Palestinians seek UN General Assembly backing for full membership

JERUSALEM: A Palestinian security official and an Egyptian official say Israeli tanks have entered the southern Gaza city of Rafah, coming as close as 200 meters (yards) to its crossing with neighboring Egypt.
The Egyptian official said the scope of the operation appeared to be limited. He and Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV said Israeli officials informed the Egyptians that troops would withdraw after completing the operation.
The Israeli military declined to comment. On Sunday, Hamas fighters fired mortars into southern Israel near the Rafah crossing, killing four Israeli soldiers.
The Egyptian official and Palestinian security official based on the Egyptian side of Rafah spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
The Associated Press could not independently verify the scope of the operation.
Earlier on Monday, Israel’s War Cabinet decided to escalate a military operation in Rafah after Hamas announced its acceptance of the Egyptian-Qatari proposal for a ceasefire agreement. The Israeli military said it was carrying out “targeted strikes” against Hamas in Rafah, without giving details.

Hamas announced on Monday its acceptance of an Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal, but Israel said the deal does not meet its “key demands” and was stepping up attacks on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Nevertheless, Israel said it would continue negotiations.
High-level diplomatic moves and military instability raised hopes – but just barely – for a deal that could at least bring an end to the 7-month-old war that has ravaged the Gaza Strip. The conflict was fueled by the threat of a full-scale Israeli invasion of Rafah, a move strongly opposed by the United States and aid groups warning that it would be devastating for the approximately 1.4 million Palestinians sheltering there.
Israel ordered the evacuation of about 100,000 Palestinians from areas east of Rafah just hours after Hamas suddenly accepted a ceasefire agreement, signaling that an offensive was imminent.
Israel’s War Cabinet decided to continue the Rafah operation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said. Additionally, it said that although the proposal Hamas has agreed to is “far from meeting Israel’s main demands”, it would send negotiators to Egypt to work on an agreement.
The Israeli military said it was carrying out “targeted strikes” against Hamas in eastern Rafah. The nature of the attacks was not immediately known, but the move appears to be aimed at maintaining pressure while continuing negotiations.
President Joe Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reiterated US concerns about the offensive on Rafah. US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said US officials are reviewing Hamas’s response and discussing it with our allies in the region. A US official said the US was investigating whether what Hamas agreed to was the version signed by Israel and international negotiators or something else.
It was not immediately known whether the proposal Hamas agreed to was significantly different from the one that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had pressured the terrorist group to accept last week, which Blinken said would include significant Israeli Concessions were included.
Egyptian officials said the proposal calls for a multi-phase ceasefire starting with a limited release of hostages and a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces within Gaza. He said the two sides would also negotiate a “permanent peace” that would lead to the full release of hostages and greater Israeli withdrawal from the area.
Hamas asked for clear guarantees for its key demand of Israel’s full withdrawal in exchange for an end to the war and the release of all hostages, but it was unclear whether any changes were made.
Israeli leaders have repeatedly rejected that agreement, and have vowed to continue their campaign until Hamas is destroyed after the October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war.
Netanyahu is under pressure from hardline allies in his coalition who demand an attack on Rafa and his government could fall if he signs a deal. But they are also facing pressure from the hostages’ families to reach an agreement for their release.
Thousands of Israelis rallied across the country on Monday night demanding an immediate agreement. About a thousand protesters gathered near the defense headquarters in Tel Aviv, where police tried to clear the street. In Jerusalem, about a hundred protesters marched toward Netanyahu’s residence with a banner that read, “Blood is on your hands.”
Israel says Rafah is Hamas’s last significant stronghold in Gaza, and Netanyahu said on Monday the offensive against the city was vital to ensuring militants could not rebuild their military capabilities.
But he is facing strong American opposition. Miller said Monday that the United States has not seen any credible and implementable plan to protect Palestinian civilians. “We cannot support any operation in Rafah as it is currently conceived,” he said.
The impending operation has raised global concern. Aid agencies have warned that the Israeli campaign will lead to more civilian deaths, which has already killed 34,000 people and devastated the area. They say it could also destroy the Rafah-based humanitarian aid operation that is keeping Palestinians in the Gaza Strip alive.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Monday called the evacuation order “inhumane”.
“Gazaans continue to be affected by bombs, diseases and even famine. And today, they have been told that they will have to relocate again,” he said. “This will only expose them to more danger and suffering.”
Israeli leaflets, text messages and radio broadcasts ordered Palestinians to evacuate neighborhoods east of Rafah, warning that an attack was imminent and that anyone who stayed “puts themselves and their family members in danger.” “
The army told people to move to the Israeli-declared humanitarian zone of Muwasi, a temporary camp on the coast. It said Israel had expanded the size of the area and included tents, food, water and field hospitals.
However, it was not immediately clear whether it already existed.
About 450,000 displaced Palestinians are already sheltering in Muwasi. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said it was providing assistance to them. But conditions are poor, with very few sanitation facilities in the largely rural area, forcing families to dig private latrines.
Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, condemned the “forced, unlawful” evacuation order to Muwasi.
“This area is already overstretched and devoid of vital services,” Egeland said.
The evacuation order left Palestinians in Rafah struggling to once again uproot their families to an unknown fate, exhausted after months of living in vast tent camps in and around the city or living in schools or other shelters. Were. Israeli air strikes on Rafah early Monday killed 22 people, including children and two infants.
Mohammed Zindiyah said that at the beginning of the war, he tried to stay in his home in northern Gaza under heavy bombardment before fleeing to Rafah.
He is following Israel’s evacuation order this time, but was unsure whether to go to Muwasi or elsewhere.
“We are 12 families, and we don’t know where to go. There is no safe zone in Gaza,” he said.
Sahar Abu Nahel, who fled Rafah with 20 family members, including her children and grandchildren, wiped tears from her cheeks, frustrated by the new move.
“I don’t have any money or anything. I’m seriously exhausted, like a baby,” she said. “Maybe it is more honorable for us to die. We are being insulted.”
Israeli bombings and ground attacks in Gaza have killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, about two-thirds of whom are children and women, according to Gaza health officials. This number does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. More than 80 percent of the population of 2.3 million has been driven from their homes, and thousands in the north are on the brink of famine, according to the United Nations.
The war was sparked by an unprecedented attack in southern Israel on October 7, in which Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250 hostages. Following the exchange during a ceasefire in November, Hamas is believed to still have about 100 Israelis killed as well as the bodies of about 30 others.