CAIRO/RAFAH, Gaza Strip/WASHINGTON - Israeli tanks and warplanes bombarded areas of Rafah on May 9, Palestinian residents said, after US President Joe Biden vowed to withhold weapons from Israel if its forces launched a major invasion of the southern Gaza city.

As ceasefire talks continued in Cairo, Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad said their fighters fired anti-tank rockets and mortars at Israeli tanks massed on the eastern outskirts of the city.

Residents and medics in Rafah, the only major urban area in Gaza not yet invaded by Israeli ground forces, said an Israeli attack at a mosque killed at least three people and wounded others in the eastern Brazil neighbourhood.

Video footage from the scene showed the minaret lying in the rubble, two bodies wrapped in blankets and a wounded man being carried away.

On the city’s eastern edge, residents said a helicopter opened fire, while drones hovered above houses in several areas, some close to rooftops.

Israel says Hamas militants are hiding in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge after fleeing combat elsewhere in Gaza, and it needs to eliminate them for its own security.

One of the displaced, Mr Mohammad Abder-Rahman, said he feared the Israeli bombardments presaged an invasion of the city.

“It reminds me of what happened before Israeli tanks stormed our residential areas in Gaza City,” the 42-year-old told Reuters via a messaging app. “Heavy bombardment usually allows tanks to roll towards places they intend to invade.”

Ceasefire talks in Egypt’s capital made some headway, but no deal was reached, according to two Egyptian security sources.

“Over the past few hours, we’ve been adjusting and adding and deleting points based on consultations with both sides,” one of the sources said.

The Hamas delegation left for Doha, Qatar, for consultations, blaming Israel for the lack of agreement so far.

Mr Biden, who says Israel has not produced a convincing plan to safeguard civilians in Rafah, issued his starkest warning yet against a full ground invasion.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah... I’m not supplying the weapons,” Mr Biden told CNN in an interview on May 8.

Israeli tanks seized the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on May 7, cutting off a vital aid route and forcing 80,000 people to flee the city this week, according to the United Nations.

“The toll on these families is unbearable. Nowhere is safe,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said in a post on X.

An Israeli military statement on Gaza operations on the morning of May 9 did not refer to Rafah.

The United States is by far the biggest supplier of weapons to Israel, and it accelerated deliveries after the Hamas attacks on Oct 7 that triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

Mr Biden acknowledged that US bombs have killed Palestinian civilians in the seven-month-old offensive.

US officials have said Washington paused delivery of a shipment of 1,800 907kg bombs and 1,700 226kg bombs to Israel because of the risk to civilians in Gaza.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mr Gilad Erdan, said on May 9 that the US decision to pause some weapons deliveries to Israel will significantly impair the country’s ability to neutralise Hamas’ power, according to Israeli public radio.

But Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told Israel’s “enemies and friends” it would do whatever was necessary to achieve its war aims in Gaza, underlining the scale of the stand-off.

Israel kept up tank and aerial strikes across Gaza and tanks advanced in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City in the north, forcing hundreds of families to flee, residents said.

The Israeli military said it was securing Zeitoun, starting with a series of intelligence-based aerial strikes on approximately 25 “terror targets”.

Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza was heaving with thousands of people who had fled Rafah in recent days.

Palestinian medics said two people, including a woman, were killed when a drone fired a missile at a group of people there.

Ceasefire talks

In Cairo, delegations from Hamas, Israel, the US, Egypt and Qatar have been meeting since May 7.

CIA director William Burns has shuttled between Cairo and Jerusalem, meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on May 8.

Mr Izzat El-Risheq, a member of Hamas’ political office in Qatar, said the Hamas delegation had left Cairo, having reaffirmed its approval to the mediators’ ceasefire proposal.

The plan entails the release of Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza and a number of Palestinians jailed by Israel.

Earlier this week, Israel declared that the three-phase truce proposal approved by Hamas was unacceptable because terms had been watered down. It did not respond immediately to the Hamas statement.

The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct 7, killing about 1,200 people and abducting 252, of whom 128 remain hostage in Gaza and 36 have been declared dead, according to the latest Israeli figures.

Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed nearly 35,000 people and wounded nearly 80,000, most of them civilians, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

The closure of the Rafah crossing with Egypt had prevented the evacuation of the wounded and sick and the entry of medical supplies, food lorries and fuel needed to operate hospitals, the Gaza Health Ministry said on May 9. It said the only kidney dialysis centre in the Rafah area had stopped operating due to the shelling. 

“There used to be medical aid coming in, and now there is no medical aid,” said Dr Ali Abu Khurma, a Jordanian surgeon volunteering at Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah. “The entire medical sector has collapsed.” REUTERS