Gaza live: Israel pummels Rafah with air strikes, maintains hold on border crossing

Good evening, Middle East Eye readers.

Our live coverage of Israel's war on Gaza will shortly be closing for the evening.

Israel continued to pummel Rafah with airstrikes Tuesday night as its ground forces operate in the eastern part of the southern border city. They also maintained control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

Meanwhile, Washington and Arab capitals were dealing with the fallout of Hamas accepting a ceasefire proposal introduced by Qatar and Egypt on Monday, as Israel rejects the offer and pursues its offensive. 

Israel bombed residential homes killing scores of Palestinians and sparked a fire at a municipal building in Rafah after shelling it with artillery. Aid workers and UN agencies warned against the humanitarian impact of Israel’s assault on Rafah.

Here are the day's other major developments:

-The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza staged a protest in Tel Aviv demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach a ceasefire deal with Hamas

-Doctors Without Borders warned that Israel's offensive on Rafah would have “disastrous effects” for Palestinians as it shifted staff to central Gaza citing the Israeli offensive

-US news outlets reported the White House is stalling some arms deliveries to Israel to signal displeasure with its military campaign

-Hamas warned Israel would not have ‘a picnic’ in Rafah, promising tough armed resistance as it warned it would not agree to a ceasefire while Israel operates in the city

-Israel’s assault on Rafah and refusal to sign the ceasefire is riling Cairo, which first introduced the proposal 

-CIA Chief Bill Burns is expected to travel to Israel on Wednesday to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Reuters reports

US Democratic Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley said President Joe Biden must “use his power to stop this attack” on Rafah on social media platform X.

She noted Biden called an Israeli attack on Rafah “a redline," but that “Israeli forces are attacking Rafah, the final place of refuge in the Gaza Strip." 

“Over 1.4M Palestinians are sheltering there & are facing more death & destruction.”

CIA Director Bill Burns will travel to Israel on Wednesday to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, underlining the key role Burns’ has played in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas.

Burns was expected to be in Cairo on Tuesday to meet with Egyptian and Qatari officials who are also mediating between Hamas and Israel. Although Israel sent a delegation to Cairo, it is considered "mid-level," and the final say on a ceasefire comes down to Netanyahu and his war cabinet. 

Reuters first reported the CIA Director’s travels.

The Biden administration has delayed sending a report to Congress ruling whether Israel has violated US and international humanitarian law during its war on Gaza, Politico reported, citing unnamed Congressional sources.

Politico cited an email to lawmakers that the report was “briefly delayed.”

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said earlier on Tuesday that the report wasn’t finished, but that the administration was “trying very hard to meet that deadline”, adding it was possible “it slips just a little bit, but we are trying to get it done by tomorrow." 

Miller said the deadline was set by the administration. Under a National Security Memorandum issued by President Joe Biden in February, the administration said it would report to Congress by 8 May whether it found credible evidence of Israel's assurances that its use of US weapons did not violate US or international law.

The US condemned on Tuesday an attack by Israeli settlers on a Jordanian aid convoy travelling to Erez crossing in northern Gaza.

“The Secretary strongly condemned the recent violent attacks on humanitarian aid convoys from Jordan to Gaza by extremists seeking to prevent aid from reaching Palestinian civilians in need,” according to a readout of a call between US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.

The attack marked the second assault on a Jordanian convoy destined for Gaza in less then a week. Trunks with Jordanian aid have left the Hashemite Kingdom traveling across the occupied West Bank and Israel en route to Gaza.

Israel is blocking aid to Gaza in defiance of the International Court of Justice, Omar Shakir, a director at Human Rights Watch, said on X.

"Despite kids dying of starvation & famine, Israel is still blocking aid critical for the survival of Gaza’s population,” he said.

“States that continue to send arms to Israel risk complicity in Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians,” Shakir added.

The headquarters of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) have been attacked in occupied East Jerusalem, the organisation’s chief said.

“This protest called by an elected member of the Jerusalem municipality is nothing less than harassment, intimidation, vandalism & damage to UN property,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of Unrwa, said on X.

A video posted on X showed protestors waving Israeli flags slamming on the metal door of Unrwa headquarters. They didn’t appear to breach the metal barrier.

The US has completed the construction of a floating pier off the coast of Gaza, but weather conditions are preventing the final assembly, the Pentagon said.

“As of today, the construction of the two portions of the JLOTS – the floating pier and the Trident pier – are complete and awaiting final movement offshore,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said.

"Today there are still forecasted high winds and high sea swells, which are causing unsafe conditions for the JLOTS components to be moved. So the pier sections and military vessels involved in its construction are still positioned at the port of Ashdod,"  Singh added. 

Egypt is “angry” that Israel has refused to endorse a ceasefire deal accepted by Hamas, which Cairo initially introduced, according to a report by the Financial Times.

“The Egyptians are terrified [and they are] angry and exhausted with Israel,” the FT report said, citing an Israeli official familiar with the diplomatic talks between Tel Aviv and Cairo.

Middle East Eye reported earlier that Egypt and Qatar proposed the ceasefire that Hamas said it agreed to on Monday, but Israel pressed ahead with its assault on Rafah.

Read more: Rafah invasion: With defeat in sight, how can Netanyahu declare victory?

The CEO of Red Cross Societies across the world warned that closing the Rafah crossing would hamper the delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“I am deeply concerned by the escalation of hostilities in Rafah, putting many lives at risk,” secretary general and CEO of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Jagan Chapagian said on X.

He also called on Israel to allow the Palestinian Red Crescent to operate freely across Gaza. The group has been targeted in air strikes and its movement has been severely curtailed, according to aid workers.

A senior Hamas official warned that the group will not agree to a ceasefire if Israel continues its offensive on Rafah, saying the Israeli military will not face "a picnic" there.

“We affirm that the military operation in Rafah, if carried out by Israel, will not be a picnic for the Israeli army,” Osama Hamdan said at a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon.

He also said the group would not agree to Israel or another organisation controlling the Rafah border crossing, which Israel seized Monday night.

“The Rafah Crossing was and will remain a purely Egyptian-Palestinian crossing,” he said

Israeli artillery bombed a municipal building in Rafah, which broke out into fire on Tuesday, according to Arabic media reports.

Meanwhile, Israel continued pummeling Rafah, targeting a home where displaced Palestinians were sheltering on Tuesday

Israel will reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing on Wednesday, White House said.

The White House added that fuel deliveries through Rafah should also commence Wednesday.

A White House spokesperson reiterated that the US wants to see Kerem Shalom and the Rafah border crossing opened as soon as possible.

CIA director Bill Burns followed ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel down to the wire, only for the US and Israel to be caught flatfooted when the group announced it would accept a ceasefire presented by Qatar and Egypt, Middle East Eye reveals.

A dispute is raging whether Hamas accepted a ceasefire proposal underwritten by the US or counter-offered with its own offer.

Citing sources with detailed knowledge of the negotiations in Cairo and Doha, Middle East Eye’s Editor-in-Chief David Hearst gives an inside scoop into the high-stakes talks, and reveals why Hamas feels it has the wind at its back as Israel presses forward with its onslaught on Rafah.

READ MORE: Rafah invasion: With defeat in sight, how can Netanyahu declare victory?

US officials have threatened to withhold arms transfers to Israel if it deepens its offensive on Rafah, according to Haaretz.

More details are also coming in about Israel’s efforts to give a private US firm control over the Rafah crossing.

The report says that Israel is pressing for a US security firm to take over management of the Rafah border crossing in the belief that it will address US and Egyptian concerns about the operation.

The firm would take over the duties formally done by Palestinian border officials.