Israeli tanks have rolled into Rafah. What does this mean for the Palestinians sheltering there?

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli tanks that entered the periphery of Rafah early Tuesday stoked global fears that an offensive on Gaza's southernmost city could endanger the more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there.

The ground assault dimmed hopes of an immediate cease-fire deal that the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have spent months pushing for. In the hours before the attack began, Hamas agreed to a cease-fire proposal that the Israeli government swiftly rejected.

About 1.3 million Palestinians — more than half of Gaza’s population — are jammed into Rafah and face the prospect of having to evacuate with no good plan for where to find adequate shelter.

Here's what we know so far about the operation and evacuation plan.

Now that Israel has begun ordering Palestinians to evacuate parts of Rafah, it is sending them to a patch of land whose current inhabitants say is little more than a makeshift tent camp with squalid conditions.

On Monday, Israel issued a warning to evacuate an area of eastern Rafah where approximately 100,000 Palestinians are sheltering. Israel encouraged the evacuees to move to Muwasi, an Israeli-declared safe zone that it says has expanded and will be equipped with field hospitals, shelter materials and other facilities. The United Nations and aid organizations say Muwasi is not ready to shelter the tens of thousands who might seek refuge there.

Muwasi stretches roughly 8 kilometers (5 miles) along the coastline from Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah, to its other major southern city, Khan Younis.

Israel unilaterally declared the area a “humanitarian zone” early in the war, telling residents they would be safe there. According to the U.N.’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, Muwasi is now home to more than 450,000 displaced Palestinians, including many who arrived in recent months as Israel has intensified its ground offensive in central and southern Gaza.

An Associated Press journalist saw dozens of Palestinians arriving in northern Muwasi on Monday. Although there were dozens of empty tents nearby, there were few signs of widescale preparations being made to accommodate the large influx of evacuees that was expected. Other Palestinians across Rafah, even those outside the evacuation zone, have decided to head to central Gaza or to Khan Younis instead of Muwasi.

UNRWA didn't assist in preparation efforts in Muwasi, as it didn't want to entice people to move to an area that isn't prepared to accept them, said Scott Anderson, the agency's Gaza director. However, UNRWA will provide aid to new evacuees who arrive there moving forward, he said.

Residents say toilets are scarce and there is little running water in Muwasi. Many relieve themselves in walled holes they dig outside of their tents to avoid long queues at the public latrines and maintain privacy. Palestinians say they sometimes wait hours to collect drinking water from the tankers that deliver it to various locations in the camp.

A number of stalls in the camp sell tent-building equipment, canned foods and basic vegetables such as tomatoes and potatoes at inflated prices. A kilogram (roughly 2 pounds) of potatoes goes for around $6 — a high price for the vast majority of people.

Building a large tent from wood and nylon costs about $500, people there said, while buying a ready-made version costs about double.

“The area of Al-Mawasi is overcrowded with more than 400,000 people," UNRWA's commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, posted on X. “It does not have the facilities to take more people & is not safer than other parts of Gaza.”

U.N. officials say an attack on Rafah will collapse the aid operation that is keeping the population across the Gaza Strip alive, and potentially push Palestinians into greater starvation and mass death.

The Rafah crossing has a main route for aid entering the besieged enclave and the only exit for those able to flee into Egypt. Early Tuesday, Israel seized control of the Gaza side of the crossing, saying militants had staged attacks from the area.

Both Rafah and Kerem Shalom, the other main aid entry point, have been closed since a Hamas mortar attack killed four Israeli soldiers. Though smaller entry points still operate, the closure is a blow to efforts to maintain the flow of food, medicine and other supplies that are keeping Gaza’s population alive.

Some entry points have been opened in the north, and the U.S. has promised that a port to bring in supplies by sea will be ready in weeks. Bringing aid into Gaza through Rafah would likely be impossible during an invasion.

Since Israel declared war in response to Hamas’ deadly cross-border attack on Oct. 7, Netanyahu has said a central goal is to destroy its military capabilities.

Israel says Rafah is Hamas’ last major stronghold in Gaza, after operations elsewhere dismantled 18 out of the militant group’s 24 battalions, according to the military. But even in northern Gaza, the first target of the offensive, Hamas has regrouped in some areas and continued to launch attacks.

Israel says Hamas has four battalions in Rafah and that it must send in ground forces to topple them. Some senior militants could also be hiding in the city.

Hamas continues to launch projectiles from Rafah. Hamas launched half a dozen mortars and rockets toward Kerem Shalom again on Tuesday.

Israeli strikes continued throughout Tuesday in Rafah, largely in the city’s eastern section. Plumes of thick black smoke rose over the horizon after several of the strikes.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that the "dangerous escalation threatens the lives of more than a million Palestinians who depend primarily on this crossing as it is the main lifeline of the Gaza Strip,” referring to the Rafah crossing.

Egypt, a strategic partner of Israel, has said that an Israeli military seizure of the Gaza-Egypt border — which is supposed to be demilitarized — or any move to push Palestinians into Egypt would threaten its four-decade-old peace agreement with Israel.

The U.S. has urged Israel not to carry out the operation without a “credible” plan to evacuate civilians and says it still hasn't seen one. The U.S. previously said Israel should use pinpoint operations inside Rafah without a major ground assault.

“The president doesn’t want to see operations in Rafah that put at greater risk the more than a million people that are seeking refuge there,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Monday.

Late Tuesday, a senior Biden administration official said the U.S. had paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on Rafah.

The paused shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs and 1,700 smaller ones, with the U.S. concern focused on how the larger bombs could be used in dense urban setting, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. The official said no final decision had been made yet on proceeding with the shipment later.

