Israeli assault on Rafah looms despite US alarm
United States officials have expressed concern about the potential loss of civilian life if the Israeli military hits Rafah, a city bordering Egypt now swollen with displaced Gazans after four months of conflict.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a “massive operation” in the southern Gaza city, one of the last refuges for civilians in the besieged enclave.
Netanyahu had directed the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to present to the cabinet a “dual plan” to remove the civilian population from combat zones and to “collapse” the four remaining Hamas battalions the IDF said remained in Rafah, his office said. It was unclear what such a plan would look like.
Israeli air strikes on Rafah have added to the fear among the displaced people there. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) estimates that the city’s population has grown to at least 1.4 million, more than five times its prewar count, with thousands of people sleeping in tents with little protection.
Yasmine Hussein, who has been displaced four times since fleeing northern Gaza at the start of the war, said yesterday she had heard “multiple bombings throughout the night”.
“We were left uncertain about our safety,” she said, and people were worried about an Israeli invasion in the coming days.
“Every passing day brings heightened apprehension to the people of Rafah. The looming threat of becoming targets is palpable.”
Statements from Netanyahu and other Israeli officials over the past week vowing to continue their campaign into Rafah have raised alarm among humanitarian groups and have prompted statements of concern from US and foreign officials.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said a major military operation in Rafah “would be a disaster”. Under current conditions, he said, the US “would not support it”.
The US had “seen no plans that would convince us that [the Israelis] are about to or plan to imminently conduct any military operations in Rafah,” Kirby said.
“More than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering in or around Rafah,” he added. “That’s where they were told to go” by Israel.
US President Joe Biden on Friday offered some of his most direct criticism of the Israeli military operation in Gaza yet, calling it “over the top”. He is pushing for a pause in hostilities in exchange for the release of some of the hostages still held by Hamas and other groups after the October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war.
Aid groups have warned that relief efforts will suffer further if Israel pushes into Rafah.
“Disease and starvation already persist among the displaced population,” the Norwegian Refugee Council said. UN Secretary General António Guterres said an incursion would worsen “what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences”.
If Rafah met the same fate as battered Gaza City and Khan Younis, the International Rescue Committee warned this week, “all parts of Gaza will be destroyed – alongside any lifeline of hope and survival for Gazans”.
The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said yesterday that eight Palestinian police officers had been killed in three air strikes over the past four days in Rafah, and that police had said they would no longer escort aid deliveries.
Conditions were “more and more intense and more and more confusing”, Lazzarini said. He was unsure how much longer his agency would be able to “operate in such a high-risk situation”.
In Rafah, people have responded to the news with confusion and despair.
“The fear gripping us is palpable,” said Ahmed Shaqura, 27, displaced from Gaza City. There was “no other perceived safe refuge within Gaza”.
Nour Arafa, 23 and also from Gaza City, said she had moved seven times since October 7. She didn’t know where to turn next.
Khan Younis is under military siege, and Deir al-Balah is already overcrowded. Egypt has rejected the idea of taking in Palestinian refugees from Gaza. Cairo, concerned about security and not wanting to be seen as complicit in the displacement of Palestinians, has taken steps over the past week to strengthen border security.
Arafa asked what she said was “the pervasive question on everyone’s mind – where do we go from here?”.