Israel wants to destroy the last Hamas fighting units in Rafah. But what will happen to the civilians? Egypt is preparing for an onslaught. The news at a glance.
Israel’s planned military offensive on the city of Rafah, which is overcrowded with Palestinians in the south of the sealed-off Gaza Strip, is drawing increasing international criticism. According to a media report, Egypt is now building a massive reception camp in the desert surrounded by high concrete walls for tens of thousands of people, out of fear of a mass exodus from the neighboring coastal strip.
In a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Joe Biden once again called for the protection of the more than one million civilians in Rafah. He reiterated “that a military operation should not take place without a credible and feasible plan to ensure the safety and support of the civilian population in Rafah,” the White House said that night. Previously, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also called for protective corridors to the north during her visit to Israel.
Report: Camp could hold more than 100,000 people
For weeks, Egypt has been trying to increase security along the Gaza border with soldiers, fences and armored vehicles to prevent a rush of desperate Palestinians to the Sinai Peninsula. According to the Wall Street Journal, Egypt has even threatened to terminate its peace treaty with Israel if it comes to that.
As the US newspaper reported, citing Egyptian officials and security analysts, Egypt is now building a 20-square-kilometer detention center in the desert near the border that could house more than 100,000 people. This corresponds to the population of Cottbus. It was said that the planned camp was located far from Egyptian settlements.
If Israel decides to launch the offensive, the Israeli military would attempt to move the civilian population from Rafah north – out of the combat zone but within the Gaza Strip, the newspaper quoted a senior Israeli military official as saying.
Netanyahu recently ordered the military to submit plans for an offensive on Rafah and for the evacuation of civilians there. It’s about destroying the last fighting units of the Islamist Hamas. According to the UN, around 1.3 million people are currently staying in Rafah. Most fled there from other parts of the Gaza Strip before the war, some on orders from the Israeli military.
Israel’s army begins operations in a clinic
Meanwhile, Israel’s army said it began an operation in a clinic in Khan Yunis, which, like Rafah, is in southern Gaza. Soldiers entered Nasser Hospital to recover bodies of hostages, the military said. Dozens of suspects were arrested, said Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari.
Some were involved in the massacre in Israel. From interrogations with the suspects and thanks to statements from the released hostages, the army was able to confirm that people kidnapped from Israel were being held on the clinic premises. There is also information that there are also bodies of hostages there.
The United Nations human rights office made allegations against Israel after the operation. “The operation appears to be part of a pattern: Israeli forces are attacking vital civilian infrastructure, particularly hospitals,” said UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani in Geneva.
Israeli army spokesman Hagari emphasized that the military had acted in accordance with international law in all operations in hospitals in the Gaza Strip and would continue to do so. “We have no intention of disrupting the operations of the hospital,” he said.
Israel’s army: numerous Hamas fighters killed
The Israeli military says it has continued its attacks against the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The army said that numerous terrorist militia fighters had been killed throughout the coastal strip in the past 24 hours. Among other things, command centers, military facilities and launch pads were attacked.
It was said that a dozen fighters were killed in the southern city of Chan Yunis alone, which has been hotly contested for weeks. Several fighters were also killed in the center of the coastal strip sealed off by Israel. All information provided by the Israeli military could not initially be independently verified.
Netanyahu: Let us not be forced into a two-state solution
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated his rejection of a two-state solution after the phone call with Biden. “Israel categorically rejects the international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians,” Netanyahu wrote on X that night.
Such an arrangement could only be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties and without preconditions. Israel will also defend itself against the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. This would “reward terrorism and prevent any future peace settlement,” he wrote.
According to the Israeli newspaper Maariv, Israel is concerned that the USA could recognize a Palestinian state without Israel’s consent as part of its efforts to find a two-state solution. A two-state solution means an independent Palestinian state that exists peacefully side by side with Israel. The Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas, which violently seized sole power in the Gaza Strip a year after its election victory in 2007, also rejects this.
Sunak also warns of the consequences of an offensive in Rafah
Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, meanwhile, joined international warnings about the consequences of military action in Rafah. The government in London said Sunak had spoken to Netanyahu on the telephone. Sunak said Britain was deeply concerned about the loss of life in Gaza and the “potentially devastating humanitarian consequences of military intervention in Rafah.”
The priority is to negotiate a humanitarian pause to enable the release of the hostages and significantly more aid deliveries to Gaza. Sunak also called on Israel to fully open the Kerem Shalom border crossing.
Israel calls on UN to distribute more aid
Israel, meanwhile, has called on the United Nations to improve the distribution of aid to the people of the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of truckloads of humanitarian aid have not been picked up at the Kerem Shalom border crossing for days, wrote the Israeli Cogat authority, which is responsible for contacts with the Palestinians and humanitarian aid, on X.
Aid organizations accuse Israel of blocking the distribution of aid supplies. The Cogat authority denies this. Israel controls more trucks than are ultimately processed and forwarded by the United Nations. On Thursday in Israel, Federal Foreign Minister Baerbock spoke out in favor of significantly more aid deliveries – specifically 500 trucks a day. That’s how many trucks carrying humanitarian goods drove into the sealed-off coastal area every day before the start of the war. Baerbock also called for additional border crossings to be opened in Israel.
What is important today
As fighting continues in the Gaza Strip, efforts to reach a ceasefire and release the hostages continue. However, there has been no breakthrough so far.