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The US last week paused a bomb shipment for Israel over concerns it was going ahead with a major ground operation in Rafah, southern Gaza, a senior administration official says. The shipment consisted of 1,800 2,000lb (907kg) bombs and 1,700 500lb bombs, the official told CBS News, the BBC's media partner in the US. Israel has not "fully addressed" US concerns over humanitarian needs of civilians in Rafah, the official says. Israel made no immediate comment. Overnight, there were further Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip, hours after Israeli forces backed by tanks took control of the key Rafah...

IDF ground forces enter East Rafah after intense shelling; War Cabinet unanimously decides to continue Gaza operation and also send negotiating team to Gaza; US official: 'War Cabinet did not negotiate with Hamas in good faith' About two hours after Hamas' responded positively to an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, Palestinian and Arab media reported Monday evening that IDF forces and tanks began to enter Gaza's East Rafah, in following intense heavy shelling in the eastern area of ​​the city. The IDF spokesman confirmed the report and said that "IDF forces are attacking and operating now against targets of the terrorist organization...

Israeli military vehicles operate on the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in the southern Gaza Strip, in a handout image released May 7, 2024, by the Israel Defense Forces. ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS Jerusalem — An Israeli tank brigade took control Tuesday of the Gaza Strip side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, authorities said, as Israel moved forward with an offensive in the southern city even as cease-fire negotiations with Hamas remain on a knife's edge. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu...

On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) stated that while President Joe Biden has been a strong supporter of Israel, the administration delaying arms sales to the country is wrong and the only conditions should be on Hamas and their enablers. Fetterman praised Biden’s speech earlier in the day and stated that Biden “been very supportive [of] Israel, but I don’t agree with him on everything, like, for example, I was public and I said that I don’t think we should be withholding any kind of munitions and I think, I said I...

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanded that Israel end its military operation in Rafah, less than a day after the IDF launched an operation to destroy the final four Hamas battalions in Gaza. "I am disturbed & distressed by the renewed military activity in Rafah by the Israeli Defence Forces," Guterres wrote on X today (Tuesday). "I urge the Government of Israel to stop any escalation, and engage constructively in the ongoing diplomatic talks." .....

REUTERS BREAKING Egyptian ceasefire accepted by Hamas is not acceptable to Israel. Hamas ceasefire agreement is 'an attempt to delay the Rafah operation.' Ceasefire includes 'far-reaching' terms that Israel does not agree to.

Hamas on Monday evening claimed to accept what it said was an Egyptian and Qatari ceasefire and hostage release proposal, but Israeli officials said the Hamas terms did not meet Israel’s essential demands. “After Hamas agreed to the mediators’ proposal for a ceasefire, the ball is now in the court of Israeli occupation, whether it will agree to the ceasefire agreement or obstruct it,” a senior Hamas official told AFP, soon after the office of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh had announced its acceptance. But soon after receiving the Hamas response, Israeli officials said the terms Hamas claimed to have accepted...

Palestinian news outlets say Israeli forces are pushing into the Kerem Shalom crossing, shelling the area from the air and with artillery fire. Al-Aqsa TV reports that Israeli tanks are firing at the crossing from some 200 meters (650 feet) away, destroying the terminal which has served as one of the main conduits for aid into Gaza since November. The crossing sits some 3 kilometers from the eastern edges of Rafah in the far south of Gaza. Other reports claim that ground forces are moving into the crossing area and that air strikes are hitting eastern Rafah. There is no...

The IDF is currently conducting targeted strikes against Hamas terror targets in eastern Rafah in southern Gaza.

The Israeli military announces that troops are currently striking and operating against Hamas sites “in a targeted manner” in eastern Rafah. The IDF says it will provide further information on the operation soon. The announcement comes after Palestinian media reported a series of strikes in the area, where the IDF earlier called for civilians to evacuate.

Hamas terrorists claimed credit for a rocket attack on Sunday targeting the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza near the Egyptian border, the main entry point for humanitarian aid headed into the enclave. Sirens sounded in Kerem Shalom, southern Israel. pic.twitter.com/OIKEkHSOKq— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) May 5, 2024Photos taken just after the attack show clouds of black smoke rising from the port of entry used to ensure weapons and other terrorist supplies don't make it into Gaza. At least three IDF soldiers were killed and more were injured in the Hamas attack which was launched by the Iran-backed...

