Why Israel is so determined to launch an offensive in Rafah

Details

Written by Super User

Category: MENA

Published: 21 March 2024

Hits: 466

JERUSALEM — Israel is determined to launch a ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, a plan that has raised global alarm because of the potential for harm to the hundreds of thousands of civilians sheltering there.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel can’t achieve its goal of “total victory” against Hamas without going into Rafah.

Israel has approved military plans for its offensive. But with 1.4 million Palestinians jammed into the city, Israel’s allies, including the U.S., have demanded greater care for civilians in its anticipated incursion.

Most of those Palestinians have been displaced by fighting in other parts of Gaza and are living in densely packed tent camps, overflowing U.N.-run shelters or packed apartments.

Netanyahu is sending a delegation to Washington to present the administration with its plans.

WHY RAFAH IS SO CRITICAL

Since Israel declared war in response to Hamas’ deadly cross-border attack on Oct. 7, Netanyahu has said a central goal is to destroy the Islamic group’s military capabilities.

Israel says Rafah is Hamas’ last major stronghold in the Gaza Strip, after operations elsewhere dismantled 18 out of the militant group’s 24 battalions, according to the military. But even in northern Gaza, the first target of the offensive, Hamas has regrouped in some areas and continued to launch attacks.

Israel says Hamas has four battalions in Rafah and that it must send ground forces to topple them. Some senior militants could also be hiding in the city.

WHY THERE IS SO MUCH OPPOSITION TO ISRAEL’S PLAN

The U.S. has urged Israel not to carry out the operation without a “credible” plan to evacuate civilians. Egypt, a strategic partner of Israel’s, has said that any move to push Palestinians into Egypt would threaten its four-decade-old peace agreement with Israel.

In a phone call with Netanyahu this week, President Joe Biden told the Israeli leader not to carry out a Rafah operation, said the White House’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. He said the U.S. was seeking “an alternative approach” that did not involve a ground invasion.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is on his sixth visit to the region since the war began, reiterated those concerns in an interview with Al-Hadath TV in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

“President Biden has been very clear that we cannot support a major ground operation, military operation in Rafah,” Blinken said. He said there is no effective way of moving 1.4 million people to safety and that those who stay behind “would be in terrible jeopardy.”

ISRAEL DOESN’T APPEAR CLOSE TO SENDING IN TROOPS

Netanyahu said he was sending a delegation to Washington “out of respect” for Biden. But in a statement Wednesday, he said he had told Biden that Israel “cannot complete the victory” without entering Rafah.

Despite the tough talk, Israel doesn’t appear close to sending troops into Rafah. This may be connected to ongoing attempts to broker a temporary cease-fire. Qatari mediators say those talks would be set back by a Rafah invasion.

There are also logistical concerns.

Israel’s military says it plans to direct the civilians to “humanitarian islands” in central Gaza ahead of the planned offensive. Netanyahu said Wednesday evacuation plans had not yet been approved.

With no chance to celebrate Ramadan, Gaz Children gather at soup kitchens

Details

Written by Super User

Category: MENA

Published: 20 March 2024

Hits: 492

By Mahmoud Issa

JABALIA, Gaza - In the Jabalia refugee camp, hungry Gazans mostly children hold out pots to receive soup during the holy month of Ramadan.

As other Muslims around the world consume traditional Ramadan meals and desserts to break their fast after sunset, residents of the besieged strip are lucky to find a few scraps of food, or sips of water, after more than five months of Israeli bombardment in its war with Hamas.

The United Nations human rights chief on Tuesday said Israel's restrictions on humanitarian aid for Gaza may amount to a starvation tactic that could be a war crime, after a U.N.-backed report found famine is likely by May without an end to the fighting.

Israel has denied blocking aid to Gaza.

"The children of Palestine are innocent, they need the basic necessities of life, and all this is due to the siege and the destruction of homes and all that," said Bassam al-Hilou, a resident of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

He called on human rights organisations to take action to end the siege for the "dignity" of the Palestinian people and for an end to the Israeli military campaign, which shows no sign of easing despite mediation efforts by Qatar and Egypt.

Israel's offensive in Gaza has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, and reduced much of the enclave to rubble.

