RAFAH – One by one, the soldiers squeezed through a narrow entrance to a tunnel in southern Gaza . Inside a dark hallway, some bowed their heads to avoid hitting the low ceiling, while watching their step as they walked over or around jagged concrete, crushed plastic bottles and tattered mattresses.

On Monday, Israel's military took journalists into Rafah — the city at Gaza's southernmost point that troops seized last year and largely flattened — as the 2-month-old Israel-Hamas ceasefire reaches a critical point . Israel has banned international journalists from entering Gaza since the war began more than two years ago, except for rare, brief visits supervised by the military, such as this one.

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