Rafah on the brink
Israeli forces prepare to storm Gaza city’s last ‘safety’ enclave
AT LEAST five people have been killed as Israel prepares to storm Rafah, the last refuge for more than a million in Gaza.
Missiles bombarded the city as Israeli troops prepared to launch a major ground offensive in the next few days.
It comes as Hamas said it would lay down its weapons as part of a fiveyear peace deal.
Palestinian hospital officials said at least five people were killed in Rafah, southern Gaza, as families inspected the rubble of flattened homes yesterday.
Israel argues a Rafah blitz is vital to defeat Hamas.
In central Gaza, four people died in Israeli tank shelling after Hamas and Islamic Jihad rocket teams launched missiles into Israeli communities.
In Istanbul, Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said the Islamist militant group would agree to a truce and become a political party if a Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.
The West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza were captured by Israel in the 1967 war but Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government rejects the claim.
The international community backs a two-state solution but Netanyahu does not. Al-Hayya said Hamas wants to unite with the PLO to form a unified government for Gaza and the West Bank.
He said Hamas’s military wing would dissolve if a fully sovereign Palestine is established in accordance with international resolutions.
On Wednesday, Israeli units examined an Iranian ballistic missile near Arad in the south. Iran attacked Israel on April 13 and 14 using more than 300 drones and missiles after a deadly airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus on April 1.