Middle East conflict live updates: IDF takes control of Rafah border crossing; aid flow halted, official says

The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday that it took control of the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt overnight, marking its first ground incursion into the southern Gazan city. Wael Abu Omar, a Gaza border official, said travel and the flow of aid into the Strip “stopped completely” as a result. Hamas said it agreed to a Qatari-Egyptian cease-fire and hostage-release proposal, and Israel said it would send mediators to Egypt on Tuesday to negotiate a deal, renewing hopes for a pause in fighting even as it vowed to press on with its military operation in Rafah.

Here’s what to know

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas’s proposal was designed to “undermine” Israel’s entry into Rafah. “That didn’t happen,” he said in a statement Tuesday, adding that the proposal from Hamas fell “well below Israel’s essential requirements.”
• Hamas called Israel’s “storming” of the Rafah border crossing overnight a “dangerous escalation.” The group accused Israel of trying to “exacerbate the humanitarian situation in the Strip by closing” the crossing, through which aid flows into Gaza and patients leave for medical treatment in other countries.
• A Hamas delegation will arrive in Cairo on Tuesday to continue negotiations over a cease-fire and hostage-release deal, an Egyptian former official said. Netanyahu said an Israeli delegation was also traveling to Egypt. “I instructed the mid-level delegation that left for Cairo to remain firm on the conditions necessary for the release of our hostages and the essential requirements for the security of Israel,” he said.
• Israeli authorities said mortars were launched from the area of Rafah toward the Kerem Shalom border crossing Tuesday. The barrage caused no damage or casualties, the IDF said. Hamas claimed responsibility for a Sunday attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing that killed four Israeli soldiers.
• At least 34,789 people have been killed and 78,204 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.
• Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 267 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza.

1:32 PM: Biden focuses on Hamas, avoids criticism of Israel in address

Middle East conflict live updates: IDF takes control of Rafah border crossing; aid flow halted, official says

President Biden delivered forceful remarks Tuesday morning focusing on the Hamas attacks on Israel and denouncing the “ferocious surge of antisemitism in America and around the world,” while avoiding any explicit criticism of Israel’s response.

Biden’s address marking the Holocaust Days of Remembrance came at a fraught moment, as Israel’s seizure of a border crossing draws criticism for blocking aid to Palestinians and prompts fears of a broader attack on the city of Rafah. But Biden largely avoided mentioning the humanitarian crisis in Gaza that has reverberated domestically on college campuses and protests at almost every public event Biden holds.

“There is no place on any campus in America, any place in America for antisemitism or hate speech or threats of violence of any kind,” he said. “Whether against Jews or anyone else.”

“We recommit to heading and heeding the lessons that one of the darkest chapters in human history to revitalize and realize the responsibility of never again,” he said.

“This ancient hatred of Jews didn’t begin with the Holocaust, didn’t end with the Holocaust either — or after, even after our victory in World War II,” he later said. “This hatred continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people in the world and requires our continued vigilance and outspokenness. That hatred was brought to life on October 7th.”

He said the world should remember the lessons of the Holocaust and who is responsible for the current turmoil in the Middle East.

“Now, here we are not 75 years later but just seven and a half months later, and people are already forgetting or already forget that Hamas unleashed this terror,” he said.

Like speakers before him — including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) — the focus was almost exclusively on the Holocaust and antisemitism.

“The effort to combat antisemitism is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. It’s an American issue,” Jeffries said. “We must crush antisemitism along with racism, sexism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, homophobia and all other forms of hatred together. That’s the American way. Together and together, we will defeat antisemitism with the fierce urgency of now.”

Johnson criticized those who have questioned Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks.

“There are some who would prefer to criticize Israel and lecture them on their military tactics,” he said. “They would rather do that than punish the terrorists who perpetrated these horrific crimes.”

By: Matt Viser

10:48 AM: Rafah campaign will be ‘humanitarian nightmare,’ U.N. chief says amid aid group warnings

U.N. Secretary General António Guterres speaks during an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on April 14, 2024, in New York.

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres told reporters Tuesday that “things are moving in the wrong direction” in Gaza, adding he was “disturbed and distressed” by renewed Israeli military activity in the border city of Rafah where more than 1 million Palestinians have taken shelter.

