JERUSALEM – Israeli forces seized control of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on May 7 and tanks pushed into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, as international mediators struggled to find agreement on a ceasefire between Israel and its Hamas foe.

Hamas accused Israel of trying to undermine the truce talks taking place in Cairo by mounting the offensive.

International aid agencies said the closing of the two main crossings into the southern Gaza Strip – Rafah and Kerem Shalom – had virtually cut off the Palestinian enclave from outside aid, with very few stores available inside.

Israeli Army Radio announced its forces had taken control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing on the morning of May 7, and army footage showed tanks rolling through the complex and the Israeli flag raised on the Gaza side.

Despite international appeals for Israel to hold off an assault on Rafah, Israeli tanks and planes also attacked several areas and houses there overnight.

The Gaza Health Ministry said on May 7 that Israeli strikes across the enclave had killed 54 Palestinians and wounded 96 others.

That morning saw people searching for bodies under the rubble of wrecked buildings.

Mr Raed al-Derby said his wife and children had been killed.

Standing in the street, anguish etched on his face, he told Reuters: “We’re patient, and we will remain steadfast on this land... We are waiting for liberation, and this battle will be for liberation, God willing.”

More than one million people have sought refuge in Rafah, living in tented camps and makeshift shelters.

Many are trying to leave, heeding Israeli orders for them to evacuate. But with large areas of the coastal enclave already laid to waste, they say they have nowhere safe to go.

The Israeli military said a limited operation in Rafah was meant to kill fighters and dismantle infrastructure used by Hamas, which governs Gaza.

Hamas said late on May 6 that it had agreed to a ceasefire proposal, but Israel said the terms did not meet its demands.

On May 7, the militant group said Israel’s Rafah incursion was aimed at undermining ceasefire efforts.

Mediator Egypt also said the Rafah operation threatened ceasefire efforts, and the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that a wider assault on Rafah would cause many civilian casualties.

Israel has for weeks threatened to mount a major incursion in Rafah, which it says harbours thousands of Hamas fighters and where potentially dozens of hostages are being held. Victory over Hamas is impossible without taking Rafah, it says.

A total of 34,789 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have now been killed in the conflict, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct 7, killing about 1,200 people and abducting about 250 others, of whom 133 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Rafah crossing closed

A Gaza border authority spokesperson said the Rafah crossing, a vital route for aid into the devastated enclave, was now closed.

Red Crescent sources in Egypt said aid shipments had been halted at Rafah and at the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing.

The United States and other foreign governments have been pressing Israel not to start a campaign in Rafah until it had drawn up a humanitarian plan for the Palestinians sheltering there.

Israel said the vast majority of people had been evacuated from the area of military operations, and it has told them to go to what it calls an “expanded humanitarian zone” around 20km away.

Palestinian Abdullah Al-Najar said this was the fourth time he had been displaced since the fighting began in October.

“God knows where we will go now. We have not decided yet,” he said.

In Geneva, UN humanitarian office spokesman Jens Laerke said “panic and despair” were gripping the people in Rafah.

He said that under international law, people must have adequate time to prepare for an evacuation and have a safe route to a safe area with access to aid, but this was not the case in the Rafah evacuation.

“It’s littered with unexploded ordnance, massive bombs lying in the street. It’s not safe,” he said.

Truce talks in Cairo

As the ceasefire talks stumbled, mediator Qatar said its delegation would try to resume indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Cairo.

Hamas said in a statement on May 6 that its chief Ismail Haniyeh had informed Qatari and Egyptian mediators that the group accepted their proposal for a ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said later that the proposal fell short of Israel’s demands.

A Palestinian official close to mediation efforts said a Hamas delegation may arrive in Cairo later on May 7 or May 8 to discuss the ceasefire.

A senior Israeli official said that a team of mid-ranking Israeli officials would go to Cairo to assess whether Hamas can be persuaded to shift on its latest ceasefire offer.

Any truce would be the first pause in fighting since a week-long ceasefire in November 2023, during which Hamas freed around half of the hostages and Israel released 240 Palestinians it was holding in its jails.

Since then, all efforts to reach a new truce have foundered over Hamas’ refusal to free more hostages without a promise of a permanent end to the conflict, and Israel’s insistence that it would discuss only a temporary pause. REUTERS