On Wednesday, Israel said it is “ moving ahead” with its expected ground attack into Gaza’s southern city of Rafah to target Hamas, despite international concerns for the safety of the million civilians sheltering there.
This all started after Hamas attacks on Israeli towns on October 7, in which more than 34,000 people were killed in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
The military is reportedly putting together a mass movement of civilians into tents in Khan Younis, which is against the advice of humanitarians who have warned that conditions are not reasonable for living during a collapse in sanitation and destruction of buildings.
A few points on the Israel-Hamas war
- The authority said Israel’s defence ministry had bought 40,000 tents, each with the capacity for 10 to 12 people, to house Palestinians moved from Rafah ahead of an attack.
- Benjamin Netanyahu, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister government, said that Israel was “ moving ahead” with a ground operation in Rafah. The defence officials, however, gave no timeline.
- Netanyahu said that Israel will press ahead with the assault on Rafah, the last major population centre in Gaza that Israeli ground troops have yet to enter.
- Israel, which launched its war against Hamas attacks on Israeli towns on October 7, says Rafah is home to four Hamas combat battalions reinforced by thousands of retreating fighters.
- Israel drew a warning from Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah AL-Sisi, who said that any military operation in Rafah would have “devastating outcomes” on the compassionate situation in the sector and on regional peace and security.
- In 1967, during the six-day war fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan), Israel occupied the Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip, which had previously been occupied by Egypt.
- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported roughly that around 6,400 Palestinians and 300 Israelis were killed in the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict from 2008 through September 2023 before the start of this war.
Israel’s choice to continue with the Rafah assault has serious areas of strength for started from Egypt. The circumstance has uplifted strains between the two nations and is probably going to have more extensive consequences in the area. It is not yet clear what this advancement will mean for the continuous struggle and open relations between Israel and Egypt.
