive of the humanitarian group Mercy Corps. “They can stay and face almost-certain bombardment or attempt a perilous journey to an unlivable area with virtually no remaining infrastructure or access to lifesaving aid.”
An offensive in Rafah also presents risks for Israel. Aside from potentially hurting Israel’s relationship with the U.S., the military risks killing Israeli hostages, many of whom are believed to be held in Rafah. More Israeli soldiers losing their lives during an offensive could put public pressure on the Israeli government to end the war.
Israel says 128 hostages who were abducted during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks are still being held in Gaza. At least 35 of those remaining in Gaza, including three Americans, are dead, according to recently updated figures from Israel. Israeli and American officials privately estimate the number of dead hostages could be much higher.
The Israeli military said Monday that it would “continue pursuing Hamas everywhere in Gaza until all the hostages that they are holding in captivity are back home.”
Israel aims to bring in more aid through two alternative land routes in northern Gaza in the coming days to compensate for the closure of the Israeli crossing in the south into Gaza and hopes a U.S.-constructed floating pier will be operational as soon as early next week, Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said Monday.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Israel has responded to U.S. and international pressure by scrapping plans for an all-out assault of Rafah and instead plans to launch its operation in phases, evacuating neighborhoods before moving on to new areas.
Israel’s military said late last month that it had mobilized two reserve brigades, or thousands of soldiers, and deployed them to Gaza. Most of the forces are concentrated in the corridor separating northern and southern Gaza.
Write to Rory Jones at
Rory.Jones@wsj.com and Summer Said at
summer.said@wsj.com
Corrections & AmplificationsHamas said on Monday that it accepted a cease-fire plan that was proposed by Egypt and Qatar. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said it happened on Tuesday. (Corrected on May 6)
Israel Attacks Rafah, as It Questions Hamas Cease-Fire Terms - WSJ
