Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplayed US President Joe Biden's threat to withhold weapons from Israel should it attack the southern Gaza city on Thursday, while Palestinian residents reported that Israeli forces had bombarded areas of Rafah.
Late on Thursday, a senior Israeli official declared that Israel would carry out its operation in Rafah and other areas of the Gaza Strip as scheduled, following the conclusion of the most recent round of indirect negotiations to end hostilities in Gaza in Cairo.
According to the official, Israel has told mediators that it has misgivings about a proposal for a hostage release agreement from Hamas.
"We will fight with our fingernails if necessary," Netanyahu declared in a recorded video. "Yet our possessions go far beyond our fingernails."
Israeli tanks gathered on the eastern edge of the city were targeted by anti-tank rockets and mortars fired by fighters from the Palestinian militant organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad, according to reports from Gaza.
An Israeli attack near a mosque in the eastern Brazil neighborhood of Gaza killed at least three people and injured others, according to residents and medical professionals in Rafah, the largest urban area in the Gaza Strip not yet overrun by Israeli ground forces.
Two bodies covered in blankets and the minaret lying in the debris were captured on camera at the scene.
At least 12 people, including women and children, were killed when two houses in the Sabra neighborhood of Rafah were struck by Israeli aircraft.
Senior Al-Mujahedeen Brigades commander and his family, as well as the families of other group leaders, medics, relatives, and the group itself, were among the dead.
Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Gazans have flocked to seek safety from the bombardments that have left most of the coastal enclave in ruins, is home to what Israel claims are Hamas militants.
The White House in the US reaffirmed its hope that Israel would refrain from carrying out a full operation in Rafah, stating that it did not think doing so would help Israel achieve its goal of vanquishing Hamas.
Spokesman John Kirby stated, "[President Biden's] view is that smashing into Rafah will not advance that objective."
Kirby stated that Israel had put a lot of pressure on Hamas and that a high-risk operation to find the group's remaining leaders was not the best course of action.
Israel's assault on Gaza has killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians and wounded nearly 80,000, most of them civilians, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said.
It launched its offensive in response to a cross-border attack by Hamas militants on Israel on Oct. 7 in which they killed about 1,200 people and abducted 252. Some 128 hostages remain in Gaza and 36 have been declared dead, according to the latest Israeli figures.
Biden on Wednesday issued his starkest warning yet against a full ground invasion in Rafah, telling CNN that: "I made it clear that if they go into Rafah...I'm not supplying the weapons."
Israel's ambassador to the United States said the decision to withhold weapons from Israel over Rafah sends the "wrong message" to Hamas and the country's foes.
"It puts us in a corner because we have to deal with Rafah one way or the other," Ambassador Michael Herzog told a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace webinar.
The Israeli military has the munitions it requires for operations in Rafah and other planned operations, chief armed forces spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.
Israeli armed forces have already killed 50 Palestinian gunmen in east Rafah and uncovered several tunnels, Hagari said. Hamas had no immediate comment.
In Cairo, delegations from Hamas, Israel, the U.S., Egypt and Qatar had been meeting since Tuesday. The talks in Egypt's capital made some headway but no deal was reached, according to two Egyptian security sources.
Izzat El-Risheq, a member of Hamas' political office in Qatar, said the Hamas delegation had left Cairo, having reaffirmed its approval of the mediators' ceasefire proposal. The plan entails the release of Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza and a number of Palestinians jailed by Israel.
Hamas blames Israel for the lack of agreement, and its Al-Aqsa TV's Telegram account said the group would not make any concessions beyond those in the proposal it had accepted.
Israel has said it is open to a truce, but has rejected demands for an end to the war.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Washington continued to engage with Israel on amendments to a ceasefire proposal, adding work to finalize the text of an agreement was "incredibly difficult".
Israeli residents set fire twice to the perimeter of the headquarters of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem, causing extensive damage to the outdoor areas but no casualties, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X. There was no immediate comment from Israeli police.
"Once again, the lives of U.N. staff were at a serious risk," Lazzarini wrote, adding he had decided to close the compound until security is restored.
On Tuesday, Israeli tanks seized the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, cutting off a vital aid route and forcing 80,000 people to flee the city this week, according to the United Nations.
Israel kept up tank and aerial strikes across Gaza and tanks advanced in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City in the north, forcing hundreds of families to flee, residents said. The Israeli military said it was securing Zeitoun, starting with a series of intelligence-based aerial strikes on approximately 25 militant targets.
Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza was packed with people who had fled Rafah in recent days. Palestinian medics said two people, including a woman, were killed when a drone fired a missile at a group of people there.
The closure of the Rafah crossing with Egypt has prevented the evacuation of the wounded and sick and the entry of medical supplies, food trucks and fuel needed to operate hospitals, the Gaza health ministry said on Thursday.
The only kidney dialysis centre in the Rafah area had stopped operating due to the shelling.
"The entire medical sector has collapsed," said Ali Abu Khurma, a Jordanian surgeon volunteering at Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah.
United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths said that for three consecutive days, "nothing and no one has been allowed in or out of Gaza."
"It means no aid. Our supplies are stuck. Our teams are stuck. Civilians in Gaza are being starved and killed, and we are prevented from helping them. This is Gaza today, even after 7 months of horrors," Griffiths posted on X.
