05 Feb 2024 at 00:42
As fighting and bombings continue in the Gaza Strip’s two largest cities, more and more Palestinian civilians are fleeing to Rafah, near the border with Egypt. But Israel is also increasing the pressure there.
During the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that most Hamas fighters are currently in the south of the Gaza Strip, including in the border town of Rafah. “We will tackle that too,” Netanyahu said.
It is unclear whether this is indeed the case, but Netanyahu’s statement does indicate that Israel is increasing the pressure on Rafah. Rafah is located in the south of the Gaza Strip and borders Egypt. More than half of the 2.3 million Gazans have fled to the south, whether or not on behalf of Israel.
That number is likely to increase. Because in the two largest cities in the Gaza Strip, Gaza City in the north and Khan Younis in the south, heavy fighting and bombings are still taking place.
Dire situation for hundreds of thousands of refugees worsens
The prospect of an Israeli push towards Rafah worsens the situation for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians who have fled there. In winter conditions they often live in tents, with a lack of water, food, electricity and other basic needs.
According to news agency Reuters Palestinians in Rafah reported shelling and airstrikes on Sunday. Two girls were reportedly killed in one of those attacks on a house. As mourners wanted to say goodbye to the children, an airstrike reportedly hit a room full of women and children in the Al-Salam neighborhood of Rafah. Family member Mohammed Kaloub said otherwise Reuters. “There is no safe place in Gaza, from the border in the north to the border in the south, there is no safe place.”
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Egypt is also concerned about the situation in Rafah
Israeli officials have hinted several times in recent days at an expansion of fighting toward Rafah. This is also a concern for Cairo. Egypt has said since the start of the current war in Gaza that it will not accept an influx of Palestinian refugees. In part to prevent forced displacement of Palestinians.
Recently, Israel has also speculated about taking the ‘Philadelphi Corridor’. That is a thin demilitarized strip of land along the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. When Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, the Philadelphi Agreement was concluded with Egypt. It stipulated, among other things, that Egypt could station a few hundred border guards on its own territory to guard the border and that Israel and Egypt coordinate what happens along the border strip.
An Israeli official objects Reuters said the Israeli army will discuss with Egypt about moving Palestinian refugees north before a ground offensive in Rafah.
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2024-02-04 23:42:39
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