Israeli strikes on Gaza’s Rafah escalate fears of ground operation
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES, (AFP): Israeli air strikes pummelled densely crowded Rafah on Saturday after PM Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his troops to "prepare to operate" in the southern border city that has become a last refuge for displaced Palestinians.
Netanyahu's planned offensive on Rafah, where an estimated 1.3 million people have fled, has drawn condemnation from rights groups and Washington, while Palestinians have said they have nowhere left to retreat.
Witnesses reported new strikes on Rafah early Saturday, after the Israeli military intensified air raids, with fears rising among Palestinians of a coming ground invasion. "We don't know where to go," said Mohammad al-Jarrah, a Palestinian who was displaced from further north to Rafah.
The city is the last major population centre in Gaza that Israeli troops have yet to enter and the main point of entry for desperately needed relief supplies.
Netanyahu told military officials on Friday to "submit to the cabinet a combined plan for evacuating the population and destroying the battalions" of Hamas militants holed up in Rafah, his office said.
The US State Department said it does not support a ground offensive in Rafah, warning that, if not properly planned, such an operation risks "disaster". The US is Israel's main international backer, providing it with billions of dollars in military aid.
But in a sign of growing frustration, US President Joe Biden issued his strongest criticism of Israel yet. "I'm of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been over the top," the US president said. "There are a lot of innocent people who are starving... in trouble and dying, and it's got to stop."
Displaced Palestinians have flooded into Rafah, where hundreds of thousands are sleeping in tents pushed up against the Egyptian border.
AFP images showed scenes of devastation, with people queuing for increasingly scarce water.
Rights groups have sounded alarm at the prospect of a ground incursion. "Israel's declared ground offensive on Rafah would be catastrophic and must not proceed," Doctors Without Borders said in a statement. "There is no place that is safe in Gaza and no way for people to leave."
The territory's health ministry on Saturday said that at least 110 people were killed in overnight bombardment, including 25 in strikes in Rafah. The previous day, the Palestinian Red Crescent said that three children were killed in a strike in Rafah. "We heard the sound of a huge explosion next to our house... we found two children martyred in the street," said Jaber al-Bardini, 60. "There is no safe place in Rafah. If they storm Rafah, we will die in our homes."
Israeli forces raided Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza's biggest city, on Friday after a weeks-long siege during which the Palestinian Red Crescent has reported "intense artillery shelling and heavy gunfire". The medical organisation said Israeli forces had arrested eight of its team members at the hospital, including "four doctors, as well as four wounded individuals and five patients' companions".
UN chief Antonio Guterres has said any Israeli push into Rafah "would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare".
But Netanyahu's office said it would be "impossible" to achieve the war's objective of eliminating Hamas while leaving four of the militants' battalions in Rafah.
There is no safe place in Rafah. If they storm Rafah, we will die in our homes.