Israel announces reopening of key Gaza border crossing as it steps up attacks in Rafah | Israeli War on Gaza News

Israeli forces are also bombing the center of the Gaza Strip, while Egypt continues negotiations over a ceasefire in the enclave.

Israel says it is reopening the main humanitarian border crossing into the Gaza Strip, as its military launched new attacks across the Palestinian territory and expanded its offensive in southern Rafah despite ongoing ceasefire talks.

The Karem Abu Salem border crossing, which Israelis call Kerem Shalom, was taken over and closed by Israeli forces after a Palestinian rocket attack killed four of their soldiers. Despite announcing the opening of the vital border in Rafah on the border with Egypt, aid trucks could not yet begin entering the enclave on Wednesday.

Israeli tanks seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday, cutting off the flow of vital aid and preventing the injured from leaving, after launching a military attack on the city on Monday and ordering 400,000 people to flee the crowded eastern sector evacuate and face death.

Since then, dozens of Palestinians have been killed and injured. The Kuwaiti hospital, one of the few health facilities still operating in Rafah, has received the bodies of 35 people and 129 wounded, medical sources told Al Jazeera. Families, many of whom have already been displaced multiple times, are now moving to Deir el-Balah in the center of the Gaza Strip – even though there is no safe place in the enclave.

“You cannot create a safe zone in a war zone,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said in a report from Deir el-Balah. “Every time people move from one place to another, they are in search of basic needs and … necessities that are currently very difficult to find.”

Wednesday’s attacks were mainly focused on the as-Salam neighborhood in eastern Rafah. Al-Najjar Hospital, the region’s main treatment center, was forced to close after staff were evacuated amid fears of the impending attack.

The Foreign Ministry in Qatar, a key international mediator alongside Egypt and the United States, warned that Israel’s forcible expulsion of civilians from Rafah would constitute a serious violation of international law and worsen the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, it also called for “urgent international action” to “prevent the invasion of the city and the commission of genocide and to ensure full protection for civilians in accordance with international law and humanitarian law.”

Statement| Qatar strongly condemns the bombing of Rafah and calls for urgent international action#MOFAQatar pic.twitter.com/4UVxSrYYXg

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) May 8, 2024

Egyptian media reported on Wednesday that ceasefire talks had resumed in Cairo with the presence of “all sides.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a major attack on Rafah would be a “human catastrophe”, while the UN children’s agency UNICEF warned that a ground attack on Rafah would pose catastrophic risks to children.

“Rafah is now a city of children who have nowhere safe to go in Gaza. When large-scale military operations begin, children are at risk not only from violence, but also from chaos and panic, at a time when their physical and mental health is already weakened,” said Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF.

Gaza’s Health Ministry condemned Israel’s occupation of the Rafah crossing, which now controls all of the enclave’s borders.

“The closure of the Rafah border has prevented the entry of trucks carrying medicines, medical equipment and fuel necessary for hospitals and prevented the departure of thousands of wounded and patients awaiting travel,” a spokesman said.

The ministry said at least 46 patients and wounded who were due to leave for medical treatment on Tuesday were stuck – patients like Lama Abu Holi, an eight-year-old Palestinian girl.

“My legs hurt. I’m scheduled for surgery. Since the border crossing is closed today, I couldn’t travel,” she told Al Jazeera.

The threat of a full-scale attack on Rafah threatens to deepen the rift between Israel and its main backer, the United States, which stopped an arms shipment to Israel last week.