TRANSCRIPT
Israel has always maintained it's determined to "wipe out" a group bent on its destruction.
It says its Rafah offensive is focused on rescuing hostages and rooting out Hamas fighters.
Israeli spokesman David Mencer says 300 Hamas gunmen were killed in the Rafah operation, and that now Israel has control of the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the Gaza-Egypt border, supplies have been cut off to the militant group.
"The corridor has been the Hamas lifeline. It has kept Hamas alive with their smuggled deadly weapons. We have already eliminated around 300 terrorists in Rafah in this operation so far. Some of them were hiding underground. Our troops fought them bravely in close quarters combat. Very, very difficult conditions. We have lost our own troops, we mentioned just yesterday, three of our boys. Soldiers have been seriously injured. But IDF have found dozens of launchers along the corridor. Launchers loaded and ready to fire rockets; launch pits with rockets and mortars, again, loaded and ready to fire into Israel right up against the border with Egypt."
Israel has faced worldwide condemnation for its operations in Gaza, including Rafah, for what critics say is a failure to protect civilians.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has buried two of its aid workers who were killed in Rafah.
Eyewitness Abed Abu Ghali claims the ambulance team was targeted.
"As soon as the ambulance reached the roundabout, it was targeted directly and after shots were fired on us when we came to get them, us and the ambulances that came, they targeted the ambulance team with quadcopters and after that the ambulance was targeted one more time by artillery at night. In the morning the corpses were charcoaled in the most unnatural way and we had to take them in the morning, charcoaled parts."
Dr. Rik Peeperkorn is the World Health Organisation's representative in Palestine.
He's also been critical of the Israeli Rafah operation.
“WHO actually deplores this attack, this attack on displaced people. And it demonstrates that there is no safe place in Gaza at all. It's clear.”
The veteran humanitarian says health professionals in Gaza are stretched to the limit because they don't have access to basic supplies and equipment any more.
He says more medical supplies need to be moved into Gaza.
"We have distributed an enormous amount of essential managed and medical supplies, but it's not enough. I mean, like, this is such an overwhelming disaster. It's not enough. Now when there would be a sustained ceasefire and there would be entry routes into Gaza which are properly managed, when there is a deconfliction mechanism which actually facilitates and supports, much more is possible."
Ceasefire talks have continued while the war rages on.
Hamas has now told mediators it is ready for what it calls a "complete agreement" including an exchange of hostages and prisoners if Israel stops the war.
It says it wouldn't take part in any more negotiations while the fighting continues, and in a statement, accused Israel of using the ceasefire negotiations as a cover for continued aggression.
The statement says:
"Hamas and the Palestinian factions will not accept to be part of this policy by continuing ceasefire negotiations in light of the aggression, siege, starvation and genocide of our people". Today, we informed the mediators of our clear position that if the occupation stops its war and aggression against our people in Gaza, our readiness (is) to reach a complete agreement that includes a comprehensive exchange deal."
Israel has rejected previous Hamas offers as insufficient.
And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continued to protest the International Criminal Court over his arrest warrant relating to alleged war crimes carried out in Gaza.
In an interview recorded for broadcast on Sunday by satellite and online broadcaster Sirius XM's Morgan Ortagus show, the Prime Minister said he was “surprised and disappointed” that the US Congress has so far failed to sanction the court - and maintained the charges were 'outrageous'.
“So these charges are completely false. A false symmetry between the democracy and the terrorist tyranny, and false charges that have no bearing whatsoever. In response to this, the United States said that they would, in fact, back those in a bipartisan way, back the sanctions bill that threatened not only Israel, but threatened America because the ICC is basically sanctioning a democracy that is trying to fight terrorists who are who are basically seeking immunity by committing a double war crime. Targeting civilians - hiding behind civilians. You can't let them get away with that, because then every democracy is in peril."
He says Israel is not going to let 'some rogue prosecutor in the Hague' issue warrants for the arrests of its leaders.
