Israeli forces take control of Rafah crossing

we begin in southern Gaza where the Rafa border crossing has been closed on the Palestinian side due to the presence of Israeli tanks according to the Border Authority well Israeli tanks are now blocking the main archery bringing humanitarian Aid into the strip parts of which are already experiencing fullblown famine well that comes after a night of heavy Israeli bombardment in Rafa in southern Gaza at least 14 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes in the past few hours the attacks follow a unanimous vote by the Israeli War cabinet to continue its operation in the city and comes despite hamas's announcement that it's ready to accept a ceasefire deal intense bombardment very very intense bombardment air strikes Rockets artillery shelling tank shelling drones all firing at never in my life I am 69 years old have I ever seen bombardment like this and I have witnessed sever Wars I have never seen a war like this one and I really wanted to leave to evacuate but I couldn't the reason was that I found this injured young man We rescued him but the whole area is completely and utterly destroyed T abazo is live for us now in Rafa in southern Gaza so T the Rafa border crossing is closed what more can you tell us yes in fact what was happening overnight is that the Israeli military carried a limited incursion on the Eastern side of Rafa district and the main target was to control Rafa Crossing in fact what we have been seeing is that Israeli military tanks were were stationed inside the ARA Crossing as we have been seeing images emerging there for these tanks says they have been just moving on the yards of the Crossing from inside and that's absolutely devastating because this is the only point that Palestinians have been using for travel U Ro and to leave the Gaza Strip but now no longer Palestinians will be able to leave the territory in light of this limited operation that has been carried out by the Israeli military during the uh raids there was a heavy fire gun exchange between Hamas fighting and the Israeli military a very intense bming campaign that was a clear cover for the infiltration to that part of Rafa and that is a very significant step that has been taken by the Israeli side regarding their operation that they have been saying that Rafa the Egyptian or the Palestinian side from The Crossing is very vital for the Israeli military to control as a very important military side uh that will that will help them to control all the the movement of Palestinians from and in out and into the Gaza Strip and that step has really triggered more concerns among Palestinians who are right now uh have more growing fears regarding the expansion of this military incursion to reach further parts of rafah District which has been under unrelenting circle of bombardment within the past 24 hours and did you mention uh the people there t i mean how is the population there reacting to these military movements and continuing Israeli bombardments yes uh the vast majority of of of Gans in Rafa are so worried and confused regarding that Invasion and that movement that has been taken by the Israeli side they have been escalating the military attacks on Rafa which is the last remaining shelter for more than 1.5 million Palestinians they have been moving internally from one place to another looking for but right now RAF is the target for the Israeli military as the eyes of the Israeli forces on the ground on the Eastern portion of the city overnight strikes really killed at least 20 Palestinians in different Air Raids that targeted a number of residential houses in the western side of rafah in the middle and even in the Norther part where people are so afraid that Rafa might really meet the same fate where kanun has really come up and end up with that is collateral destruction and all kinds of uh a milestone of living including residential houses civil infrastructure alongside with all basic medical facilities it's worth remembering that naar hospital right now is uh cannot really host the vast majority of casualties due to the uh its location which is in the eastern portion of the city it means that it it's located in the theater for the of the Israeli operations in the Eastern parts of Rafa District where we've been talking to Medics there expressing their own fears about their inability to leave to get to the location of the bombardment in order to recover injuries and even victims from such areas in order to not be targeted by the Israeli forces TK for now thank you well Muhammad Jam Jun joins us on the phone now from the Jordanian Capital Aman so Israel has taken control of the raff of Crossing what more have you heard about this operation car we're seeing statements from the Israeli milit that are saying that their forces have taken operational control of the Gaza side of the ra Crossing that borders Egypt that's what the statement says and it adds that special forces are scanning the area uh there's another statement that says that the Israeli military says that the Israeli forces are operating in specific areas of Eastern ra now that's very much in line with what we heard from the Israelis Israeli Prime Minister 's office last night there was a statement uh late in the evening saying that Israel would continue its R operations uh and um uh and that also uh that they were going to be conducting uh these operations in some type of limited form that's according to statements emanating from the prime minister's office and also from the military late last night uh the Israeli military is saying that people have been evacuated from the area of military operations uh obviously that's not something that's been independently confirmed this is in line with roric that we've heard from the Israelis over the course of the last week in which they've been saying that they are going to be evacuating people from areas of operation but as I said that's not something that's been independently confirmed at this point uh we also got one more thing from the Israeli military in which they said that the Kim Abu saling Abu Salam Crossing uh has been closed for security reason and that it will reopen once the security situation allows this is interesting because uh this is a Crossing that was discussed when prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden on the phone on Monday evening uh and um the White House readout uh of that uh said that the Israelis had committed to reopening that Crossing for the delivery of Aid so uh this is what we're hearing at this hour from the Israeli uh uh military um we expect that we'll be getting more in the hours to come uh it's all very interesting because this is coming at a time when on the one hand they're saying they're going to continue these operations but on the other hand they've also said that they're going to be sending a delegation to Cairo to continue negotiations Carrie well indeed I mean as you say Israel has sent negotiators to KY but have said the deal is a long way from being acceptable to them yeah that's right that's where this is going to be very interesting to see how it plays out because uh right now what seems to have happened if you're reading between the lines in in the statement that that came out last night from the Israeli Prime Minister's office it said that the war cabinet had decided that the operation in R would continue but it also said that negotiators would be going to uh to Egypt uh to to try to reach a deal that was acceptable to the Israelis uh what's interesting about that is that um you know Netanyahu the prime minister of Israel is under a lot of political pressure right now he's under pressure from Far right-wing ministers like it's marinir the national security minister who uh repeatedly uh demands that the Prime Minister send forces into Raa he did so even as as late as yesterday evening uh on Twitter uh but then you also have him under pressure from the opposition saying that he needs to send this delegation to Cairo so that they can uh enter into a ceasefire and bring the captives that are being held in Gaza back to Israel so it's a it's sort of a politically perilous moment for Netanyahu the fact that they are sending a delegation to Cairo uh it's going to be interesting to see if they have a widen enough mandate to really try and and negotiate or if they're going to have to continue to consult with the Prime Minister as has been the case many times in the past but um uh the devil is really in the details right now we will see what happens how it unfolds over the course of the next couple of days um but uh what is transpiring whereas you see Israel forces saying that they will continue to go into ra but on the other hand negotiators are going to Cairo that seems to be putting this into a holding pattern so that the Israelis can continue to do both things at once Carrie Muhammad jamun in Aman for us there thank you and just to explain why Muhammad is reporting from Aman Benjamin netanyahu's cabinet has banned aler we're reporting from outside Israel make sure to subscribe to our channel to get the latest news from Al

Channel: Al Jazeera English

Views: 167,166

Keywords: Gaza, Gaza ceasefire deal, Hamas, Israel, Israel Hamas war, Israel attack on Rafah, Israel bombs Rafah, Israel gaza war, Israel war on Gaza, Israel war on hamas, Israel-Palestine conflict, Israeli army, Israeli military operation, Israeli tanks at Rafah crossing, Israeli tanks firing at Rafah crossing, Palestine, Rafah crossing, Rafah ground invasion, Rafah ground offensive, Rafah ground operation, Rafah invasion threat, Rafah under attack, Rafah under threat, gaza war

Id: gMXGPJAZz94

Length: 9min 59sec (599 seconds)

Published: Tue May 07 2024