"Death is more dignified than this": Gazans describe forced evacuations from eastern Rafah
From CNN's Abeer Salman in Jerusalem
Palestinians fleeing eastern Rafah described to CNN how they "fled from death" after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday ordered residents to evacuate.
One man, Rabee Gharableh, told CNN that it was his family’s seventh time being displaced.
“The situation is very difficult … we left in fear, as civilian houses were being targeted, people we know. The shelling was arbitrary and random last night,” Gharableh said.
Another woman, who did not share her name, said she “fled from death” with her children. She said her family has been displaced over 10 times since the war broke out and had “endured much suffering and humiliation.”
Wael Nabhan, another man who arrived in Deir el Balah from Rafah on Tuesday, told CNN that his family has also been displaced several times, and have been forced to eat animal food and walk on streets littered with dead bodies. He said they had “endured oppression that no one should ever experience.”
Meanwhile, in Rafah, several people told CNN that they don’t know where to go. One man, Odeh Asaliyeh, said “death is more dignified than this,” and said he “prays to get hit and find rest from all of this.”
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement that would "stop the unbearable suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and of the hostages and their families."
He told reporters at the UN Security Council on Tuesday that a ceasefire and hostage deal is needed now, and that Israel must stop any escalation in Rafah.
"It would be tragic if weeks of intense diplomatic activity for peace in Gaza yield no ceasefire. No release of hostages. And a devastating offensive in Rafah," he said.
Guterres urged both Israel and Hamas to "spare no effort to secure an agreement now" in an attempt to "stop the bloodshed."
Some background: Hamas accepted a ceasefire proposal Monday evening, but Israel said the terms of the deal remained "far from" meeting its demands and warned its military operations in Rafah would continue.
Guterres said he was "disturbed and distressed" by Israel's renewed military activity in Rafah, and called for both the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings to be reopened to allow aid to enter Gaza.
CIA Director Bill Burns will return to Cairo on Tuesday for more talks, a source familiar with the meetings told CNN, as the US and other mediators look to revive an effort to bring about a ceasefire-for-hostages deal.
The main negotiations in Cairo are at the working level and Burns is not expected to join those, but he will meet the various delegations. Both Israel and Qatar has said they would be sending teams.
A Qatari foreign ministry spokesman described the latest round of talks in Cairo as “indirect negotiations between the two parties,” since Israel isn't expected to meet with Hamas officials.
Burns returned to Cairo late last week before moving to Doha over the weekend for further talks on the potential ceasefire deal in Gaza. In Doha, he helped rework the framework with the Qataris that was then presented to Hamas that the group responded to on Monday.
Israel said the terms of that proposal were “far from” meeting its demands, and warned that it would press ahead with a military operation in Gaza.
Hamas on Tuesday said Israel's entrance into Rafah on Monday night constituted a “humanitarian catastrophe,” posing “a direct threat to more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians.”
The militant group said in a statement that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) "launched a ground aggression" in Rafah, where Israeli troops took control of the Palestinian side of the border crossing with Egypt.
In a separate statement, Gaza’s Ministry of Interior and National Security warned that “closing the Rafah crossing in the context of the catastrophic conditions in the Gaza Strip exacerbates the humanitarian crisis and completely isolates the Strip from the outside world. It represents a policy of collective punishment against more than 2 million people".
The ministry described the crossing as “a main lifeline for citizens in the Gaza strip” which “does not represent any threat to the Israeli occupation.”
The IDF said in a statement Tuesday its ground troops “began a precise counterterrorism operation” within “specific areas of eastern Rafah,” based on intelligence and aimed at dismantling Hamas infrastructure.
The key crossing at Rafah is Gaza's only border facility not previously controlled by Israel, and has allowed limited humanitarian aid to enter the enclave in recent months.
Biden to call for a fight against antisemitism at a precarious moment in Israel’s war in Gaza
By CNN's Betsy Klein
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday aims to issue a clarion call to fight a swiftly rising tide of antisemitism at a precarious moment in Israel’s war against Hamas and as protests have swept American college campuses, laying bare Biden’s trouble with some young voters.
Biden’s longtime and stalwart support for Israel has come under intense pressure as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza grows. More than 34,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7 despite the president’s efforts to convince Israel to strike a balance between defending itself and preventing the deaths of Palestinian civilians. While ceasefire talks are ongoing, there is now the looming threat of a full-scale Israeli military invasion into the Gazan city of Rafah where many civilians have taken refuge.
Biden will deliver a keynote address Tuesday at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s annual Days of Remembrance ceremony at the US Capitol, remarks the White House says will honor the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust and “recommit to heeding the lessons of this dark chapter: Never again.”
Biden is expected to “speak to the horrors of October 7,” as well as the subsequent “alarming rise in antisemitism” in the US, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
The president spoke out forcefully against intensifying antisemitism and Islamophobia in the days after Hamas’ attacks on Israel, saying in an October 19 Oval Office address that Americans “can’t stand by and stand silent.” Yet in the seven months since the war began, Islamophobic and antisemitic incidents have significantly increased.
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