Israel Launches Fresh Gaza Strikes As Negotiators Work Towards Truce.

The White House condemned the interruption to humanitarian deliveries, with a senior US official who later reveals that Washington had paused a shipment of bombs last week after Israel failed to address US concerns over its Rafah plans.
After weeks of vowing to launch a ground incursion into the border city of Rafah despite international objections, Israeli tanks moved in, capturing the crossing that has served as the main conduit for aid into the besieged Palestinian territory.
The incursion into the southern city, teeming with internally displaced inhabitants, coincided with a meeting in Cairo between mediators and negotiators to attempt to broker a ceasefire and hostage release agreement in the seven-month conflict between Israel and the Islamist organization Hamas
A senior Hamas official, requesting anonymity, warned this would be Israel’s “last chance” to free the scores of hostages still in militants’ hands