Palestinians Thought a Cease-Fire Had Been Clinched. Then the Tanks Rolled In.
On-and-off talks to pause the fighting between Israel and Hamas are sending Gazans on an emotional roller coaster
Hours after Israel’s military told them to seek a new place of safety, Gazans in the southern city of Rafah took to the streets Monday night to celebrate: At the 11th hour, Hamas said it had accepted a proposal for a cease-fire. People cheered. Sweets were passed around.
A few hours later, it became clear that the celebrations were premature. The agreement accepted by Hamas turned out to be a counteroffer that Israel hadn’t seen and wouldn’t agree to, shattering hopes of an imminent end to months of hostilities.
On Tuesday, Israel seized control of the Gaza side of a key crossing to Egypt, an operation the Israeli military described as “very precise and limited in space,” even as high-stakes talks for a cease-fire continued in Cairo.
An Israeli delegation, Hamas officials, mediators from Qatar and the head of the Central Intelligence Agency arrived in Cairo for discussions on a cease-fire proposal from the militant group. CIA Director William Burns arrived there from Qatar as he visits the region to further the Biden administration’s efforts to help mediate a cease-fire deal.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has delayed the sale of thousands of precision weapons to Israel, raising questions about whether the U.S. is deliberating slowing the delivery of arms as it pushes back on Israel’s declared plan to invade Rafah.
The move to take the Rafah crossing has strategic as well as symbolic value, suggesting Israel can operate where it likes. Analysts say the increased military activity in Rafah is directly tied to the negotiations and aimed at increasing pressure on the militant group.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday that the operation would continue “until we eliminate Hamas in the Rafah area and the entire Gaza Strip, or until the first hostage returns.”
The roller-coaster scenario is one Palestinians have been living through for months, as negotiations between Hamas and Israel over releasing hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and ending the war have whipped back and forth. It is making Gazans’ already precarious lives increasingly fraught with danger and anxiety. They are unsure whether it is safe to attempt to go home or whether they should evacuate their shelters as Israel advances on Rafah.
“We can’t plan for anything,” said Zahra Shweikhi, a 54-year-old mother of four. “We keep hearing news that the talks are on and off, going well and then going south. Although we are very desperate and exhausted, anything can give us hope, even fake news that the deal is close.”
Shweikhi was living in a tent near a hospital in Rafah so her 11-year-old diabetic son could receive treatment. She was hoping to move back home to Gaza City in the case of a cease-fire. Instead, on Monday she was forced to move her tent in Rafah to an area near the enclave’s shoreline after Israeli forces issued an evacuation order for her area.
Negotiations in Cairo over the weekend between Israel and Hamas appeared to be making headway but then ended Sunday with no progress. Hamas didn’t respond to an Israeli-Egyptian proposal to pause the fighting in exchange for a release of hostages because the proposal didn’t contain long-term guarantees. On Monday, after Israel issued evacuation orders affecting 100,000 people in Rafah, Hamas leaders said they accepted a proposal to pause fighting. Statements from Israel indicated the two sides weren’t close to an imminent deal.
Over the weekend, some Palestinians took to the rubble-filled streets in northern Gaza to sweep and clean—part of a Palestinian custom to mark the welcoming of guests, as many felt a cease-fire was near and their relatives would be able to return from sheltering in the south to their homes. But then on Monday, Israel prepared its troops for a military operation in Rafah and continued to prevent Palestinians from returning to the northern part of the enclave.
The same people who had thought they would be heading home were now trying to decide what to do to increase the odds of their survival.
Ahmed Kasapoglu and his relatives left their shelter in Rafah when a deal seemed on the horizon over the weekend and headed close to a military checkpoint in the central strip that restricts travel between the south and north.
“We did it so we can be the first people to go north to our home in Gaza City once we are allowed,” said Kasapoglu, 25. “I know our building in the city was completely destroyed, but I would still be happy to set up a tent on the rubble of it and stay in our neighborhood.”
But with no deal struck, Israel was still preventing movement to Gaza City, for what it says are security reasons. And when Kasapoglu heard a Rafah offensive was beginning, he decided it was unsafe to return to the enclave’s southernmost city. Instead, Kasapoglu decided to pitch a tent in the strip’s central Bureij neighborhood, staying put until he figures out the safest place to go.
“During the day, we heard people cheering to positive developments surrounding the cease-fire talks. But then in the night we heard the words, ‘Talks failed,’ ” Kasapoglu said. “Two words only—but they destroyed all our hopes and dreams to go back to our normal life.”
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are confronting difficult choices amid a rapidly developing situation. Telecommunication and power blackouts are making it hard to obtain accurate and up-to-date information.
The dilemma means some Palestinians are disregarding evacuation warnings in Rafah, worried that it would be more dangerous to try to move somewhere with no humanitarian aid. For many, no place seems safe. The bombed-out rubble that places such as Khan Younis have become contains little-to-no infrastructure to support a population. Rafah is on the verge of seeing a new Israeli military operation. And the al-Mawasi area along the coast, where Israel has directed people, still doesn’t have the kind of support necessary to accommodate large numbers of people, aid groups say.
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Noureddine Zaki, a 38-year-old father of six from Khan Younis, had left that city months ago, amid heavy fighting. He returned last month, when the Israeli military withdrew its ground troops, but he found it unlivable. There was no water, and his children were afraid the damaged home they were staying in would collapse.
So, Zaki brought his family back to their tent in Rafah a few weeks ago. But with the Rafah offensive on the horizon, he is again returning to the same damaged home in Khan Younis. “There is nothing here,” he said of the city, “but where else shall we go?”
Khalil Shikaki, director of the West Bank-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, said while support of a deal between Israel and Hamas is high in the Gaza Strip, the public widely backs Hamas’s position that a deal should be conditioned on ending the war with the full withdrawal of the Israeli army and the unimpeded return of Palestinians to the northern part of the enclave.
Most Jewish Israelis believe their government should give priority to a deal that brings home hostages rather than pursue military action in Rafah, according to polling this month from the Israel Democracy Institute, a research center based in Jerusalem.
Israel began its military offensive in Gaza after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 left about 1,200 people dead, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, most of them civilians, Palestinian officials say. The figure doesn’t specify how many were combatants.
Tasneem Na’im, an art teacher in Gaza before the war, decided to stay in a relative’s apartment building with her husband in Rafah. She says even though Rafah hasn’t experienced a full-scale ground offensive so far, it has been dangerous for months, with airstrikes raining down often. She doesn’t expect al-Mawasi or any other area in southern Gaza to be much safer.
“I know we are not going to survive, so it is better to die here under the rubble of my home with my husband,” said Na’im, 23. “We lost our original home in Gaza City and 17 members of our family. We have nothing left.”
Write to Omar Abdel-Baqui at omar.abdel-baqui@wsj.com