2024-04-24 21:19:54
image source, Reuters
2 hours ago
The pace of Israeli preparations for a possible military attack on the town of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, is accelerating.
A senior Israeli Defense Ministry official said Wednesday that the Israeli army was preparing to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Rafah and attack strongholds of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), despite international warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe.
The defense official, who requested anonymity, told Reuters the army might begin its work immediately but was waiting for a green light from Netanyahu.
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government announced that Israel was “moving forward” with a ground operation, but did not specify a timetable. The Israeli army also indicated that it had “called up two battalions of reserve soldiers to carry out missions in Gaza”. ”
Israel has brought tens of thousands of tents for the Palestinian civilians it plans to evacuate from Rafah, in anticipation of a possible attack on the city, which Israeli sources describe as the “last bastion” of the Islamic resistance movement “Hamas » in the Gaza Strip. according to the Reuters news agency.
Israeli government sources said the War Cabinet intended to meet over the next two weeks to discuss the evacuation of civilians, which is expected to take regarding a month, as a first step in the mop-up operation. Rafah.
image source, EPA
Comment on the photo, The displaced Palestinians fled Rafah and the northern Gaza Strip to the west of Deir al-Balah, in the south of the Strip, occupied by the Israeli army.
The population of Rafah, adjacent to the Egyptian border, exceeds the million Palestinians who have fled Israel’s more than six-month-old assault on the rest of the besieged strip. Their plight is causing concern among Western powers as well as Egypt, which has repeatedly stressed that it will not allow the influx of refugees from Gaza into its territory.
“Close coordination with Egypt”
Itzik Cohen, commander of a division operating in Gaza, was quoted as saying: “Hamas has suffered a severe blow in the northern and central Gaza Strip, and will soon receive a similar blow in Rafah. »
Israel says Rafah includes four combat battalions affiliated with Hamas and has been reinforced by thousands of the movement’s fighters withdrawn from other areas of the strip. He therefore believes that “there is no victory in the Gaza war without seizing Rafah and crushing it”. Hamas, and recover all the hostages there.
US news site Axios reported that Israeli army chief of staff Herzi Halevy and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar met on Wednesday with Egyptian intelligence director General Abbas Kamel and others officials to discuss a possible Israeli operation in the town of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. .
The website stated that “close military and diplomatic coordination with Egypt represents one of the fundamental conditions for possible Israeli military action in Rafah”, indicating Israel’s intention to control the Philadelphia axis adjacent to the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
Egyptian officials fear that such an operation might lead to the entry of tens of thousands of Palestinians from Rafah into Egyptian territory.
image source, FDI
Comment on the photo, Earlier this week, the Israeli military approved the updated and final plan for Operation Rafah.
“Evacuation in stages”
According to the plan prepared by the Israeli army, the Palestinians of Rafah will have to evacuate the tent sites installed in recent months.
The Israel 24 website quoted the official TV channel as saying that, according to the plan presented to the Americans and other parties in the region, the Israeli army’s advance in Rafah would take place in stages, with each stage divided into zones. specific geographic locations, and the local population will be informed in advance of the Israeli army’s movements – residents will thus be able to evacuate the area in stages, according to the Israeli website.
According to a Wall Street Journal report on Israeli and Egyptian officials, the evacuation will include the transport of civilians to the nearby town of Khan Yunis, in addition to other areas of Gaza, where Israel will set up shelters including tents, food and medical facilities.
Officials said the Israeli army would gradually move its forces toward Rafah and target areas where Hamas leaders and militants are believed to be hiding.
image source, EPA
Comment on the photo, An Egyptian troop transport on the border with Rafah
Egyptian officials have said the fighting in Rafah is expected to last at least six weeks, although the operation’s timetable remains uncertain.
The report cited an Israeli security official who said the army “will have a very specific operational plan because the conditions there are complex,” adding: “A humanitarian response will happen at the same time.”
“A change in the American language”
The report came as US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said: “We do not want Palestinians evacuated from Rafah unless it is a return to their homes.”
US President Joe Biden’s administration has repeatedly expressed opposition to the Israeli military’s comprehensive invasion of Rafah, but there appears to be a shift in the US State Department’s language.
“We do not believe there is an effective way to evacuate 1.4 million Palestinians without causing serious harm to civilians and seriously hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid,” Miller said.
At other times, U.S. officials have indicated they would be willing to accept an IDF attack on Rafah if Israel might safely evacuate civilians there and their humanitarian needs were met.
Washington says launching a large-scale military attack in Rafah would endanger Palestinians sheltering there, wreak havoc on the main humanitarian aid center in southern Gaza and increase Israel’s international isolation without strengthen its security.
The United States is instead pushing Israel to carry out targeted operations once morest Hamas leaders in Rafah, while coordinating with Cairo to secure the Egypt-Gaza border and create an underground wall to prevent weapons smuggling. and stifle the remaining armed elements in the territory. region, a US official told The Times of Israel.
A new camp near Khan Yunis
Satellite images showed two new camps in the southern Gaza Strip, in the form of rows of tents at a site west of Khan Yunis, in addition to tents near Rafah.
image source, MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES
image source, MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES
Photos show both camps were built this month.
Earlier, Israeli media reported that Israel had purchased 40,000 tents in preparation for the evacuation of Palestinian civilians from Rafah.
On Wednesday, Reuters cited Israeli government sources as saying that each tent might accommodate between 10 and 12 people.
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