Gaza | Israel enters Rafah with tanks

Israel captures a border crossing near Rafah. Islamic Jihad boasts of attacking Israel. More information in the news blog.

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Hamas reports death of 70-year-old Israeli hostage

3:59 p.m.: Hamas reports the death of an Israeli hostage. The 70-year-old succumbed to injuries she sustained from Israeli shelling, says a spokesman for the radical Islamists. There is currently no statement from Israel.

Israel enters Rafah with tanks

3:02 p.m.: In a dramatic move, Israeli troops have advanced into parts of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The only border crossing into Egypt in Rafah on the Palestinian side is now under Israeli control, a senior Israeli military official said. The maneuver is said to have happened on Tuesday night. According to Palestinian eyewitnesses, Israeli troops were also spotted on the so-called Philadelphi Corridor – a border strip between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

It is the first time that Israeli forces have entered the area since Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip almost two decades ago. Israel assumes that weapons are entering the Gaza Strip via the border with Egypt. Army video footage shows tanks rolling into the Rafah border area. A large Israeli national flag flies on one of the tanks.

The news portal “Axios”, citing Israeli government officials, reports that the deployment of tanks and ground units east of Rafah should be seen as the first phase of the offensive. The takeover of the Rafah border crossing was not only intended to demonstrate Hamas’ loss of power in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians with no connection to the Islamists should then be involved in the distribution of aid coming from Egypt to the isolated coastal area.

Borrell criticizes Israel: Many dead civilians are to be feared

12:06 p.m.: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell sharply criticizes the advance of Israeli forces into parts of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. There have been requests from the international community, such as the USA and the EU states, for Israel not to attack Rafah. “Despite this warning and this request, the attack began yesterday evening,” said the Spaniard in Brussels, speaking of a ground offensive. An Israeli military official says of the current developments that it is a “precise anti-terror operation on a very limited scale.”

Borrell expresses the fear that there will again be many civilian victims and points out that there are hundreds of thousands of children living in the Gaza Strip. These should be pushed into “so-called safe zones,” says Borell, but adds: “There are no safe zones in Gaza.”

Borrell is also disappointed that negotiations for a ceasefire have apparently failed for the time being. Hamas accepted this, but Israel rejected it, said the 77-year-old. He emphasizes that the situation is very tense and could explode at any moment.

Two soldiers killed in Hezbollah attack on Israel’s northern border

9:46 a.m.: According to the military, two Israeli reservists were killed in a drone attack on Israel by the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah. The Israeli army said the two 31-year-old soldiers were killed in an incident on the northern border the day before. The drone loaded with explosives attacked a building in the city of Metulla on Monday. According to media reports, the army was unable to intercept the unmanned missile. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to Lebanese sources, four civilians were killed in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon on Sunday. The attack took place in the town of Mais al-Jabal, near the shared border. The fatalities were a couple of parents and their two sons. Two other people were injured. The house that was attacked was badly damaged.

Israel takes control of Rafah border crossing

7.40 a.m.: The Israeli military has taken control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, according to Army Radio. When contacted, the military said it would “release a statement shortly.” A spokesman for the border authority said the crossing was closed because of the presence of Israeli tanks.

The city of Rafah on the border with Egypt is considered the last bastion of the militant Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip. For months, Israel has been preparing a ground offensive on Rafah, where around a million refugees have sought protection from the months-long fighting in the Gaza war. On Monday, Israel initiated a partial evacuation of the city.