People flee the eastern parts of Rafah after the Israeli military began evacuating Palestinian civilians ahead of a threatened assault on the southern Gazan city, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 6, 2024. Hamas warned that the IDF’s evacuation of civilians from eastern Rafah was a dangerous escalation that could scuttle the already strained hostage talks. "The US administration, alongside the occupation, bears responsibility for this terrorism," the official, Sami Abu Zuhri, told Reuters, referring to Israel's alliance with Washington. He warned that it was a "dangerous escalation that will...

Armed groups in Gaza, including one with presumed Hamas links, last month robbed the Bank of Palestine of some $70 million (NIS 260 million), French daily Le Monde reports. The funds were taken from the vaults of several branches of the bank, the report says, citing a Bank of Palestine document sent to “certain international partners” detailing the robberies. On April 16, staff discovered a hole in the ceiling of the safe deposit room at one of the bank’s Gaza branches and found that some $3 million worth of shekels destined for cash dispensers were missing, Le Monde reports. The...

Armed groups in Gaza, including one with presumed Hamas links, last month robbed the Bank of Palestine of some $70 million, French daily Le Monde reported Saturday. The funds were taken from the vaults of several branches of the bank, it said, citing a Bank of Palestine document sent to “certain international partners” detailing the robberies. On April 16, staff discovered a hole in the ceiling of the safe deposit room at one of the bank’s Gaza branches and found that some $3 million worth of Israeli shekels destined for cash dispensers were missing, Le Monde said. The next day,...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a video statement on Sunday insisting that Israel will not agree to Hamas’s demand that it end the war as a condition of a deal to release the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza. “Israel has been, and still is, ready for a pause in the fighting in order to free our hostages,” he said. “[But] Israel will not agree to Hamas’s demands, which would mean surrender; it will continue fighting until all of its objectives are achieved.”

WASHINGTON — President Biden “reiterated” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday that he does not want Israel to invade the Hamas-controlled city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip — following reports that the US has frozen ammunition shipments to deter such an attack. Biden, 81, placed the call on Holocaust Remembrance Day, when Israelis pause to remember the genocide of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II. The call also took place one day before the seven-month anniversary of Hamas terrorists invading southern Israel and killing around 1,200 people — including 33 Americans — on...

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said Monday that Israel’s warning to residents of Rafah to evacuate was not a bluff and marked the beginning of a long-promised operation by the Israel Defense Force (IDF) to win the war. Asked at a press briefing by Breitbart News whether Monday’s warning — including flyers, SMS messages, telephone calls, and Arabic broadcasts — was a tactic to encourage Hamas to accept a hostage deal currently on the table, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer suggested that the warnings were exactly what they appeared to be. “The purpose of the operation in Rafah is to...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) approved a plan Sunday for attacking the final Hamas stronghold in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, near the Egyptian border, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to visit on Tuesday. The IDF said in a statement: Today (Sunday), on the eve of the second holiday of Passover, the Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi, discussed and approved plans for the continuation of the war with the Commanding Officer of the Southern Command, MG Yaron Finkelman, and all the division and brigade commanders in the command.

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan stated that it’s “not clear” that it’s even possible for Israel to have “a credible plan” for an invasion of Rafah that the White House would support. Sullivan said, “[W]e have made clear that our policy in Gaza will be determined by the steps Israel takes, both with respect to facilitating humanitarian assistance that can save lives, and with respect to civilian protection as it conducts its operations. We have also made clear our absolute deep and fundamental concern about a major military operation in...

RAFAH — Hamas has issued a statement of thanks to American university students for their unwavering support over the past few weeks, promising that, in return, the deaths of university students in the coming global intifada would be relatively quick and painless. "Our cold hearts have been warmed by the unquestioning loyalty of American college students," said Hamas spokesman Muhammed Muhammed Al-Muhammed Muhammed to reporters. "As a token of our gratitude, we will shoot you and blow you up instead of cutting your heads off while raping you when we globalize our glorious intifada and cleanse the world of all...