WRAPUP 6-Aid to Gaza choked off after Israeli forces seize Gaza's Rafah border crossing

* LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says seizing Rafah border crossing a 'significant step'

* Netanyahu says ceasefire proposal agreed by Hamas falls 'far short' of Israeli demands

* UN Secretary General says Gaza risks running out of fuel this evening

By Mohammad Salem and Nidal al-Mughrabi RAFAH, Gaza Strip/CAIRO, May 7 - Israeli forces seized the main border crossing between Egypt and southern Gaza on Tuesday, shutting down a vital aid route into the Palestinian enclave that is already on the brink of famine.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas accused Israel of trying to undermine efforts to secure a ceasefire in the seven-month-long war that has laid waste to Gaza and left hundreds of thousands of its people homeless and hungry. Israeli army footage showed tanks rolling through the Rafah crossing complex and the Israeli flag raised on the Gaza side.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said seizing the crossing was a "very significant step" towards its stated aim of destroying Hamas's military capabilities. U.N. and other international aid agencies said the closing of the two crossings into southern Gaza - Rafah and Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom - had virtually cut the enclave off from outside aid and very few stores were available inside.

Red Crescent sources in Egypt said shipments had completely halted. "The Israeli occupation has sentenced the residents of the Strip to death," said Hisham Edwan, spokesperson for the Gaza Border Crossing Authority.

As well as a key entry point for aid, the crossing was the only exit point for those needing to leave Gaza for medical treatment that is no longer available in the enclave. Lama Abu Holi, 8, has been in Al-Aqsa hospital for a month, waiting for a chance to leave for treatment to her injured legs.

"Today my name was at the border, and I should travel to get my legs treated," she said, holding a toy in her hospital bed. "They hurt. I am supposed to have an operation. Because the border crossing is shut today, I could not travel. I am sad because I did not leave today." The seizure of the Rafah crossing came despite weeks of calls from the U.S., other countries and international bodies for Israel to hold off from a big offensive in the Rafah area - said by Israel to be the last stronghold of Hamas fighters but also the refuge of more than one million displaced Palestinian civilians.

Many of the people now in Rafah are struggling to find a safe place to go in the tiny strip of land which has been bombarded almost non-stop since Hamas fighters stormed over the border into Israel on Oct. 7. Families have been crammed into tented camps and makeshift shelters, suffering from shortages of food, water, medicine and other essentials.

Residents on Tuesday evening reported heavier tank shelling in some areas of eastern Rafah after air and tank strikes overnight Monday and on Tuesday. The Gaza health ministry said Israeli strikes across the enclave had killed 54 Palestinians and wounded 96 others in the past 24 hours. Israel's military said a limited operation in Rafah was meant to kill fighters and dismantle infrastructure used by Hamas, which runs Gaza. It has told civilians to go to what it calls an "expanded humanitarian zone" some 20 km (12 miles) away.

Patients started to leave Abu Youssef Al-Najar hospital in east of Rafah after residents and some inside the hospital received phone calls telling them to evacuate areas designated by the Israeli army as a combat zone, medics and residents said. 'IT'S NOT SAFE'

In Geneva, U.N. humanitarian office spokesperson Jens Laerke said "panic and despair" were gripping the people in Rafah. He said that under international law people must have adequate time to prepare for an evacuation, and have a safe route to a safe area with access to aid. This was not the case in the Rafah evacuation, he said.

"It's littered with unexploded ordnance, massive bombs lying in the street. It's not safe," he said. A total of 34,789 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been now killed in the conflict, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and abducting about 250 others, of whom 133 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to Israel and Hamas to spare no effort to get a truce deal and urged Israel to reopen the border crossings immediately, saying Gaza risks running out of fuel this evening.

"Make no mistake – a full-scale assault on Rafah would be a human catastrophe." Hamas said late on Monday it had told Qatari and Egyptian mediators it had agreed to a ceasefire proposal but Netanyahu said the proposal falls "far short" of Israel's demands.

However, the various players appeared willing to talk again on Tuesday. An official briefed on the talks said the Israeli delegation had arrived in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

A Palestinian official close to mediation efforts told Reuters a Hamas delegation may arrive in Cairo on Tuesday or Wednesday to discuss the ceasefire. Any truce would be the first pause in fighting since a week-long ceasefire in November during which Hamas freed around half of the hostages and Israel released 240 Palestinians it was holding in its jails.

Since then, all efforts to reach a new truce have foundered over Hamas' refusal to free more hostages without a promise of a permanent end to the conflict, and Israel's insistence that it would discuss only a temporary pause.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)