Middle East updates: Israeli leaders back Rafah offensive

Jordan's King Abdullah II has told US President Joe Biden that an Israeli offensive in Rafah would lead to a "new massacre."

Abdullah met with Biden at the White House on Monday.

"The king warned of the repercussions of the Israeli ground offensive on Rafah, which could cause a regional spillover of the conflict," a statement from Jordan's royal court said.

Israel has issued evacuation orders for Palestinians in some parts of the city, suggesting that a long-planned ground invasion may be imminent.

The US has urged Israel not to go ahead with the assault on southern Gaza, where more than a million people have sought refuge.

The Jordanian statement also said Biden and Abdullah stressed the importance of efforts to secure "an immediate cease-fire in Gaza," and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The head of the UN has called on Israel and Hamas to "go the extra mile needed" to "stop the present suffering" and secure a cease-fire in Gaza.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "deeply concerned" by indications showing a ground attack by Israel's military on the southern city of Rafah may be "imminent," his spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.

"The Secretary-General reminds the parties that the protection of civilians is paramount in international humanitarian law."

The UN has repeatedly voiced alarm that a military operation in Rafah could be catastrophic for the more than 1.2 million people who have sought refuge in the city.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his War Cabinet has approved a military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

"The War Cabinet has unanimously decided that Israel is continuing the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas in order to advance the release of our hostages and the other objectives of the war," a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.

He added that efforts to secure a cease-fire would continue, and that Israel would send a delegation to meet with negotiators to try and reach an agreement.

His comments came after Hamas announced it had accepted a truce deal proposed by Egypt and Qatar.

"Even though the Hamas proposal is far from Israel's essential demands, Israel will send a working-level delegation to the mediators," Netanyahu's office said.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced it was striking Hamas targets in eastern Rafah after issuing evacuation orders to thousands of the city's residents earlier in the day.

Hamas has said the Gaza truce proposal it has agreed to has three stages, including Israel's full withdrawal from the Palestinian territory.

Senior Hamas member Khalil al-Hayya told the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel that each phase would last 42 days.

He also said the deal included plans for the return of Palestinians displaced by the war, an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners and the goal of a "permanent cease-fire."

Earlier Monday, Hamas announced it had accepted a cease-fire proposal put forward by Egypt and Qatar. 

The UN children's agency has warned that a ground incursion into Rafah would spell "further catastrophe" for the 600,000 children sheltering there.

"Rafah is now a city of children, who have nowhere safe to go in Gaza. If large-scale military operations start, not only will children be at risk from the violence, but also from chaos and panic, and at a time where their physical and mental states are already
weakened," said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.

The plea came after Israel issued evacuation orders to people in parts of Rafah, signaling that it may soon launch its long-planned offensive in the southern Gazan city.

UNICEF said children in Gaza were already "on the edge of survival," with basic services and infrastructure having been "totally destroyed."

The agency also said there were almost 80,000 infants under the age of 2 among the 1.2 million people who have taken refuge in Rafah.

According to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, around 14,000 children have been killed since the war began in October.

An Israeli official cited by the Reuters news agency said Monday that no deal had been reached to end fighting in Gaza.

The comment came after Palestinian militant group Hamas announced it had accepted a cease-fire proposal put forward by Qatar and Egypt.

The Israeli official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the deal Hamas had agreed to was a "softened" version of an Egyptian proposal that had "far-reaching" conclusions Israel could not accept.

"This would appear to be a ruse intended to make Israel look like the side refusing a deal," the official was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, an Israeli official cited by The Associated Press said Israel was examining the cease-fire proposal, but stressed that the plan approved by Hamas "is not the framework Israel proposed."

Following the announcement from Hamas, the US said it was reviewing the response from Hamas "and discussing it with our partners in the region."

United Nations experts have condemned the "continued and systematic onslaught of violence," particularly against women and children, in the ongoing war in Gaza.

In a statement on Monday, a group of seven special rapporteurs said they were "dismayed" by reports of forced disappearances and sexual assault and violence against women and girls, "including against those detained by Israeli occupation forces."

Special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. They work on a voluntary basis and do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.

"We are appalled that women are being targeted by Israel with such vicious, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, seemingly sparing no means to destroy their lives and deny them their fundamental human rights," they said.

The experts also said Israel's government had failed to conduct an independent investigation into the reported crimes. 

In response to the statement, Israel's mission in Geneva rejected the accusations and said it would investigate any concrete claims of misconduct by soldiers "when presented with credible allegations and evidence."

It also accused the experts of "parroting the agenda" of Hamas which it called a "terrorist organization that is actively destroying the lives of the Palestinian population in Gaza."

More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel's military offensive in Gaza.

Hamas says it has accepted a truce deal proposed by Egypt and Qatar to end the war in Gaza.

The Palestinian militant group announced Monday that its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, had informed Egypt's intelligence minister and Qatar's prime minister in a phone call.

The two countries have been key mediators in cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas.

Negotiations took place in Cairo over the weekend, but ended on Sunday with participants saying no breakthrough had been reached.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

It was also not immediately clear what the proposal entails.

US President Joe Biden has "reiterated his clear position" on Rafah to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said in a statement.

The two leaders spoke by phone on Monday after Israel's army ordered tens of thousands of Palestinians to evacuate from the southern Gazan city.

