Israel begins Rafah offensive after rejecting Hamas ceasefire ploy

Israel has begun its military operation into Rafah after rejecting Hamas’ cease-fire claim as a deception.

“The IDF is currently conducting targeted strikes against Hamas terror targets in eastern Rafah in southern Gaza,” the Israel Defense Forces said Monday night local time.

The world’s eyes are now on the southern city in the Gaza Strip, where more than 1 million Palestinians have taken refuge while fleeing war elsewhere in the territory.

President Biden has repeatedly warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to go ahead with the Rafah offensive unless the IDF could secure the safety of the civilians, with the president repeating himself during a call earlier Monday. 

“The president was consistent again this morning that we don’t support ground operations in Rafah,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters prior to the advancement.

The announcement came shortly after Israel’s war cabinet unanimously voted to proceed with the attack on Hamas’ final stronghold in an effort to apply military pressure on the terror group, “with the goal of making progress on freeing the hostages and the other war aims,” Netanyahu’s office said.

The prime minister also slammed Hamas’ latest truce officer as “far from Israel’s obligatory demands.”

Following Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh’s announcement that the terror group had accepted a cease-fire deal, Israeli officials told multiple outlets that the deal presented to the terror group was a “softened” version of what was really on the table and is not being taken seriously by Jerusalem.

One official told Reuters that the announcement was a clear ruse by the terror group to create backlash against Israel for refusing a deal, and officials told KANN TV that the announcement of a cease-fire agreement was a “Hamas deception.”

Despite criticizing Hamas’ move, Netanyahu’s office said Israel is still sending a negotiation team to Cairo “to exhaust the possibility of achieving an agreement on terms that are acceptable to Israel.”

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the US does not support an intensified military operation in Rafah and believes negotiations in Cairo are the best way to reach a cease-fire. 

“We continue to believe that a hostage deal is in the best interests of the Israeli people,” Miller said. “It’s in the best interest of the Palestinian people and it would bring increased movement of humanitarian assistance and so we’re going to continue to work to try to reach one.”

Hamas’ announcement triggered celebrations across Gaza, where Palestinians cheered and chanted  “Allahu Akbar” in the streets.

Israel has repeatedly rejected any cease-fire deal that calls for an end to the war, with Netanyahu saying that the conflict will only end once Hamas has been eradicated and Gaza proves to no longer be a threat to the Jewish State.

Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing parts of Rafah after Israel issued warnings it was planning to start military action.

Prior to the Israeli military’s attack on Hamas position in Gaza,  UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned that a battle in southern Gaza’s most populous city would quickly become a humanitarian nightmare. 

“Gazans continue to be hit with bombs, disease, and even famine. And today, they have been told that they must relocate yet again as Israeli military operations into Rafah scale up,” Volker Turk said in a statement..

“This is inhumane,” he added. “It runs contrary to the basic principles of international humanitarian and human rights laws, which have the effective protection of civilians as their overriding concern.”

 IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the more than 100,ooo Palestinians who were told to flee eastern Rafah on Monday were instructed to stay in humanitarian zones for the rest of the night, while others were told to run to Al-Mawasi or Khan Younis.

“There they will receive a full humanitarian response, where water, food, medical equipment and shelter will be provided,” Hagari said in a statement.

Netanyahu has agreed to keep the Kerem Shalom crossing open to allow humanitarian aid to go through after closing the passage over the weekend following Hamas’ attack.

With Post wires