CAIRO/WASHINGTON/RAFAH, Gaza Strip – The United States believes the remaining differences between Israel and Hamas can be bridged in negotiations over the Palestinian militant group’s latest ceasefire proposal, as talks resume in Cairo on May 8.

Israeli forces on May 7 seized the main border crossing between Gaza and Egypt in Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than one million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter during Israel’s seven-month-long offensive. This cut off a vital route for aid into the tiny enclave, where hundreds of thousands of people are homeless and hungry.

In Cairo, all five delegations participating in ceasefire talks on May 7 – Hamas, Israel, the US, Egypt and Qatar – reacted positively to the resumption of negotiations, and meetings were expected to continue on May 8, two Egyptian sources said.

Central Intelligence Agency director Bill Burns was to travel from Cairo to Israel later on May 8 to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials, a source familiar with his travel said.

Israel on May 6 declared that a three-phase proposal approved by Hamas was unacceptable because terms had been softened.

White House spokesman John Kirby said Hamas presented a revised proposal, and the new text suggested the remaining gaps could “absolutely be closed”. Speaking on May 7, he declined to specify what those were.

Since the only pause in the conflict so far, a week-long ceasefire in November, the two sides have been blocked by Hamas’ refusal to free more Israeli hostages without a promise of a permanent end to the conflict and Israel’s insistence that it would discuss only a temporary halt.

Israeli army footage on May 7 showed tanks rolling through the Rafah crossing complex between Gaza and Egypt, and the Israeli flag raised on the Gaza side. Israel says Rafah is Hamas fighters’ last stronghold.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan, speaking to reporters in Beirut on May 7, warned that if Israel’s military aggression continued in Rafah, there would be no truce agreement.

Israel’s military said it was conducting a limited operation in Rafah to kill fighters and dismantle infrastructure used by Hamas, which runs Gaza. It told civilians, many of whom were previously displaced from other parts of Gaza earlier in the conflict, to go to an “expanded humanitarian zone” some 19km away.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to Israel and Hamas to spare no effort to agree to a truce.

“Make no mistake – a full-scale assault on Rafah would be a human catastrophe,” Mr Guterres said.

In Geneva, UN humanitarian office spokesman Jens Laerke said “panic and despair” were gripping the people in Rafah.

Heavy shelling in Rafah

Residents reported heavy tank shelling in the evening of May 7 in some areas of eastern Rafah. A Rafah municipal building caught fire after Israeli shelling, and one Palestinian was killed and several wounded, medics said. An Israeli strike also killed two Palestinians on a motorcycle, they added.

Health officials said the Abu Yousef Al-Najjar Hospital, the main hospital in Rafah, closed on May 7 after heavy bombardment nearby led medical staff and around 200 patients to flee.

“They have gone crazy. Tanks are firing shells and smoke bombs cover the skies,” said Mr Emad Joudat, 55, a Gaza City resident displaced in Rafah.

The UN and other international aid agencies said the closing of the two crossings into southern Gaza – the Rafah and Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom – virtually cut the enclave off from outside aid and very few stores were available inside.

Families have been crammed into tented camps and makeshift shelters, suffering from shortages of food, water, medicine and other essentials.

Red Crescent sources in Egypt said shipments had completely halted.

“These crossings are a lifeline... They need to be reopened without any delay,” Mr Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s aid agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, said on social media platform X.

The White House said it had been told the Kerem Shalom crossing would reopen on May 8 and that fuel deliveries into Rafah would resume then too.

According to Hamas officials, a draft proposal and an official briefed on the talks, the proposal that Hamas approved on May 6 included a first phase with a six-week ceasefire, an influx of aid to Gaza, the return of 33 Israeli hostages, alive or dead, and the release by Israel of 30 detained Palestinian children and women for each released Israeli hostage.

Critics of the Gaza war have urged US President Joe Biden to pressure Israel to change course. The US, Israeli’s closest ally and main weapons supplier, has delayed some arms shipments to Israel for two weeks, according to four sources on May 7.

The White House and Pentagon declined comment, but this would be the first such delay since the Biden administration offered its full support to Israel after Hamas’ Oct 7 attack.

Israel’s offensive has killed 34,789 Palestinians, most of them civilians, in the conflict, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct 7, killing about 1,200 people and abducting about 250 others, of whom 133 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. REUTERS