Israel is attacking Rafah with air strikes, as tanks and troops have begun moving in. A ground offensive is underway.
More as I get it.
UPDATE 6:53 PM EDT --
IDF tanks were spotted less than 200 meters from the Rafah crossing to Egypt. This might be a move to cut off the crossing before any Hamas leadership tries to flee.
Israel is launching its offensive from the absolute SOUTH. No one in Gaza is thus able to flee the fighting into Egypt!
(Hal Turner Remark: Israel gave 1.4 million Palestinians just 12 hours to leave Rafah. Except there's nowhere to go; Israel destroyed everything else. Attacking one million cornered refugees. Real bravery those Israelis.)
-- D-9 bulldozers and Merkava tanks have breached the border.
-- IDF are blowing up houses in the Al-Shouka area and the vicinity of the crossing, east of the city of Rafah.
-- Hamas says that it approved of a cease-fire proposal presented by Egypt and Qatar, according to a statement on a Palestinian news site. IT was HOURS AFTER Hamas accepted the peace plan, that Israel began its attack!
-- Air Strikes described as "merciless and unrelenting" are hitting all over Rafah
-- Heavy artillery attack on fringes of eastern Rafah
-- - 162nd Division, 401st Armored Brigade has entered Eastern Rafah. - An IDF source tells me Givati and Nahal are attached, unclear whether already inside.
FLASH
Reports of Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon
Back to Gaza . . .
-- Israeli Air Force strikes Hamas terrorists in Jabalia, northern Gaza. (HT Remark: Didn't Israel tell the Palestinians in Rafah to evacuate to the north??? Now Israel is bombing the NORTH!)
-- From inside the U.S. Government: American official: "Netanyahu and the war government do not appear to be dealing with the final stage of negotiations with Hamas in good faith."
Statement from Saudi Arabia Foreign Ministry
UPDATE 7:27 PM EDT --
-- Israeli artillery units have begun to hit the welfare region intensively at these minutes. Food storage, water storage, what limited medical facilities exist!
-- Egypt has ordered its Army to "High Alert."
-- Al-Arabiya correspondent: Israeli air strikes on the “Al-Tanour neighborhood” east of Rafah.
USA
New York Police have just Declare Level 3 Mobilization as Pro-Palestine Clashing Outside the Metropolitan Opera Gala Forcefully Tearing Through Barricades
UPDATE 7:50 PM EDT --
From __MY__ source in Gaza:
"I am speaking to you from east of Rafah, from within the evacuation zones.
The vehicles are starting to enter from the eastern border.
The situation is very bad, and the bombing and fire belts are continuing and do not stop.
Aircrafts bombing, artillery shelling, lighting bombs, Apache helicopters supporting the vehicles, shooting, the sound of the vehicles’ movements inside the Rafah borders. Oh God, we entrust ourselves to you."