“Even the best friends of Israel are clear: An assault on Rafah would be a strategic mistake … and a humanitarian nightmare,” he said.

Guterres said aid crossings at Rafah, on Gaza’s border with Egypt, and Kerem Shalom, on the enclave’s southern border with Israel, “must be reopened immediately.” He stressed that “there is no safe place in Gaza” for civilians and urged Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement, calling it a “decisive moment … for the fate of the entire region.”

“It would be tragic if weeks of intense diplomatic activity for peace in Gaza yields no cease-fire,” Guterres said.

Aid groups working in Gaza have said they are worried about the humanitarian cost of an Israeli military operation in Rafah, where many of the groups have relocated after being pushed out of other parts of the strip by the fighting.

“We’re very concerned,” Jeremy Hopkins, the representative for the U.N. children’s agency in Egypt, told The Washington Post. The only solution is a cessation of hostilities now, and that’s the safest thing for children in the Gaza Strip,” he added.

The Israel Defense Forces took control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt overnight. On Monday, the IDF ordered about 100,000 civilians in parts of Rafah to evacuate “immediately” to a humanitarian zone, which IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari described as part of “preparation for ground operations in the area.” Israel has vowed to push into Rafah to root out the last Hamas battalions it says are hiding there.

As a result, both Rafah and Kerem Shalom — the main crossings through which aid passes into Gaza — have been closed by the fighting, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials.

On Tuesday, David Mencer, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister’s office, said in a briefing that Israel has encouraged international organizations working in the area of Rafah “to temporarily evacuate prior to the beginning of the operation.”

Many aid groups shifted their center of operations to Rafah months ago, as it was considered relatively stable compared with other parts of the strip. On Tuesday, several said they intend to stay as long as possible to deliver aid to people in need. “We are staying where we are inside Rafah,” Sam Rose, director of planning at the U.N. Relief and Works Agency that aids Palestinian refugees, told Al Jazeera. “The issue is our ability to continue delivering over any sustained duration of time if those crossing points remain closed.”

Nebal Farsakh, a spokeswoman for the Palestine Red Crescent Society, told The Post that the medical charity ended up in Rafah after being forced to evacuate its offices in Gaza City and Khan Younis. Now, with the threat of a full-scale incursion looming, “we will continue to provide our emergency medical services in Rafah as well as other services as much as we can, but the situation is very dangerous,” she said.

By: Claire Parker, Annabelle Timsit and Adela Suliman

10:43 AM: What’s happening in Rafah, as Israeli forces take control of crossing

A Palestinian man watches as smoke rises after Israeli strikes while Israeli forces launch a ground and air operation in the eastern part of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, May 7, 2024.

Until recently, Rafah, a small city in the southern Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt, was one of the last places of refuge during Israel’s war in the enclave. It quintupled in population as displaced people from the northern parts of the Strip sought safety in the roughly 25-square-mile area.

On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said it has taken “operational control” of the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

A day earlier, it ordered tens of thousands of civilians to evacuate parts of Rafah “immediately,” saying it would act with “extreme force” in those areas. The move comes in preparation for a ground offensive that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long vowed to launch despite international pushback.

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By: Jennifer Hassan, Adam Taylor, Niha Masih and Júlia Ledur

10:26 AM: IDF takes ‘operational control’ of Gaza side of Rafah crossing

The Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, seen in October 2023. (Loay Ayyoub for The Washington Post)

TEL AVIV — An Israel Defense Forces official said Tuesday morning that Israel has established “operational control” of the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, a strategic landmark that is expected to be at the center of Israel’s long-planned next battleground — the city that has for months served as shelter for an estimated 1.4 million Palestinians.

The official, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the IDF, said the overnight operation involved special ground troops and the Israeli air force. He said it resulted in the killing of 20 Gazan combatants, as well as the discovery of Hamas infrastructure that included three operational tunnels. The operation is ongoing, he said, with Israeli soldiers remaining in the area to search for more such infrastructure.

