Illustrative image (The Israeli Defense Forces)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to launch a “powerful” attack on Rafah, declaring that the Hamas Movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, must be eliminated from the city.
Rafah is Gaza’s southernmost city and the main crossing point into Egypt where humanitarian aid has been allowed to enter the Strip. Some 1.4 million Palestinians are taking shelter in the city, which came under intense bombardment in recent days.
“We will fight until complete victory and this includes a powerful action also in Rafah after we allow the civilian population to leave the battle zones,” Netanyahu said on social media on February 14.
President Macron told Netanyahu over the phone on the same day that the human cost of Israel’s operation in Gaza was “intolerable”. He also expressed “France’s firm opposition to an Israeli offensive in Rafah, which could only lead to a humanitarian disaster of a new magnitude”.
The prime ministers of Australia, Canada and New Zealand also issued a joint statement expressing their “grave concern” that a military operation in Rafah would be “catastrophic”.
“We urge the Israeli government not to go down this path,” the statement read, adding “the impacts on Palestinian civilians from an expanded military operation would be devastating”.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who is currently visiting Israel, warned that people in Rafah with nowhere to go could not “simply vanish into thin air.”
Meanwhile, Spain and the Republic of Ireland have asked the European Union to examine “urgently” whether Israel is complying with its human rights obligations in Gaza under an accord linking rights to trade.
In its latest update, the Hamas-run health ministry revealed that at least 28,663 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed as a result of the Israeli war on Gaza. More than 68,395 others have been wounded.
Hamas had already warned that the planned Israeli attack on Rafah will lead to “tens of thousands” of casualties as people can’t evacuate the city.
In what appears to be an attempt to amass support for an attack on Rafah, Israel claimed on February 12 that it had rescued two hostages during a special operation in Rafah. Hamas said that over 100 people were killed in Israeli strikes on the city on that day.
Now, the Israeli military wants civilians in the city to relocate to what they call a “humanitarian zone,” which is a thin strip of mainly agricultural land along the Mediterranean coast known as al-Mawasi.
While several Western countries have been calling on Israel not to launch an attack on Rafah, no measures to pressure Netanyahu over this issue have been taken so far. Meanwhile, the United States appears to be more supportive than before of the Israeli plans to attack the heavily-populated city.
what egypt going to do if israel invade rafah matter the most – right now they are talking in egypt (hamas, qatar, egypt, mossad and cia/mi6).
would bibi do it? i believe so, because if he doesn’t the war slow down and the ugly settlers would kill bibi (i’m not joking) they are saying if he wouldn’t invade rafah they will remove him from power. don’t forget bibi is done and gone after this… he would do anything to let the war go on and on.
as much as egypt saying don’t invade rafah, i believe the best egypt would do is to burn the peace deal with israel – and heavy remilitarizing sinai (it is a joke because egypt pissed on agreement they had with israel like how israel ignore the said agreement with egypt).
we will see what happens, not much we can do…
– egypt and israel are undermining their peace treaty—and it needs to be stopped. 2022…
that roach turd netanyahu is going to attack rafah and lebanon to try and keep himself out of prison