The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) described the occupation army’s storming of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, at dawn on Tuesday, as a “dangerous escalation” against a civilian facility protected by international law, noting that the Zionist move aims to disrupt mediation efforts.

The Hamas movement added, in a press statement, that the occupying entity aims, by storming the Rafah crossing, to exacerbate the humanitarian situation in the Strip, by closing the crossing and preventing the flow of emergency relief aid through it to the besieged Palestinians who are subjected to a war of extermination and systematic starvation by the Zionist occupation.

The movement explained that this crime comes directly after Hamas announced its approval of the mediators’ proposal, confirming the occupation’s intention to disrupt mediation efforts for a ceasefire and the release of prisoners.

The Islamic Resistance Movement also highlighted that the latest Zionist move falls within the framework of the personal interests of Netanyahu and his extremist government, and in implementation of the plan of extermination and displacement carried out by the extreme Zionist right led by the “war criminal” Netanyahu.

The movement called on the American administration and the international community to put pressure on the occupation to stop this escalation, which threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians in Rafah and the entire Gaza Strip.

The occupation army had announced, at dawn on Tuesday, that Zionist special forces had taken control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, and that they had combed the area, citing their efforts to neutralize targets of the Islamic Resistance Movement in the region.

The Zionist entity’s army also revealed that warplanes belonging to the Air Force and the forces of the 215th Brigade raided targets belonging to Hamas, including military buildings and underground infrastructure in the Rafah area, claiming that its forces destroyed them.

For its part, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) renewed its warnings that the attack on Rafah will lead to devastating effects, and that the hunger disaster will worsen, especially in northern Gaza, if the entry of supplies stops.

The occupation army publishes scenes of its storming of the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip.

Bilel Talamaali / English Version: Med.B