LAST UPDATE | 8 Apr
THE LEADERS OF France, Egypt and Jordan have warned Israel against a threatened offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, urging an “immediate” ceasefire in its war on Hamas.
“We warn against the dangerous consequences of an Israeli offensive on Rafah, where more than 1.5 million Palestinian civilians have sought refuge,” they said in a joint editorial published in several newspapers.
“Such an offensive will only bring more death and suffering, heighten the risks and consequences of mass forcible displacement of the people of Gaza and threaten regional escalation.”
The editorial was signed by France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
The United States said earlier it opposes any assault on Rafah, after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date for an attack had been set.
The three leaders urged that a UN Security Council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire… be fully implemented without further delay” and that all hostages held by Hamas be released, also in line with the council’s demands.
Earlier
International pressure has mounted on Israel to bring an end to the conflict, with its main ally the United States last week demanding a ceasefire and hostage release deal along with ramped-up aid deliveries.
The UN Security Council, the European Council and multiple agencies of the United Nations have also called on Israel to put an end to the conflict over concerns about the provision of aid into Gaza and the mounting civilian death toll.
Netanyahu did not say when the invasion would occur but reiterated that victory over Hamas militants “requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there”.
“It will happen – there is a date,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted yesterday – six months after the 7 October attack – that Israel is “one step away from victory” and has vowed to defeat remaining Hamas fighters in Gaza’s far-southern Rafah city.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive on Gaza after the 7 October attacks has killed at least 33,207 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the territory.
On the same day however, the army also announced it had pulled its forces out of southern Gaza, although military commanders stressed the withdrawal was tactical and did not signal an end to the conflict.
Amid the threats and ongoing fighting, Netanyahu has sent negotiators to fresh truce talks that started in Cairo on Sunday, joined by US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
The current conflict has been ongoing since the 7 October attack against Israel by Hamas militants that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, Israeli figures show.
Militants also took more than 250 Israeli and foreign hostages, 129 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the army says are dead. Any deal to end the conflict will include measure to release the remaining hostages from Gaza.
Israeli and Hamas representatives earlier dampened hopes of a speedy breakthrough in Cairo talks towards a Gaza truce and hostage release deal after Egyptian state-linked media had reported “significant progress”.
US President Joe Biden sent CIA chief Bill Burns to the talks, three days after a terse phone call with Netanyahu in which Biden demanded a halt to the fighting and greater steps to help and protect Gaza civilians.
It came after an Israeli strike killed seven aid workers from the US-based food charity World Central Kitchen.
The Qatari and Hamas delegations had left Cairo and were expected to return “within two days to finalise the terms of the agreement”, it said, while the US and Israeli teams were also planning 48 hours of consultations.
However, Israel’s Ynet news outlet cited an unidentified Israeli official as tempering the upbeat Egyptian report and stressing that “we still don’t see a deal on the horizon”.
“The distance is still great and there has been nothing dramatic in the meantime,” the Israeli official was quoted as saying by the Hebrew-language website.
A separate senior Israeli official was quoted by Ynet as saying that “patience is needed. There is potential, but we are not there yet”.
A senior Hamas official meanwhile told AFP that “we cannot speak of concrete progress so far”, with disagreement centred on the pace of displaced Palestinians returning to Gaza City in the north.
After Israeli forces left Khan Younis on Sunday, displaced Palestinians streamed back there, stunned by the level of destruction.
“We don’t have a city anymore – only rubble,” said Maha Thaer, a mother of four, as she walked among the charred ruins.
“There is absolutely nothing left. I could not stop myself crying as I walked through the streets,” said the 38-year-old, whose home was partially destroyed.
“All the streets have been bulldozed. And the smell… I watched people digging and bringing out the bodies.”
Thaer said she would nonetheless move back into her badly damaged apartment because although “it is not suitable for living… it is better than a tent”.
Charities have accused Israel of blocking aid, but Israel has defended its efforts and blamed shortages on aid organisations’ inability to distribute assistance once it gets in.
“The denial of basic needs – food, fuel, sanitation, shelter, security and health care – is inhumane and intolerable,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on social media platform X.
Aid trucks entered Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Sunday, and medical supplies were brought in via Israel’s Erez crossing in the north.
© AFP 2024, with reporting from Jane Moore
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