RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has ordered the military to draw up a plan to evacuate residents of Rafah ahead of an expected Israeli invasion of the southern Gaza town. .
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the announcement Friday following international criticism of Israel's plan to invade the crowded Egyptian border town.
Israel claims Rafah is Hamas' last stronghold and needs to send troops to complete its war plans against the Islamic extremists. But an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians are flocking to the town, fleeing fighting elsewhere in Gaza.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said a “massive operation” was needed in Rafah. He said he called on security officials to present a “dual plan” that includes the evacuation of civilians and a military operation to “collapse” remaining Hamas armed forces.
Early Friday morning, Israel bombed targets in Rafah. The attack came hours after Biden administration officials and aid agencies warned Israel not to expand its ground assault on Gaza into the town, where more than half of the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million people have fled.
Air strikes from night until Friday hit two houses in Rafah, as well as two other locations in central Gaza, including one that damaged a kindergarten that had been used as a shelter for displaced people. . Twenty-two people died, according to Associated Press reporters who witnessed bodies arriving at hospitals.
US President Joe Biden said Thursday that Israel's actions in the war were prompted by deadly attacks. October 7 Hamas attackis an “overreach”, the US's harshest criticism yet of its close ally and an expression of concern over the rapidly increasing number of civilian deaths in Gaza.
The Hamas-run Gaza Strip's health ministry said on Friday that the overall Palestinian death toll is now approaching 28,000, about two-thirds of them women and children. The Count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Israel's announced intention to expand its ground assault on Rafah also sparked an unusual public backlash in Washington.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Thursday: “We have not yet seen any evidence that they are seriously planning such an operation.” “If we proceed with such an attack now, with no plan and little thought, in an area where a million people have been evacuated, it would be a catastrophe.”
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the Israeli ground attack in Rafah was “not something we support.”
The comments come at a time when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Israel to seek a cease-fire agreement in exchange for his release, intensifying tensions between the US and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who this week pushed a message of “total victory” in the war. suggested. Dozens of hostages held by Hamas.
Aid agency officials also warned of a possible Rafah attack. “We need Gaza's last remaining hospitals, shelters, markets and water systems to continue to function,” said UNICEF Director Catherine Russell. She said: “Without them, hunger and disease would skyrocket and more children would die.”
As the war enters its fifth month, Israeli ground forces remain concentrated in the city of Khan Yunis just north of Rafah, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said Rafah is next, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people to die. causing panic among
Palestinian women react after their home was attacked by an Israeli attack in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shubeir)
Prime Minister Netanyahu's words are also cautious Egyptsaid that ground operations in the Rafah region and mass evacuations across the border would undermine the 40-year peace treaty with Israel. The nearly sealed border between Gaza and Egypt is also the main entry point for humanitarian aid.
night air raid
Shortly after midnight on Friday, five members of the Al Saeed family, including three children and a woman, were killed in an attack on a residential building near Kuwait Hospital in Rafah. Rafah's second attack killed three more people.
Nine people lost their lives in a nighttime strike in the central city of Deir al-Balah. A strike also broke out in central Gaza near a kindergarten-turned-evacuation center, damaging buildings. Five people were killed and several more were injured. According to witnesses, residents at the evacuation center were asleep at the time.
A woman with a little girl in her arms cried out as she arrived at the local Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. This is the work of despicable Zionist enemies who choose innocent civilians. Is this girl firing rockets at Jews? May God help us. ”
Some of the injured children were treated while lying on the floor.
Palestinians look on at the destruction after an Israeli attack in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, February 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shubeir)
More than half of Gaza's population fled to Rafah, following Israeli evacuation orders ahead of continued escalation of ground attacks by the military. Evacuation orders now cover two-thirds of the besieged area, but an estimated 300,000 Palestinians remain in the northern half of Gaza, where civilians were ordered to leave early in the war.
Even in areas of refuge such as Rafah, Israel routinely carries out airstrikes against what it claims are Hamas targets. Because they operate from civilian areas, the insurgents are responsible for civilian casualties.
work towards a ceasefire
Israel's four-month air and ground offensive – one of the most destructive in recent history —Local health authorities announced Friday that 27,947 Palestinians were killed and more than 67,000 injured. The war forced most people from their homes and drove a quarter of the population to starvation.
Biden said he is “working tirelessly” to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a long-term cessation of fighting. The ceasefire is linked to the release of dozens of hostages, some 250 of whom were captured on October 7 and are still believed to be held by Hamas.
Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected Hamas' demands for an end to the war and a hostage deal that would include the release of hundreds of retired Palestinian prisoners serving long sentences in Israel for deadly attacks carried out as part of the long-running conflict. did. Netanyahu dismissed Hamas' demands as delusional, even though Mr. Blinken said he believed continued negotiations through Egyptian and Qatari intermediaries were possible.
With Hamas' intervention, Israel's war goals seem increasingly elusive Reappears in parts of northern Gaza, was the first target of the attack and saw widespread destruction. Israel has rescued only one hostage, but Hamas says several others were killed in airstrikes and failed rescue operations.
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Mr. Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, and Mr. Mourou from Beirut.
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