Israel strikes east Rafah as US warns major strike could stop weapons

CAIRO/RAFAH, Gaza Strip/WASHINGTON – Israeli tanks and warplanes bombed areas of Rafah on May 9, Palestinian residents said, after U.S. President Joe Biden vowed to withhold Israel’s weapons if his forces launched an invasion important city in southern Gaza.

As ceasefire talks continued in Cairo, Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad said their fighters fired anti-tank rockets and mortars at Israeli tanks massed on the city’s eastern outskirts.

Residents and doctors in Rafah, the only major urban area in Gaza that has not yet been invaded by Israeli ground forces, said an Israeli attack on a mosque killed at least three people and wounded others in the eastern Brazil neighborhood. .

Video footage from the scene showed the minaret lying among the rubble, two bodies wrapped in blankets and an injured man being carried away.

On the eastern edge of the city, residents said a helicopter opened fire, while drones flew over homes in several areas, some near rooftops.

Israel says Hamas militants are hiding in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge after fleeing fighting elsewhere in Gaza, and that it needs to eliminate them for its own safety.

One of the displaced, Mohammad Abder-Rahman, said he feared the Israeli bombings presaged an invasion of the city.

“It reminds me of what happened before the Israeli tanks attacked our residential areas in Gaza City: the intense shelling normally allows the tanks to advance towards the places they intend to invade,” the 42-year-old told Reuters via a messaging application.

Ceasefire talks in Egypt’s capital made some progress, but no agreement was reached, according to two Egyptian security sources.

“Over the last few hours, we have been adjusting, adding and removing points based on consultations with both sides,” one of the sources said.

The Hamas delegation left for Doha for consultations, blaming Israel for the lack of agreement so far.

Biden, who says Israel has not put together a convincing plan to safeguard civilians in Rafah, issued his toughest warning yet against an all-out ground invasion.

“I made it clear that if they go to Rafah… I will not provide them with weapons,” Biden told CNN in a May 8 interview.

Israeli tanks took over the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on May 7, cutting off a vital aid route and forcing 80,000 people to flee the city this week, according to the United Nations.

“The cost for these families is unbearable. Nowhere is safe,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said in a post on X.

An Israeli military statement on operations in Gaza released on the morning of May 9 made no reference to Rafah.

The United States is by far the largest supplier of weapons to Israel, and accelerated deliveries after the October 7 Hamas attacks that triggered the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

Biden acknowledged that US bombs have killed Palestinian civilians in the seven-month-old offensive.

US officials have said Washington stopped the delivery of a shipment of 1,800 907kg bombs and 1,700 226kg bombs to Israel because of the risk to civilians in Gaza.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said on May 9 that the United States’ decision to suspend some arms deliveries to Israel will significantly harm the country’s ability to neutralize the power of Hamas, according to Israeli public radio.

But Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Israel’s “enemies and friends” that he would do whatever was necessary to achieve his war goals in Gaza, underscoring the magnitude of the confrontation.

Israel maintained air and tank strikes across Gaza and tanks advanced into the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City in the north, forcing hundreds of families to flee, residents said.

The Israeli military said it was securing Zeitoun, beginning with a series of intelligence-based airstrikes against approximately 25 “terrorist targets.”

Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza, was packed with thousands of people who had fled Rafah in recent days.

Palestinian doctors said two people, including a woman, were killed when a drone fired a missile at a group of people there.