More than a million people have fled to Rafah – now Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has ordered the evacuation to be prepared. According to reports, there were deaths in attacks that night. Clear criticism came from the USA.
Several people are said to have been killed again in Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip. As news agencies report, citing eyewitnesses, the city of Rafah in the south of the coastal strip, where more than a million Palestinian refugees are staying, was also bombed.
According to the health authority controlled by the militant Islamist Hamas, more than 100 people died in the Gaza Strip overnight, including at least eight in Rafah.
The AP news agency reports that children were among the dead. Accordingly, the attacks hit a residential building in Rafah and a kindergarten in the center of the Gaza Strip that was converted into accommodation for displaced people. This information cannot be independently verified.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by the Palestinian and Israeli conflict parties cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
Netanyahu orders evacuation preparations
More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have fled to Rafah, following orders from the Israeli military. Israeli ground forces are currently still focused on the town of Khan Yunis, north of Rafah.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the military to develop a plan to evacuate Rafah. A full-scale military operation was needed in the city, he said. He called on security officials to present a plan that would involve the evacuation of civilians from the city and a military operation to destroy the remaining Hamas militant units.
Israel says Rafah is the last remaining stronghold of the militant Islamist Hamas. It must send troops to complete its war aims. This week, Netanyahu had already warned that Rafah was the next target of the operations, sending hundreds of thousands of displaced people there into panic.
Biden criticizes Israeli actions
US President Joe Biden expressed clear criticism of the actions of the Israeli army. He believes Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip are “excessive,” he told reporters at the White House. “There are a lot of innocent people starving, a lot of innocent people in trouble and dying. This has to stop.” The US President further emphasized that he had advocated for the importation of further humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip in both Egypt and Israel.
The war, which has now lasted four months, has dramatically worsened the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. According to an employee of the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, many people are currently moving towards the sea from Rafah out of fear of a ground attack. If Israel storms the city, “we will die in our homes,” a resident of the city told the AFP news agency. “We have nowhere to go.”
UN warns of offensive in Rafah
In view of the reports about the allegedly impending Israeli military offensive in Rafah, UN Secretary-General António Guterres also warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and consequences for the entire region. “Half of Gaza’s population is now crowded into Rafah with nowhere else to go. Reports that the Israeli military plans to attack Rafah next are alarming,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Such an action would further exacerbate the humanitarian nightmare and could have untold consequences for the entire region.”
On October 7, terrorists from Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups attacked Israel and carried out massacres there. According to Israeli reports, they killed around 1,160 people, including many civilians. Around 250 people were also kidnapped as hostages in the Gaza Strip.
In response to the attack, Israel launched a massive military operation in the Gaza Strip. According to Hamas’ latest figures, which cannot be independently verified, more than 27,900 people have been killed since then.
Gray areas: Built-up areas in the Gaza Strip, hatching: Israeli army
Christian Wagner, ARD Tel Aviv, tagesschau, February 9, 2024 5:55 p.m