Israel threatened to expand its military operation in Rafah after tanks and troops occupied the main border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, while international mediators struggled to continue talks to end the conflict.
Israel launched its ground offensive in eastern Rafah on Monday, hours after Hamas said it had accepted a draft ceasefire deal that would lead to a first six-week pause in the seven-month Gaza war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday the proposal was “very far removed from Israel’s necessary requirements” and aimed at “torpedoing the entry of our troops into Rafah.”
But his government sent a team of negotiators to Cairo on Tuesday to continue talks brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said the operation in Rafah to “eliminate Hamas,” the organization’s last stand in the besieged area, would continue “until the return of the first hostage.”
“We are willing to compromise to bring hostages back, but if that option is removed, we will continue to deepen the operation,” Gallant said.
“This will happen everywhere [Gaza] Stripes – in the south, in the middle and in the north. Hamas only responds to violence, so we will step up our actions,” he added.
The incursion into Rafah sparked panic among the more than one million Gazans who have sought refuge in the southern city. It was also condemned by the EU, Arab states and UN aid groups, which warned of the devastating humanitarian consequences of an attack.
The Biden administration, which has become increasingly public in its criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war, has halted two shipments of precision weapons to Israel, according to people familiar with the matter.
It was not immediately clear whether the move was related to the Rafah offensive, which Washington has repeatedly warned Netanyahu about.
The White House declined to comment on whether it has delayed any arms sales to Israel. On Tuesday, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said: “Our commitment to Israel’s security remains ironclad.”
The delay in the arms sale was done informally and using bureaucratic procedures, people familiar with the matter said.
Such a move would be the first known time the U.S. has halted a potential arms sale since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and the Jewish state launched its retaliatory offensive against the militant group in Gaza.
An Israeli military official described the Rafah offensive as a “precise and limited operation.”
But aid groups expressed concern on Tuesday about the impact Israel’s occupation of the Rafah border crossing, which has temporarily halted aid deliveries, would have on humanitarian supplies. Gaza has been suffering from an acute shortage of basic needs, including food, for months.
The other main crossing into the strip, Kerem Shalom, was also temporarily closed after a deadly Hamas mortar attack on Israeli soldiers near the border over the weekend.
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian office, said preventing fuel from entering for a prolonged period would “destroy the humanitarian operation.”
On Monday, Hamas said it had broadly accepted a proposal to release hostages and secure a temporary ceasefire in the seven-month war. The Palestinian militant group quoted Ismail Haniyeh, its Doha-based political leader, as saying he had briefed officials from Qatar and Egypt, who served as mediators in the talks alongside the United States.
The details of what Hamas had agreed to in the hostage release proposal were not immediately clear, but a diplomat briefed on the talks said the proposal was broadly similar to one put forward by international mediators about two weeks ago.
That plan included calls for an initial six-week lull in the war during which Hamas would release 33 hostages, including women, children, the elderly and the wounded.
This would be followed, mediators hoped, by an extended ceasefire during which the remaining hostages would be released. Israel would release Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, allow Gazans to return to their homes in the enclave’s north and enable a surge in humanitarian aid.
According to Israeli officials, Hamas is holding 132 hostages and believes 37 of them are dead.
Mediators have for months facilitated indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on a second round of hostage-for-prisoner exchanges, following one in November. The talks had stalled as Hamas demanded that any deal must end with a permanent ceasefire and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, something Israel has repeatedly rejected.
“A close assessment of both sides’ positions suggests that they should be able to close the remaining gaps, and we will do everything we can to support that process and achieve that outcome,” Kirby said on Tuesday.
Previously, President Joe Biden said his administration was still working “around the clock” to help negotiate a deal.
According to Israeli sources, Netanyahu vowed to eliminate Hamas after the group killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostages in its Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive on Gaza has killed nearly 35,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials.