Israeli Channel 12 said that Tel Aviv threatened Egypt to strike any trucks carrying aid that tried to enter Gaza from the Rafah crossing.
The Rafah border crossing, the only passage through the Gaza Strip to the outside world, was bombed for the second time in less than 24 hours, as the war between the Palestinian Hamas movement and Israel entered its fourth day.
Witnesses told AFP that the bombing targeted “the buffer zone between the Egyptian and Palestinian gates of the Rafah crossing, which led to damage to the internal hall on the Palestinian side” of the crossing.
The Sinai Organization for Human Rights, a human rights organization, confirmed that Israeli fighters bombed the crossing, which once again led to its closure.
The Rafah crossing was closed on Monday for a short period after “the Palestinian side was bombed,” according to what a security source told AFP.
Since May 2018, Egypt has left the Rafah crossing, the only passage for residents of the Gaza Strip that is not controlled by Israel, open most of the time after years of almost permanently closing it.
Gaza Strip, which has been subject to an Israeli siege since 2007, has been subjected to continuous bombardment following a sudden and unprecedented Hamas attack on Saturday that killed hundreds of Israelis.
The Israeli response to the attack led to the deaths of about 700 people in Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health in the Strip.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, discussed with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Monday the possibility of establishing a humanitarian corridor to deliver the basic medical supplies needed by Gaza’s hospitals.
According to the United Nations, the war between Hamas and Israel since its outbreak on Saturday has led to the displacement of 187,000 people inside the Gaza Strip.
The Egyptian Cairo News Channel, which is close to the authorities, quoted “high-ranking” security sources that “Egypt has confronted and will confront the resettlement of the people of Gaza in Sinai.”
Egypt, the traditional mediator between Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza, was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
Since the Saturday Hamas attack on Israel, Israeli news outlet Ynet reports that Egyptian intelligence Chief Abbas Kamel warned Prime Minister Netanyahu 10 days before the attack that “something unusual, a terrible operation” was about to take place around Gaza.
However, Netanyahu’s office calls the Ynet report “a lie,” according to The Times of Israel.
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