There have been recent twists and turns in the Gaza Cease-fire talks

Rafah: Netanyahu’s ultimatum against a war between Israel and Hamas in the last two weeks after the Gaza conflict

More than half of Gaza’s 2.2 million population are sheltered in the city of Rafah, where Israel has been threatening for months to launch a ground offensive. Netanyahu claims that it’s the only way to defeat Hamas. Israel believes there are at least four remaining Hamas battalions.

There is an expanded humanitarian area in the north and northwest of the city. The Israel’s military sent out text messages and posted maps on social media to let people know where to flee.

Israel’s move comes after the latest round of negotiations for a cease fire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas appeared to remain stuck on some issues. CIA director, William Burns, reportedly took part in the Cairo talks over the weekend.

As a Hamas delegation was in Egypt working on a deal, the Israel government decided to shut down the Al Jazeera news network in Israel. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he gave Israel’s negotiation team a very broad mandate even though no Israeli negotiators went to Cairo over the weekend.

“We are not ready to accept a situation in which the Hamas battalions come out of their bunkers, take control of Gaza again, rebuild their military infrastructure, and return to threatening the citizens of Israel,” he said, refusing a deal that demands Israeli troop withdrawal and an end to the war.

The priority of the Hamas is to stop the aggression against the people, according to the senior Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh.

“What is the meaning of the agreement if a ceasefire is not its first outcome,” he said, indicating the talks continued to be stuck on key points regarding Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza and whether a ceasefire and release of hostages would lead to a permanent ceasefire or a temporary truce.

Palestinian frustrations in the Gaza attack: Israeli response to Israel’s latest cease-fire proposal, Netanyahu’s threat to Rafah, Israel

Late in the day, Hamas launched rockets at a border crossing between Gaza and Israel, killing four Israeli soldiers. Israel attacked Gaza more often.

Israel insists an assault on Rafah is necessary to dismantle Hamas battalions operating there. Netanyahu last week vowed to enter the southern Gaza area “with or without a deal” with Hamas.

The offensive again raised the risks of an all-out Israeli assault on Rafah, a move the United States strongly opposes and that aid groups warn will be disastrous for some 1.4 million Palestinians taking refuge there.

Briefing journalists on Monday, Israeli military spokesperson, Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, said Israel’s operation in Rafah would be of “limited scope”. But Shoshani would not say whether this meant a broader incursion had begun or would continue at a later stage.

Khan Younis has been mostly destroyed by Israel’s assault there and fighting with Hamas. There are also unexploded munitions in the area. The region of al- mawasi borders the sea and is without basic humanitarian services, including fuel, water, and health care.

The U.S. and the UN tried to convince Israel to stay out of the conflict. According to Yoav Gallant, the Defense Minister of Israel, “there was no choice but to begin the Israeli operation in Rafah.”

The strikes may prove to be an attempt to turn up the pressure on Hamas negotiators. Late in the day, in keeping with a week of contradictory signals, the Israeli prime minister’s office said that Hamas’s latest cease-fire proposal was unsatisfactory.

The senior Hamas official sent a text message to his friends saying that the group’s representatives arrived in Cairo for the talks with great optimism.

Israeli officials said that their negotiators had reduced the number of hostages they wanted Hamas to release in order to reach a deal.

The confusion was even greater on Monday when Hamas said they had accepted the terms of the truce, while Israel was ordering civilians in Gaza to leave and intensifying its airstrikes.

The Israeli leaders have consistently rejected that trade-off and vowed to keep fighting until Hamas is destroyed.

Egyptian officials said the proposal called for a cease-fire of multiple stages starting with a limited hostage release and partial Israeli troop pullbacks within Gaza. The two sides would also negotiate a “permanent calm” that would lead to a full hostage release and greater Israeli withdrawal out of the territory, they said.

A foreign ministry spokeswoman didn’t comment on the seizure. Egypt warned that the 1979 peace deal between Israel and Egypt could be at risk if Palestinians fled over the border.

The Israeli military said that it seized the crossing because it was being used for terrorist purposes. The military did not provide evidence to immediately support the assertion, though it alleged the area around the crossing had been used to launch a mortar attack that killed four Israeli troops and wounded others near the Kerem Shalom Crossing.

Footage released by the Israeli military showed a tank entering the crossing. Details of the video matched known features of the crossing and showed Israeli flags flying from tanks that seized the area.

Israel has regained control over the Gaza Strip side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, even as truce negotiations with Hamas remain on a knife’s edge.