The current operation, which is more limited in scope, could be a tactic by Netanyahu to appease ultranationalist and conservative religious partners in his government. They have threatened to pull out of the coalition if he signed onto a cease-fire deal without an operation in Rafah.

Netanyahu's critics say he’s more concerned with keeping his government intact and staying in power than the national interest — an accusation he denies.

One of his coalition members, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, has said that accepting a cease-fire deal without a Rafah operation would amount to Israel “raising a white flag” and giving victory to Hamas.

Now that the Rafah operation has begun, Netanyahu risks further isolating Israel and alienating the U.S.

His vocal refusals to be swayed by world pressure and his promises to launch the operation could be aimed at placating his political allies even as an Israeli negotiating team was in Egypt attempting to revive the possibility of a cease-fire.

Associated Press journalist Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

Palestinians mourn their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)

Israeli soldiers are seen near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

A Palestinian wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip is brought to a hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)

Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike on residential building in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)

An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell from southern Israel towards the Gaza Strip, in a position near the Israel-Gaza border, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on buildings near the separating wall between Egypt and Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, May 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramez Habboub)

Palestinians celebrate in the streets following Hamas's announcement that it accepted a cease-fire proposal in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip on Monday, May 6, 2024. Despite the Hamas announcement, Israel said later Monday it would move forward with its planned offensive on Rafah, in the south of the strip. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Smoke rises following an Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israeli tanks have rolled into Rafah. What does this mean for the Palestinians sheltering there?

Israeli tanks have rolled into Rafah. What does this mean for the Palestinians sheltering there?

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike east of Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)

GENEVA (AP) — With an assist from Paul McCartney the Paralympic Games starts its 100-day race on Monday to the opening ceremony in Paris in August.

The former Beatle has let “We All Stand Together” — the signature tune from an award-winning animated film he wrote and produced 40 years ago — be used in a promotional film for the International Paralympic Committee.

“Sir Paul really understands what we stand for as a movement and he was so generous to us,” IPC president Andrew Parsons told The Associated Press. “He was not difficult to convince, it was something that came very naturally.”

In 100 days from Monday, the Summer Paralympics opening ceremony on Aug. 28 will play out along a section of the Champs-Élysées and Place de la Concorde. The 4,400 athletes taking part will compete over the following 11 days watched by up to 2.7 million spectators in venues including ones beneath the Eiffel Tower and at Versailles Palace.

“We have probably the most famous avenue in the world,” Parsons said in a recent interview. “That is really exciting. The city is really embracing Paralympic athletes, athletes with disabilities.”

“With our games we talk a lot about inclusion and it’s a good symbol of that. That very welcoming attitude is I think a very good start to our games.”

A turning point for the Paralympic movement came in London in 2012 when the host country rose to the occasion with huge ticket sales and a radically fresh approach to broadcasting it by Britain’s Channel 4.

“Still the benchmark games of our movement,” said Parsons, whose home nation Brazil hosted in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

To promote those Rio Paralympics, Channel 4 produced the “We’re the Superhumans” musical film that was a landmark of high-production values and inspirational images.

“Many broadcasters come to us in their preparations in different parts of the world and they normally ask, ‘What is Channel 4 doing?’” Parsons said. The IPC's trailer inspired by McCartney's “Rupert and the Frog Song” film is in that tradition.

The Paris Paralympics will have a record 164 broadcasters worldwide covering 549 events across 22 sports.

Beyond the field of play, the Paralympics has the aim — and past achievements — of changing society, especially in the host nation.

In France and Paris, Parsons, acknowledged, “there still is a lot of work to do when it comes to the mindset of the people and their perceptions of persons with disability.

“It has progressed since they got the games in 2017 but still there is a long way to go. And it doesn’t finish with the closing ceremony.”

Two weeks after the Paralympics close on Sept. 8 the United Nations hosts a global meeting Parsons hopes can drive change.

At the Summit of the Future on Sept. 22-23 the UN will measure progress towards its 17 sustainable development goals.

“We do believe our movement has, in terms of persons of disability been a little bit left behind, if you compare to other human rights movements such as gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity,” Parsons said. “They have been more preeminent in the big debates at the highest possible level.

“We believe that these (Paris) games will be able to really remind global leaders that there is 1.2 billion persons with disabilities out there that need to be included in those conversations.”

AP Paris Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

FILE - The padded hands of Diane Roy of Canada are seen as she waits to compete in the women' 800-meter T54 heat at the 2012 Paralympics games, on Sept. 4, 2012, in London. With an assist from Paul McCartney, the Paralympic Games starts its 100-day race Monday to the opening ceremony in Paris in August. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

FILE - Andrew Parsons, President of the International Paralympic Committee of the Paris 2024 Games, speaks during a media conference in Paris, on Aug. 28, 2023. With an assist from Paul McCartney, the Paralympic Games starts its 100-day race Monday to the opening ceremony in Paris in August. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

Republican Guards ride up the Champs-Elysees avenue during ceremonies marking the 79th anniversary of Victory Day, Wednesday, May 8, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool)

The Britain versus Netherlands sitting volleyball preliminary match at the 2012 Paralympics, on Sept. 1, 2012, in London. Netherlands won the match. With an assist from Paul McCartney, the Paralympic Games starts its 100-day race Monday to the opening ceremony in Paris in August(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

FILE - Paul McCartney performs at Glastonbury Festival in Worthy Farm, Somerset, England, on June 25, 2022. With an assist from Paul McCartney, the Paralympic Games starts its 100-day race Monday to the opening ceremony in Paris in August. (Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP, File)