LAST UPDATE | 26 Feb
ISRAEL’S MILITARY HAS proposed a plan for moving civilians out of “areas of fighting” in Gaza, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
Netanyahu is pushing forward with plans to stage a ground operation in Rafah, claiming such a move is necessary, while international governments and humanitarian organisations have demanded the plan does not go ahead, expressing fears that an invasion of Rafah would inflict mass civilian casualties.
More than 1.4 million Palestinians, most of them displaced from other parts of Gaza, are sheltering in Rafah, the southern border city.
Israel’s military “presented the War Cabinet with a plan for evacuating the population from areas of fighting in the Gaza Strip, and with the upcoming operational plan”, a statement from Netayahu’s office said today.
The statement did not give any details about how or where the civilians would be moved.
The announcement comes after Egyptian, Qatari and US representatives met in Doha for talks also attended by Israeli and Hamas, state-linked Egyptian media reported, the latest effort to secure a truce before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Israel’s ally the United States said ongoing mediation efforts produced “an understanding” towards a ceasefire and hostage release, while a Hamas source said the group insisted on the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
But Netanyahu — who has dismissed the withdrawal demand as “delusional” — said a ground invasion of Rafah would put Israel within weeks of “total victory” over Hamas.
“If we have a (truce) deal, it will be delayed somewhat, but it will happen,” he said of the ground invasion in an interview with CBS Sunday.
“It has to be done because total victory is our goal and total victory is within reach — not months away, weeks away, once we begin the operation.”
Amid a spiralling humanitarian crisis, the main UN aid agency for Palestinians urged political action to avert famine in Gaza.
Dire food shortages in northern Gaza are “a man-made disaster” that can be mitigated, said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
“Famine can still be avoided through genuine political will to grant access and protection to meaningful assistance.”
The UN has said it faces restrictions, particularly on aid deliveries to northern Gaza.
Nearly five months into the war, desperate families in Gaza’s north have been forced to scavenge for something to eat.
“We have no food or drink for ourselves or our children,” Omar al-Kahlout told AFP, as he waited near Gaza City for aid trucks to arrive.
“We are trapped in the north and there is no aid reaching us — the situation is extremely difficult.”
Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that Rafah is “the core of the humanitarian aid operation” in Gaza
“An all-out Israeli offensive on the city would not only be terrifying for more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there; it would put the final nail in the coffin of our aid programmes,” he said.
Guterres stressed that “nothing can justify Hamas’s deliberate killing, injuring, torturing and kidnapping of civilians, the use of sexual violence — or the indiscriminate launching of rockets towards Israel” but also that “nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”.
Amid a spiralling humanitarian crisis, UNRWA, the main UN aid agency for Palestinians, has urged political action to avert famine in Gaza.
Guterres emphasised that “humanitarian aid is still completely insufficient”.
“I repeat my call for a humanitarian ceasefire and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” he said.
He lamented that despite his urgent calls for the UN Security Council to take all measures to “end the bloodshed in Gaza and prevent escalation”, it had failed to act.
Israeli forces have continued striking targets across the Palestinian territory, with the local health ministry saying early today that 92 people were killed overnight.
Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 29,692 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The war broke out after Hamas’s unprecedented attack, which killed about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Militants also took about 250 Israeli and foreign hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 31 presumed dead, according to Israel.
Israel’s army confirmed Sunday the death of soldier Oz Daniel, 19, whose “body is still held captive”, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which said he was killed on the day of Hamas’s attack.
Mediators have voiced hope that a temporary truce and a hostage-prisoner exchange can be secured before the start of Ramadan on March 10 or 11, depending on the lunar calendar.
Israel has today struck Hezbollah targets near the Lebanese city of Baalbek, a security source told AFP, in the first strike on Lebanon’s east in almost five months of cross-border clashes.
“An Israeli strike hit a building housing a Hezbollah civilian institution,” in a Baalbek suburb, the source said, requesting anonymity because they are not allowed to speak to the press.
A second Israeli strike hit a warehouse near Baalbek belonging to the Iran-backed group, the source said.
The Israeli army said it is “currently striking Hezbollah terror targets deep inside Lebanon”.
The strikes marked the first attack on Hezbollah outside Lebanon’s south during the hostilities since 7 October.
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