Gaza war
Israel prepares attack on Rafah – humanitarian catastrophe looms
Rafah is already being bombed.
© Fatima Shbair / AP
Over a million Palestinians are crowding the far south of the Gaza Strip. If the city is stormed, there is a risk of a humanitarian catastrophe. The civilians should be brought to safety before the offensive.
Around four months after the start of the Gaza war, Israel apparently wants to bring the extreme south of the sealed-off coastal strip under control. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued the order on Friday for a military offensive on the city Prepare Rafah. “It is impossible to achieve the war goal of eliminating Hamas if four Hamas battalions remain in Rafah,” his office said. Before that, however, the civilians in the city on the border with Egypt should be brought to safety.
A military offensive in Rafah is considered highly problematic. The town, which had around 300,000 inhabitants before the war, is now said to be home to 1.3 million people. Most of them fled there from other parts of the Gaza Strip before the war, partly on orders from the Israeli military.
On October 7th, terrorists on behalf of Hamas carried out a devastating massacre in Israel, especially against civilians. Since then, Israel has been waging war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The high number of civilian casualties in the Gaza war and the disastrous living conditions of the Palestinian civilian population have sparked sharp international criticism of Israel’s actions.
UN warns of humanitarian catastrophe
In view of the attack plans, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and consequences for the entire region. Half of the Gaza Strip’s population is crammed into Rafah and has nowhere else to go, he wrote on the news platform X, formerly Twitter. Guterres’ spokesman Stéphane Dujarric added that they did not want to see mass displacement. The US government and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock have also spoken out clearly against military action in Rafah in recent days.
Abbas on possible Rafah offensive: Prelude to expulsion
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has strongly condemned Israel’s plans for a military offensive in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Abbas said these represented a “dangerous prelude” to a policy of displacement feared by Palestinians. Abbas accused Israel and its ally USA of “destructive policies”. He called on the UN Security Council to take action. “These steps (considered by Israel) endanger security and peace in the region, they cross all red lines,” he added