The campaign was triggered by Hamas's Oct. 7 attack, in which Israel said 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.

Children walk away from the crowded aid stations with enough food in their pots, perhaps for a few hours, until hunger sets in again.

Israel launches overnight raid on Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital

Details

Written by Super User

Category: MENA

Published: 18 March 2024

Hits: 493

GAZA STRIP - Israeli forces launched an overnight raid at Gaza’s largest medical facility, the Al-Shifa Hospital, and detained 80 people amid fears that many others were killed in the compound where thousands were taking shelter.

The operation by the Israeli forces in the medical facility caused multiple casualties and set off a massive fire in one of the buildings, Palestinian health authorities said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its soldiers were at Al-Shifa to carry out a "high precision operation in limited areas" following intel that Hamas terrorists were operating from the hospital.

A fire broke out in the hospital’s surgical wing due to Israeli bombing, reported Al-Jazeera, adding that some people were injured and killed.

Tanks surrounded the hospital in the dark of night and drones and quadcopters were also reported over the facility, causing panic among medics, patients, and other people who were inside.

“IDF troops are currently conducting a precise operation in the area of Shifa Hospital – based on intelligence information indicating the use of the hospital by senior Hamas terrorists to conduct and promote terrorist activity,” IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.

Gaza’s Health Ministry, an agency of the Hamas-controlled government, said Israeli forces have “fabricated narratives to deceive the world” to justify the storming of the Al-Shifa Hospital.

“We hold the Israeli occupation responsible for the lives of medical staff, patients and displaced people inside the Al-Shifa medical complex,” it said.

The Health Ministry said communication had been cut off with people trapped inside the surgery and emergency units of one of the buildings. Many people were suffocating from the smoke caused by the fire.

“There are casualties, including deaths and injuries, and it’s impossible to rescue anyone due to the intensity of the fire and targeting of anyone approaching the windows,” the ministry said.

Unverified videos on social media showed dozens of people fleeing the hospital compound with their flashlights on as the sound of bombing rang out.

Rear Admiral Hagari said during the encirclement of the complex “terrorists opened fire from within the hospital” and soldiers returned fire.

The Israeli military issued grainy drone footage of the operation, showing troops coming under fire from a number of buildings in the hospital complex.

Footage circulated on social media appeared to show an Israeli tank blocking the main gate of Al Shifa.

Palestinian journalist Wadea Abu Alsoud was trapped inside the medical complex and shared the video, saying it could be his last.

He described the situation as “catastrophic” and there are “intense clashes”.

“This might be my last video,” he said in the video. “We’re now besieged inside Al-Shifa Hospital. We’re being heavily shot at. The occupation suddenly raided the hospital and its vicinity. As you can hear now, there are intense clashes in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital. We’re hearing sounds coming from the gate. There is shrapnel falling over the hospital’s yard.”

Not far from Al-Shifa, Israeli forces raided a school where displaced families were taking refuge and several people were detained, residents said.

Tanks arrived in the area around the Beach refugee camp and fired shells at some buildings nearby, residents said.

On Sunday, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved plans to launch a military assault on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where more than one million Palestinians are sheltering with nowhere else to turn.

"We will operate in Rafah. This will take several weeks, and it will happen," he said, without clarifying if he meant the assault would last for weeks or would begin in weeks.

It comes amid mounting warnings by the US, UK, and other nations over the humanitarian crisis such an operation would cause in the last relatively safe place in the crowded Gaza enclave after more than five months of war.

US president Joe Biden has called an attack on Rafah a “red line” if undertaken without provisions to protect civilians. But he has also said the US will not abandon its support for Israel, its closest ally in the Middle East, regardless of Mr Netanyahu’s actions.

In November last year, IDF forces raided Al-Shifa Hospital to conduct what they called a “search operation for Hamas terrorists” and at least two babies died as a result of downed electricity in the neonatal intensive care unit.

The IDF later released videos and photographs of what it described as an “operational tunnel” within the Al-Shifa Hospital complex, as well as footage of a vehicle containing weapons. Earlier it released videos of duffel bags with guns that it said were found inside the hospital.