LAST UPDATE | 25 Apr

ISRAEL HAS SAID it is “moving ahead” with its planned operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, despite international outcry over fears for Palestinians sheltering there.

“Israel is moving ahead with our operation to target Hamas in Rafah,” government spokesman David Mencer told a press briefing.

“The four battalions which remain in Rafah cannot be shielded from Israel. They will be attacked.”

Mencer added that “two reserve brigades” had been mobilised “for defensive and tactical missions in Gaza” against the Palestinian Islamist movement.

Since Israel’s ground invasion began in Gaza in October, “at least 18 or 19 of Hamas’s 24 battalions” have been destroyed, he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said repeatedly that Israel will press ahead with the threatened assault on Rafah, the last major population centre in Gaza that Israeli ground troops have yet to enter.

Netanyahu has said that the destruction of the remaining four Hamas battalions in Rafah is vital to his government’s war aim of destroying the Islamist group in Gaza.

A majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have taken refuge in Rafah, many sheltering in makeshift encampments.

Speaking to reporters in Jordan yesterday, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said he is also “worried about the prospects of an Israeli invasion of Rafah”.

He said he is hearing that Israel is contemplating an invasion of Rafah, adding that such a move would be “catastrophic”. 

During his official visit to the Middle East this week, Martin took a tour of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza.

Other countries including Israel’s top ally the United States have warned Israel against sending troops into Rafah, fearing huge civilian casualties.

“A full-scale military invasion of Rafah would have an enormously harmful effect” on civilians trapped there and “would ultimately hurt Israel’s security”, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said earlier this month.

Yesterday, US President Joe Biden signed a bill authorising $13 billion in military aid to Israel. The bill also included $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza, which Biden demanded Israel allow reach Palestinians “without delay”.

Red Cross official Fabrizio Carboni said humanitarian groups had no knowledge of reported plans to move Rafah’s residents away from the city ahead of the assault.

“There is no condition for a military operation without devastating humanitarian consequences,” he told AFP on Tuesday.

Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, which at this stage is unacceptable to Netanyahu, who has vowed to “eliminate” all Hamas battalions.

Mencer said that “at least 26,000 terrorists were killed, apprehended, or wounded on the battlefield” during the conflict in Gaza so far.

Related Reads

Mass graves at Gaza hospitals must be investigated, says EU as Israel calls reports 'baseless'

The conflict broke out after Hamas militants attacked Israel on 7 October, resulting in the deaths of 1,170 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed 34,305 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Today’s tally includes at least 43 deaths in the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 77,293 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the conflict began in October. 

Speaking to reporters yesterday afternoon, the Tánaiste said that he is “very pessimistic about the prospect of a ceasefire” in Gaza. 

“The sense we have from the engagements I’ve had since Monday is negative in respect of the early prospects of a ceasefire,” he said, adding that he hopes he is wrong. 

“We do seem to have gone backwards in respect of the ceasefire.” 

With reporting by Niall O’Connor (from Jordan) and -© AFP 2024