Wael Abu Omar, a Gaza border official, said travel and the flow of aid into the Strip via Rafah have “stopped completely” as a result. A former Egyptian official familiar with cease-fire negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation, said the Israeli military activity at the crossing was not coordinated with Egypt.

The IDF said it evacuated the “vast majority” of residents and staff of international aid organizations near the crossing. The Washington Post could not independently verify this claim.

“It was a very targeted operation, very limited in scope against a specific target. We have indications that the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing was being used by Hamas,” the official said, referring to projectiles fired from the area on Sunday, which killed four Israeli soldiers at the Kerem Shalom crossing.

The official said the IDF planned to enable the entry of humanitarian aid into Gazalater Tuesday, but that Kerem Shalom has remained closed since the attack for security reasons.

Hamas called the Israeli move a “dangerous escalation against a civilian facility” and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of deliberately intending to “disrupt mediation efforts for a cease-fire and the release of prisoners.”

In a Tuesday statement, Gaza’s Interior Ministry said the military operation at the Rafah crossing “represents a policy of collective punishment … and threatens the lives of thousands of wounded and sick people.”

“The Rafah crossing is a civilian service facility and constitutes the main lifeline for citizens in the Gaza Strip. The crossing does not represent any threat to the Israeli occupation,” it said.

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer told reporters later Tuesday that the war cabinet had “unanimously decided Israel will continue its operation in Rafah in order to apply military pressure to allow us to release our hostages.”

He added that a cease-fire proposal accepted by Hamas late Monday remained “far from Israel’s core demands.” But Israel had dispatched a delegation to Cairo on Tuesday to “maximize any chance of an agreement on terms acceptable to Israel,” he said.

Mahfouz reported from Cairo. Susannah George, Adela Suliman and Lior Soroka contributed reporting.

By: Shira Rubin and Heba Farouk Mahfouz

9:08 AM: Egypt denounces Israel’s military operation in Rafah

Smoke rises after Israeli strikes in the eastern part of Rafah on May 7.

CAIRO — Egypt “vehemently” condemned Israel’s overnight military operation to take control of the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing at Egypt’s border, adding to the chorus of international condemnation of the move by Israeli forces to close in on the southern Gazan city.

“Egypt vehemently denounces the Israeli military operation in Palestinian Rafah, which resulted in Israeli [taking] control of the Palestinian side of the border,” the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday. “Egypt considers this to be a dangerous escalation that risks the lives of more than a million Palestinians that depend primarily on this crossing.”

The Rafah crossing is the main route out of Gaza — including for critically ill patients in need of medical care in Egypt or elsewhere — and a main entry point for humanitarian aid into the Strip.

Egypt in the statement called on Israeli authorities to practice “self restraint” and warned them against actions that “could threaten the fate of tireless efforts exerted to reach a permanent cease-fire” in Gaza. Egypt and Qatar have mediated and hosted months-long negotiations between Israel and Hamas to reach a cease-fire agreement and hostage-release deal.

Other regional powers also denounced Israel’s actions in Rafah. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry warned of the “dangers” of Israeli forces targeting Rafah and accused Israel of “blatant violations” of international law and resolutions calling for an end to the war in Gaza. Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz accused Israel of committing a war crime by attacking Rafah by land. Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said an “attack on Rafah threatens another massacre,” as he called for United Nations Security Council intervention. “[Benjamin] Netanyahu must face real consequence,” he added of Israel’s prime minister.

Meanwhile, Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, also said he feared the humanitarian toll of Israel’s operation in Rafah, despite “all the requests of the international community, the U.S., the European Union member states, everybody asking Netanyahu not to attack Rafah,” he said Tuesday in Brussels, ahead of a meeting of E.U. development ministers to discuss Gaza and other issues.

“I am afraid that this is going to cause again a lot of casualties, civilian casualties, whatever they say,” Borrell added.

Timsit reported from London. Adela Suliman contributed to this report.

By: Heba Farouk Mahfouz and Annabelle Timsit

5:27 AM: For Biden, a tough call looms on whether Israel violated laws in Gaza

President Biden makes his way to the Oval Office on Monday.

The Biden administration is expected to notify Congress this week whether it believes Israel has violated U.S. or international law in Gaza, a determination with significant moral and political stakes for President Biden.

