Israel says reopening key Gaza border point as it steps up Rafah attacks

Israeli forces also pound central Gaza as negotiations continue in Egypt for a ceasefire in the enclave.

Israel claims it is reopening the main crossing point for humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip as its military launched new attacks across the Palestinian territory and was building its offensive on southern Rafah despite ongoing talks for a ceasefire.

The Karem Abu Salem crossing, known as Kerem Shalom to Israelis, was taken over by Israeli forces and closed after a Palestinian rocket attack killed four of their soldiers. Despite signalling the opening of the vital frontier in Rafah on the border with Egypt, aid trucks were yet to start entering the enclave on Wednesday.

Israeli tanks took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing on Tuesday, choking off supplies of crucial aid and preventing the injured from leaving, after launching a military incursion on the city on Monday, ordering 400,000 people to evacuate from the crowded eastern sector or face death.

Dozens of Palestinians have since been killed and wounded. The Kuwaiti Hospital, one of the few health facilities still operational in Rafah, has received the bodies of 35 people and 129 wounded, medical sources told Al Jazeera. Families, many already displaced several times over, are now moving to Deir el-Balah in central Gaza – despite there being no safe place in the enclave.

“You cannot create a safe zone in a war zone,” said Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah. “Every time people move from one place to another, they are in search of basic needs and … necessities that are becoming very hard to find right now.”