Egypt is sending a high-level delegation to Israel in the hope of reaching a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in Gaza, while warning a possible new Israeli offensive focused on the southern city of Rafah on the border with Egypt could have catastrophic consequences for regional stability, two officials said Friday.
While in Israel, Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel plans to make clear that Egypt “will not tolerate” Israel’s deployments of troops along Gaza’s borders with Egypt, an Egyptian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to freely discuss the mission.
Earlier Friday, Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group fired anti-tank missiles and artillery shells at an Israeli military convoy in a disputed area along the border, killing an Israeli civilian, the group and Israel’s military.
Hezbollah said that its fighters ambushed the convoy shortly before midnight Thursday, destroying two vehicles. The Israeli military said the ambush wounded an Israeli civilian doing infrastructure work, and that he later died of his wounds.
Low-intensity fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border has repeatedly threatened to boil over as Israel has targeted senior Hezbollah militants in recent months.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border. On the Israeli side, the cross-border fighting has killed 10 civilians and 12 soldiers, while in Lebanon, more than 350 people have been killed, including 50 civilians and 271 Hezbollah members.
On Thursday, Palestinian hospital officials said Israeli airstrikes on the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip killed at least five people.
More than half of the territory’s population of 2.3 million have sought refuge in Rafah, where Israel has conducted near-daily raids as it prepares for an offensive in the city. The Israeli military has massed dozens of tanks and armored vehicles in the area in what appears to be preparations for an invasion of Rafah.
In central Gaza, four people were killed in Israeli tank shelling.
A ship traveling in the Gulf of Aden came under attack Thursday, officials said, the latest assault likely carried out by Yemen’s Houthi rebels over the Israel-Hamas war.
Meanwhile, a top Hamas political official said that the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel.
The Israel-Hamas war was sparked by the unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel says the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
The war has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, around two-thirds of them children and women.

WASHINGTON: US troops have begun construction of a maritime pier off the coast of Gaza that aims to speed the flow of humanitarian aid into the enclave when it becomes operational in May, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

President Joe Biden announced the pier in March as aid officials implored Israel to ease access for relief supplies into Gaza over land routes. Whether the pier will ultimately succeed in boosting humanitarian aid is unclear, as international officials warn of the risk of famine in northern Gaza.

Israel’s six-month-long military campaign against Hamas has devastated the tiny Gaza Strip and plunged its 2.3 million people into a humanitarian catastrophe.

A senior Biden administration official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said humanitarian aid coming off the pier will need to pass through Israeli checkpoints on land. That is despite the aid having already been inspected by Israel in Cyprus prior to being shipped to Gaza. Israel wants to prevent any aid getting to Hamas fighters that boosts their war effort.

The prospect of checkpoints raises questions about possible delays even after aid reaches shore. The United Nations has long complained of obstacles to getting aid in and distributing it throughout Gaza.

“I can confirm that US military vessels, to include the USNS Benavidez, have begun to construct the initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea,” Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder told reporters.

Concerns about the risk to American troops getting caught up in the Israel-Hamas war were underscored on Thursday as news emerged of a mortar attack near the area where the pier will eventually touch ground. No US forces were present, however, and Biden has ordered US forces to not step foot on the Gaza shore.

The pier will initially handle 90 trucks a day, but that number could go up to 150 trucks daily when it is fully operational. The United Nations said this week that the daily average number of trucks entering Gaza during April was 200 and that there had been a peak on Monday of 316.

The official added that about 1,000 US troops would support the military effort, including in coordination cells in Cyprus and Israel.

A third party will be driving trucks down the pier onto the beach, the official added.

The northern Gaza Strip is still heading toward a famine, the deputy UN food chief said on Thursday, appealing for a greater volume of aid and for Israel to allow direct access from its southern Ashdod port to the Erez crossing.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it would provide security and logistics support for the pier.

An Israeli military brigade, which includes thousands of soldiers, along with Israeli Navy ships and Air Force would work to protect US troops who are setting up the pier.

Ryder said the Pentagon was tracking some type of mortar attack in Gaza that caused minimal damage in the marshalling area for the pier. But he added that US forces had not started moving anything to that area yet and there were no US forces on the ground.