Fighting and shelling continued on the outskirts of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah as Israel announced the critical Kerem Shalom crossing had been reopened to aid.
The Israeli army said its troops killed a Hamas fighter in eastern Rafah as part of a “precision” counter-terrorism operation. Hamas also reported fighting.
Earlier, the military said a truck had arrived at Kerem Shalom, which was closed after Sunday’s rocket attack.
However, the United Nations says no goods have yet passed through the crossing.
The US said its borders had reopened but it was unable to deliver aid locally “due to logistical and security concerns.”
The closure of the Rafah crossing is of particular concern given its impact on fuel transport. The United Nations says all the fuel goes there.
“Without fuel, trucks will not be able to deliver vital humanitarian aid, water pumps will stop functioning and remaining hospitals will close,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency, Unruwa, said on social media on Wednesday. Deaf,” he said.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned that hospitals in southern Gaza only have three days’ worth of fuel left.
Negotiations on a new ceasefire and hostage release agreement resumed in Cairo, with the US saying it believed revised Hamas proposals could lead to a breakthrough.
The Israeli military downplayed the significance of the US government’s decision to halt shipments of powerful bombs over concerns that Israel was about to launch a major attack on the city of Rafah.
Seven months into the war against Hamas in Gaza, Israel has insisted that victory is only possible if it captures Rafah.
But with more than a million Palestinians fleeing fighting elsewhere, the United Nations and Western countries have warned that an all-out offensive could have devastating humanitarian consequences.
Smoke from Israeli airstrikes and heavy gunfire could be heard over Rafah on Wednesday, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its forces continued limited offensives in the eastern region.
The IDF said in a statement that in several battles over the past day, it had “eliminated terrorists and discovered terrorist infrastructure and several underground mine shafts.” It added that they had also carried out attacks on the Gaza side of the Rafah border.
The IDF also said its aircraft had struck more than 100 “terrorist targets” across Gaza in the past day.
Residents of Rafah reported heavy shelling throughout the night, and video footage on Wednesday morning showed people searching through the rubble of buildings destroyed in the airstrike.
“According to military maps, we are in a safe area, an area where there are no operations,” neighbor Reda al-Naziri told Reuters.
“As we were sitting there, suddenly there was an explosion. The house next door was gone and ours was damaged inside. There were only civilians in the house. A woman was killed. They were all children.”
Palestinian doctors also announced that seven members of a family, including five children, were killed in an overnight attack on a house in Gaza City’s Zeitoun district in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of an estimated 100,000 residents and displaced people in many parts of the east and said it would find field hospitals, tents and relief supplies in an “expanded humanitarian zone” stretching north from al-Mawasi. The city of Khan Younis and the center of Deir Al Bala.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of the World Health Organization said that one of the three hospitals in Rafah, Al-Najjar Hospital, is “no longer functional due to ongoing hostilities in the vicinity and military operations in Rafah.” said.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also warned that partially functioning hospitals in Kuwait and the Emirates would soon run out of fuel if the UN did not receive supplies. “Hospitals in southern Gaza only have three days’ worth of fuel left, which means services may soon be cut off,” he added.
The WHO also said the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Yunis, to which critically ill patients from Rafah are referred, may become unreachable.
A displaced man taking shelter in a hospital told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Today program that life had been extremely difficult.
“I have diabetes, high blood pressure and osteoarthritis, which means evacuation would cause a lot of pain for me,” he said. “We want everyone to return to our land in Gaza and settle in tents at their home sites.”
On Wednesday morning, the IDF announced the reopening of Kerem Shalom for humanitarian assistance.
“Trucks from Egypt have already arrived at the crossing, carrying humanitarian supplies such as food, water, evacuation equipment, medicine and medical equipment donated by the international community,” the newspaper said.
“After a thorough safety inspection by security personnel, the equipment will be transferred to the Gaza side of the intersection.”
The military also said the recently reopened Erez border with northern Gaza remained operational.
However, Umruwa, the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees (Gaza’s largest humanitarian organization), reported that it was not receiving aid to Gaza through Kerem Shalom or Rafah, which remain closed.
Scott Anderson, the Gaza Strip’s senior deputy director for Umruwa Affairs, said: “We are not receiving any aid to the Gaza Strip. Military operations continue in the Trans-Rafah area. Artillery shelling continues throughout the day in the area.” said.
“There is no fuel or aid coming into the Gaza Strip. This is disastrous for the humanitarian response.”
An Israeli government spokesperson disputed Mr. Unrwa’s claims, insisting that the aid was being channeled through Kerem Shalom.
“We want to ask the United Nations every day why there is so much surplus on the Gaza side of the open and Kerem Shalom and it is not being distributed,” Abi Heiman said at a briefing.
Six more projectiles were fired from the Rafah area towards Kerem Shalom on Tuesday, but no casualties were reported.
The second attack came hours after Israeli tanks entered the Palestinian side of the Rafah border.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “disturbed and distressed” by Israel’s military activity in Rafah.
He also warned that the closure of the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings “has a particularly negative impact on the already dire humanitarian situation” and called for their immediate reopening.
Guterres urged Israel and Hamas to “spare no effort” to reach a ceasefire agreement, warning that they were at a “defining moment” for the fate of the entire region.
Israel declared on Monday that a three-step proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release approved by Hamas was unacceptable.
White House Press Secretary John Kirby said a revised document later submitted by Hamas suggested the remaining gaps could “absolutely be closed.”
Following a cross-border attack by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, Israel launched a military operation to annihilate Hamas in the Gaza Strip, resulting in approximately 1,200 deaths and 252 hostages.
More than 34,840 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-controlled region’s health ministry.
In a deal reached in November, Hamas released 105 hostages and about 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons in exchange for a week-long ceasefire. Israel announced that 128 hostages were missing, 36 of whom were presumed dead.