The order indicates that Israel's long-promised attack on Rafah, where more than 1.2 million Palestinians are sheltering, could be imminent.

The US has repeatedly urged Israel not to go ahead with the offensive.

In Monday's phone call with Netanyahu, Biden said a cease-fire with Hamas was the best way to protect the lives of hostages being held by the militant group in Gaza, according to a spokesperson for the National Security Council cited by The Associated Press.

Netanyahu also told Biden he would ensure that the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza "is open for humanitarian assistance for those in need," the White House said.

Israel shut the crossing on Sunday after an attack by Hamas that killed three soldiers stationed there.

The Palestinian presidency under Mahmoud Abbas has called for Washington to exert pressure on Israel to halt its planned invasion of the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

Abbas' administration is based in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

"We call on the American administration to intervene immediately to prevent this massacre, of which we warn of its dangerous repercussions," the presidency said in a statement, reported by the Palestinian Wafa news agency.

The statement called for a "just solution" to the conflict and the establishment of an "independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."

US officials have repeatedly warned Israel not to go ahead with a major ground offensive in Rafah. Israel has said it needs to enter the border city to eliminate the Hamas militant Islamist group.

US President Joe Biden is scheduled to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later on Monday.

Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program (WFP), told DW that parts of northern Gaza were experiencing "famine-like conditions."

He said his organization was "extremely concerned" about developments in the Gaza Strip after Israel responded to a Hamas strike near the Kerem Shalom crossing by closing it over the weekend. It had been one of the few entry points for essential aid into the Palestinian territory.

The WFP is one of the main organizations delivering aid to Gaza.

"We are also looking at how we can move our staff and our warehouses […] further up north at the moment," he said.

Skau said the WFP had managed to reach a million people a month during the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and hoped to scale up operations after an eventual cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

Speaking of a planned Israeli offensive in Rafah, he said that the border city was "jammed" with displaced people and it would be difficult to avoid civilian casualties in a dense urban environment.

Israeli jets have struck two areas in eastern Rafah, news agencies reported on Monday hours after people in parts of the city had been told to leave the area.

"The areas targeted by the Israeli occupation are near the perimeter of Gaza International Airport, the Al-Shuka area, the Abu Halawa area, the Salaheddin street area and the Salam neighborhood," Gaza civil defense agency spokesman Ahmed Ridwan told French news agency AFP, referring to areas to the city's east.

Israel's military had earlier ordered residents to evacuate Al-Shuka and Al-Salam.

Earlier in the day, the Hamas-affiliated broadcaster Al-Aqsa TV said Israel had carried out airstrikes in eastern areas of Rafah, according to the Reuters news agency.

Israel has said it believes that Rafah, which lies on the border with Egypt and where up to 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering, is the last stronghold of the Hamas militant group in Gaza.

Aid organizations and Israel's allies have warned that an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah could aggravate the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave.

New York's Columbia University has canceled its main graduation ceremony after protests against the war in the Gaza Strip.

The top-ranked university said in a statement it would "forego the university-wide ceremony that is scheduled for May 15," instead holding smaller ceremonies.

Last week, police arrested hundreds of people while breaking up a student-led pro-Palestinian protest camp at the Ivy League school in upper Manhattan that had lasted two weeks.

EU top diplomat Josep Borrell has called for Israel to abandon its plans for a ground offensive in the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

"Israel's evacuation orders to civilians in Rafah portend the worst: more war and famine," Borrell said in a post on the platform X, formerly Twitter.

"The EU, with the International Community, can and must act to prevent such scenario," he said.

Borrell also called for the implementation of a UN Security Council resolution that demands an immediate cease-fire in the war between Hamas and Israel.

More than 1 million Palestinians have sought shelter in Rafah, having fled Israeli offensives in the rest of the enclave.

Germany's Foreign Ministry has called on all parties to continue negotiating towards a cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip.

"The negotiations must not be jeopardized and all sides must make maximum efforts to ensure that the people in Gaza are supplied with humanitarian goods... and that the hostages are freed," a foreign ministry spokesperson said.

In a separate statement, the ministry also criticized Israel's decision to ban the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel, saying that it sent "the wrong signal."

"A free and diverse press landscape is an important cornerstone of any liberal democracy," the ministry said.

Also on Monday, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that a rocket attack on the Kerem Shalom border crossing that killed four Israeli soldiers showed the "true face" of the Hamas militant group.

"The shelling of one of the most important access points for humanitarian aid shows once again that the terrorists of Hamas do not care about the humanitarian needs of the people in Gaza," she said during a visit to Fiji.

Baerbock said Berlin was doing all it could to "finally alleviate the immeasurable suffering of the people in Gaza."

Meanwhile, France's Foreign Ministry said it was "strongly opposed" to a planned Israeli offensive in the southwestern city of Rafah, where up to 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering.

"France also recalls that the forced displacement of a civilian population constitutes a war crime under international law," it said.

Aid organizations and Israel's allies have warned that a major offensive in Rafah could aggravate the already severe humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave.

Israel says that it believes that Rafah is the last stronghold of Hamas, which killed 1,200 people and took 250 people hostage during terror attacks in southern Israel on October 7.