The Israeli military announced it is currently conducting airstrikes in eastern Rafah just hours after Hamas accepted a ceasefire deal Netanyahu denounced as unacceptable.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation would go ahead to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages and achieve “other war aims”. The Israeli military claims Hamas’s few remaining batallions are hiding in the city.
It comes after Hamas accepted a Qatari-Egyptian brokered ceasefire agreement which Israel rejected as a “softened” version of a prior deal.
The US, Israel, Egypt and Qatar have not made the exact terms clear yet, but Washington said it was reviewing Hamas’s response. Israel said it would send a delegation to reach a more favourable agreement.
However, Hamas officials said it consisted of a three-phase plan each lasting 42 days, including an Israeli-Palestinian captive swap and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza strip.
On Monday morning, Rafah was showered with thousands of leaflets ordering more than 100,000 Palestinian refugees to leave the area ahead of Israel’s invasion, which the UN warned could lead to a “bloodbath”.
