The Israeli army announced today that its forces took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army said its 401st Armored Brigade had taken “operational control” of the Rafah crossing from the Palestinian side.
It added that Israeli forces were carrying out a “clearance operation” in the areas of eastern Rafah they captured and said they had killed 20 Palestinian gunmen.
A spokesman for the Palestinian border crossings confirmed earlier that the border was closed on the Palestinian side.
Video footage shared by Israeli media shows an Israeli tank at the Rafah crossing.
Following the announcement by the Palestinian group Hamas of accepting the Qatari-Egyptian ceasefire proposal in Gaza, the Israeli war cabinet decided to continue the operation in Rafah in order to exert, as it stated, “military pressure on Hamas to advance the release of hostages and other war objectives. ”
The Israeli army issued an emergency order to evacuate Palestinians in the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah and called on them to move to the town of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza.
Rafah is home to more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians who fled the war launched by Israel after an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed nearly 1,200 people.
Since then, Israeli attacks have killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and caused a humanitarian disaster.
Nearly seven months after the start of Israel’s war, vast parts of Gaza lie in ruins, while 85 percent of the enclave’s population is internally displaced.
Israel is accused of genocide before the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop the genocidal acts and take measures to ensure humanitarian aid is provided to civilians in Gaza, AA writes.
Photo: IDF