The forthcoming report, portions of which are expected to be made public after its transmission to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, arrives at a difficult time for U.S.-Israeli relations, as President Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tangle over Israel’s defiance of Washington’s warnings about its conduct of a war and blockade that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and triggered the onset of famine.

A finding by the administration that Israel has violated U.S. or international law will almost certainly amplify calls for a suspension of American military aid, and is sure to anger conservatives who have railed against American criticisms of the Jewish state, as well as centrist political donors and many voters as Biden mounts a difficult reelection bid.

Yet to conclude otherwise, amid the conflict’s enormous civilian toll, would risk a backlash from liberals.

Politicians from both parties have already voiced their apprehension, underscoring the challenges Biden faces — and the improbability he emerges unscathed by the report’s findings — whatever they may be.

“God help us if this report somehow says that … the delivery of humanitarian assistance has been compliant with international standards,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who is among the Democratic Party’s most outspoken critics of the administration’s management of the Gaza crisis, told reporters last week, referring to Israel’s control of Gaza’s border. “God help us if that’s your finding because anybody with eyes to see and ears to hear knows that that’s just not true.”

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By: Abigail Hauslohner

1:54 AM: Visualizing what an attack on Rafah means for civilians

Israel’s order for civilians to immediately evacuate parts of Rafah poses severe humanitarian and logistical challenges in the southern Gazan city, where over 1 million displaced people have sought refuge since war broke out in the enclave seven months ago.

On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces told about 100,000 civilians in Rafah to evacuate to a humanitarian zone in the territory’s west, saying the military would operate with “extreme force” in the areas where they live.

Since the war began, Israel has conducted ground operations across most of Gaza, steadily pushing Palestinians south. The United Nations estimates up to 1.7 million people have been displaced by the conflict. A majority of them are in Rafah, which before the war had a population of around 275,000.

Civilians in Shouka and the eastern Rafah neighborhoods of Salam, Jeneina, Tabet Ziraa and Byouk were told to leave for an encampment in the Mawasi area, on the outskirts of Khan Younis, according to a statement in Arabic from Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, an IDF spokesman.

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By: Ruby Mellen and Laris Karklis

1:54 AM: Israel to press attack on Rafah as it negotiates possible cease-fire deal

Displaced Palestinians who fled Rafah after the Israeli military began evacuating civilians from the eastern parts of the southern Gaza city, ahead of a threatened assault, in Mawasi, near the edge of Khan Younis on Monday.

Hamas said Monday it agreed to a Qatari-Egyptian cease-fire proposal and Israel said it would send mediators to negotiate, reviving hopes of an extended pause to the fighting in Gaza even as Israel vowed to press on with its long-awaited military campaign in Rafah.

Early Monday, the Israeli military ordered tens of thousands of civilians in southern Gaza to “evacuate immediately” and said it would act with “extreme force” there, sending a surge of fear through more than a million Palestinians sheltering in the area. Hours later, as displaced families rushed to pack their belongings once more, panic gave way to celebrations, after Hamas announced it had informed Arab mediators that it would approve the cease-fire proposal.

But the path to any final agreement is likely to be a winding one, and there will be no immediate relief for Rafah. Residents reported artillery shelling and bombings as night fell; the Israeli military said it was carrying out strikes against “Hamas terror targets” in the east of the city.

“The war cabinet has unanimously decided that Israel will continue the operation in Rafah of exerting military pressure on Hamas to advance the release of our hostages and the other goals of the war,” said a statement from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office late Monday. “At the same time, even though Hamas’ proposal is far from Israel’s requirements, Israel will send a delegation of mediators to exhaust the possibility of reaching an agreement under conditions that would be acceptable to Israel.”

Additional meetings are expected over the next several days in both Egypt and Qatar, where CIA Director William J. Burns, who has headed the U.S. negotiating team, met Monday with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

The deal Hamas has agreed to was signed off on by Israel last week, a

ccording to a senior Arab official closely familiar with the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss delicate and ongoing diplomacy.

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By: Karen DeYoung, Susannah George, Hajar Harb, Heba Farouk Mahfouz, Hazem Balousha and Kareem Fahim