(JTA) — Israel has begun warning Palestinians in Rafah to evacuate after exchanging deadly fire with Hamas in the southern Gaza city on Sunday. The developments are unfolding as intense negotiations continue over a deal that would pause the fighting and free dozens of Israeli hostages.
A Hamas rocket barrage on Sunday afternoon from Rafah, in southern Gaza, killed four Israeli soldiers stationed inside Israel at the Kerem Shalom border crossing. In response to the attack, Israel closed the crossing, one path for aid entering Gaza, and bombed Rafah, killing 16, according to local officials there.
For months, Israel has broadcast its intent to invade Rafah, where it says most of Hamas’ remaining organized forces are hiding. But the United States and a chorus of other international leaders oppose an invasion because more than 1 million Palestinians have taken refuge in the city. Israel has said it would evacuate civilians, but U.S. officials say Israel has not yet presented a credible plan to do so.
Prospects of an invasion appeared to be heightened as Israel began to mark Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, on Sunday night. In a speech at a Yom HaShoah ceremony, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decried reports that the International Criminal Court might issue warrants for his and other Israeli leaders’ arrests and promised a continued military campaign against Israel’s foes.
“You will not tie our hands,” he said. “If Israel is forced to stand alone, we will stand alone, and will continue to smite our enemies until we achieve victory. Even if we must stand alone, we will continue fighting human evil.”
Netanyahu’s speech came one day after weekly protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Saturday night demanded that Netanyahu reach a deal for the hostages’ release. Hamas is believed to be holding more than 130 Israeli hostages of the approximately 250 it took on Oct. 7. As many as 100 are thought to still be alive.
Some of the protesters also invoked Yom HaShoah.
“Everyone must be returned,” said Hanna Cohen, whose niece’s body is believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza, according to Reuters. “We will not abandon them as the Jews were abandoned during the Holocaust,”
Threats of a Rafah invasion come as Israel and Hamas are engaging in high-level indirect talks over a deal that would pause the fighting in exchange for the release of at least 33 living Israeli hostages. Israel would also release a far larger number of Palestinian security prisoners.
Hamas has rejected successive Israeli truce offers, demanding a full Israeli pullout from Gaza, which Israel has refused. On Friday, Israel said Hamas had a week to accept its latest offer or the Rafah invasion would commence.
Israeli leaders are reportedly pessimistic about the prospects for a truce, and the prime minister’s deputies are signaling that the invasion will happen. On Saturday, Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s national security adviser and a longtime ally of Netanyahu, said, “The prime minister, backed by all cabinet ministers, has ordered the IDF to carry out the operation in Rafah,” according to the Times of Israel.
At the government’s weekly cabinet meeting, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reportedly said, “The operation will happen soon, even very soon.”
