Israel tank unit takes control of Gaza side of Rafah border crossing as Netanyahu rejects cease-fire proposal
Jerusalem — An Israeli tank brigade took control Tuesday of the Gaza Strip side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, authorities said, as Israel moved forward with an offensive in the southern city even as cease-fire negotiations with Hamas remain on a knife's edge. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his country in a video address later Tuesday that he had ordered troops "to operate in Rafah" as his government rejected a cease-fire proposal backed by Hamas the previous afternoon.
The tanks moved in around the Rafah checkpoint after hours of whiplash in the Israel-Hamas war, with the militant group saying Monday that it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari mediated cease-fire proposal. Israel quickly insisted the deal didn't meet its core demands and rejected it, though officials said Israel would continue discussing the proposal.
The high-stakes diplomatic moves and military brinkmanship left a glimmer of hope alive — but only barely — for an accord that could bring at least a pause in the seven-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip.
As for the proposal that brought brief hope of an imminent truce late on Monday, Netanyahu dismissed it in his video message as an attempt by Hamas "to torpedo the entry of our forces into Rafah," which he had repeatedly vowed to order.
The Israeli leader confirmed, however, that his government was still engaged in negotiations for a cease-fire, saying he'd instructed his team to "continue to stand firm on the conditions necessary for the release of our abductees, continue to stand firm on the essential requirements for guaranteeing Israel's security."
A senior Biden administration official confirmed to CBS News late Tuesday night that the U.S. paused one shipment of weapons to Israel last week over concerns of how such weapons might be used in a potential ground operation in Rafah.
The White House position has been that Israel "should not launch a major ground operation in Rafah," the official said.
The halted shipment included 1,800 two-thousand-pound bombs, and 1,700 five-hundred-pound bombs, the official said.
The official said the White House was "especially focused" on the "end-use" of the 2,000-pound bombs and the "impact" those bombs could have in "dense urban settings."
"We have not made a final determination on how to proceed with this shipment," and other shipments are under review, the official disclosed.
Israel takes "operational control" of Rafah crossing
The Israeli 401st Brigade entered the Rafah crossing early Tuesday morning, the Israeli military said, taking "operational control" of the crucial crossing. Israel had already fully controlled all of Gaza's border crossings since it launched its war on Hamas seven months ago, but the tanks rolling in on Tuesday marked a significant increase in the Israeli military presence at the Rafah crossing.
Rafah is the primary route for aid entering the besieged enclave and the exit for those able to flee into Egypt.
Video released by the Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday showed tanks flying Israeli flags positioned around the Rafah border gate, with no other activity visible around the border checkpoint.
The Israeli military claimed it seized the crossing after receiving intelligence it was "being used for terrorist purposes." The military didn't provide evidence to immediately support the assertion, though it alleged the area around the crossing had been used to launch a mortar attack that killed four Israeli troops and wounded others near the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority, acknowledged Israeli forces had seized the Rafah crossing and had closed the facility for the time being. He said strikes had targeted the area around the crossing since Monday.
The military also confirmed that ground troops and airstrikes had targeted suspected Hamas positions in Rafah on Monday. Palestinian health officials in the Hamas-run enclave said 20 people were killed and several others wounded in strikes that hit at least four houses.
The Israel Defense Forces, in a Tuesday statement, described the ongoing operations in Rafah as "a precise counterterrorism operation to eliminate Hamas terrorists and infrastructure within specific areas" in the east of the city. The military said four mortars and two rockets were fired "from the area of Rafah toward Israeli territory" on Tuesday, which it called "further evidence of Hamas' systematic exploitation of the area of Rafah for terrorist purposes."
"We will continue to operate and eliminate every threat against Israeli civilians," the IDF said.
The Israeli military did not further characterize its actions or say whether they constituted the beginning of its long-promised ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah. U.S. officials said Monday that the Biden administration did not believe the incursion amounted to a major military operation in the city, which it has warned repeatedly against.
Netanyahu, in his video remarks on Tuesday, said the operation "serves two main war goals: The return of our abductees and the elimination of Hamas."
Asked Tuesday by CBS News about the nature of the operation in Rafah, an Israeli government official would say only that the prime minister and his Cabinet remained "determined to achieve Israel's war objectives: Destruction of Hamas military and governing capabilities, free the hostages and ensure that Gaza does not pose a threat to Israel and the civilized world in the future."
U.N. warns of "catastrophic hunger" amid border closures
Jens Laerke, the spokesperson for the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA, said Tuesday that U.N. aid agencies' vital access to the Rafah crossing was being "denied by COGAT," the Israeli agency that oversees supplies into the Palestinian territories. Speaking with CBS News by phone from Geneva, he said the other major Gaza border crossing in the south, at Kerem Shalom, had also been shut down.
"Rafah crossing is essentially shut down for movements, and we're also told this morning that the other crossing, Kerem Shalom, is also currently closed. So, those two main entry points of aid are not functioning at the moment. They can't be used," Laerke told CBS News' Emmet Lyons. "The impact is frankly catastrophic because, as you know, these two entry points, I would say particularly Rafah, are arteries of aid that goes into the entire Gaza Strip."
UNRWA, the U.N. agency tasked specifically with providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and across the region, echoed that concern in a tweet, saying "continued interruption of the entry of aid and fuel supplies" through the Rafah border gate would severely impact aid distribution across the entire Palestinian territory, and warning that "catastrophic hunger faced by people especially in northern Gaza will get much worse if these supply routes are interrupted."
Laerke said OCHA had not had "any communication with" the IDF to provide "any kind of explanations or what have you" about the border crossing closures. "What I can say is that we have asked for access to the Rafah crossing, and that access has been denied."
An Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson declined to immediately comment on the Israeli seizure. Egypt previously has warned any seizure of Rafah could see Palestinians fleeing over the border, a scenario that could threaten a 1979 peace deal with Israel that's been a linchpin of regional security.
The offensive again raised the risks of an all-out Israeli assault on Rafah, a move the United States strongly opposes and that aid groups warn will be disastrous for some 1.4 million Palestinians taking refuge there.
What's in the cease-fire proposal backed by Hamas?
CBS News has obtained a copy of the proposal that Hamas said it had agreed to on Monday. The agreement breaks down the hypothetical de-escalation process into three stages, each six weeks long. By the end of that period, it envisions a permanent cease-fire, a swap of all remaining hostages held by Hamas for Palestinians in Israeli jails, and allowing displaced Gazans to return to their homes — with no restrictions.
An Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Reuters news agency that the proposal was a watered-down version of an Egyptian offer that had aspects Israel couldn't accept.
"This would appear to be a ruse intended to make Israel look like the side refusing a deal," the Israeli official said.
Israeli leaders have repeatedly rejected any trade-off that involves a definitive end to the war and complete withdrawal, vowing to keep up their military campaign until Hamas is destroyed in retaliation for its Oct. 7 terrorist attack, which saw the militants kill some 1,200 people, triggering the war.
Reuters said Qatar's Foreign Ministry said its delegation would go to Cairo on Tuesday to resume indirect talks between Israel and Hamas.