Israel attacks Rafah as Hamas offers cease-fire

Gazans fleeing Rafah by car, van and cart — Hamas agreed to a cease-fire proposal, but Israel said it did not meet its "core demands" (Image credit: Ali Jadallah / Anadolu via Getty Images)

What happened

Hamas said Monday it agreed to a cease-fire proposal from the Egyptian and Qatari governments, sparking celebrations in Rafah, Gaza. Israel said the proposal did not meet its "core demands" but it would continue negotiations even as it began what it called "targeted" and "limited" attacks in Rafah. An Israeli tank brigade took "operational control" of Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt, Israel's military said Tuesday.

Who said what

The cease-fire proposal Hamas accepted is "at its core, the same as the Egyptian proposal which Israel has already approved," Haaretz said, citing Egyptian and U.S. officials. The "minor" wording changes were "made in consultation with CIA chief William Burns, who embraced the draft before sending it" to Hamas, The Associated Press said. The proposal is "far from Israel's essential demands," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said. The fundamental disagreement is whether there will be a "temporary pause to allow an exchange of hostages for prisoners or a long-term end to the fighting that would leave Hamas in power," The New York Times said.

What next?

Israel's seizure of the long-demilitarized Rafah crossing, after "hours of whiplash in the Israel-Hamas war," kept the cease-fire negotiations with Hamas "on a knife's edge," the AP said. But Israel's decision to send negotiators to Egypt "left a glimmer of hope alive — if only barely — for an accord that could bring at least a pause in the 7-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.