Bombs rattle Rafah

 TDT | Agencies   

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Israel bombarded Gaza including Rafah yesterday after negotiators left truce talks in Cairo without a deal and a senior UN official said aid operations are now all but impossible.

Journalists witnessed artillery strikes on Rafah, after US President Joe Biden vowed in an interview to cut off artillery shells and other weapons for Israel if a full-scale offensive into the southern Gaza city goes ahead.

It was the first time Biden raised the ultimate US leverage over Israel, military aid totalling $3 billion a year, after repeated appeals for Israel to stay out of Rafah. Despite widespread international opposition, Israeli troops on Tuesday entered Rafah's eastern sector.

The Gaza war began with Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,904 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Israeli and Hamas negotiating teams left Cairo on Thursday after what Egypt called a "two-day round" of indirect negotiations on terms of a Gaza truce, according to Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egyptian intelligence services.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a phone call, agreed on the importance of "urging the parties to show flexibility" and make "all the necessary efforts" to reach a ceasefire, an Egyptian foreign ministry statement said.

Hamas said its delegation had left for Qatar, home to the group's political leadership.

White House renews ‘concern’

Meanwhile, the United States renewed concern yesterday about an Israeli assault on Rafah but said it saw no major operation yet against the packed Gaza city and still held out the possibility of a ceasefire deal.

“We’re obviously watching it with concern,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said of the latest Israeli military strikes around Rafah.

“But I wouldn’t go so far as to say what we’ve seen here in the last 24 hours connotes or indicates a broad, large (or) major ground operation,” he said.

UN chief warns ‘humanitarian disaster’

An Israeli ground attack in Gaza’s Rafah would lead to an “epic humanitarian disaster”, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned yesterdayafter negotiators left truce talks in Cairo without a deal.

“A massive ground attack in Rafah would lead to (an) epic humanitarian disaster and pull the plug on our efforts to support people as famine looms,” Guterres said during a visit to Nairobi, adding that the situation in the southern Gaza city was “on a knife’s edge”.