Israel Moves Closer to Rafah Invasion as Iran Crisis Wanes – Exclusive Report from The Wall Street Journal

He writes about it referring to Israeli and Egyptian officials every day The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Egyptian officials briefed on Israel’s plans told the American newspaper that the first two to three weeks of the operation would involve evacuating civilians in coordination with the United States, Egypt and other Arab countries.

The evacuation will reportedly include the evacuation of civilians to the nearby town of Chán Júnis and the establishment of tent cities stocked with food and equipped with medical facilities, among other things.

Only then will the Israeli military gradually begin moving troops into Rafah, targeting “areas where Israel believes Hamas leaders and fighters are hiding,” those sources told the WSJ .

They said the fighting in Rafah is expected to last at least six weeks, although the timing of its start is “still uncertain”.

Israel claims that the last four of the 24 Hamas battalions are hiding in Rafah, and the city thus remains the last bastion of this radical Palestinian Islamic movement, which Israel has been at war in the Gaza Strip for over six months in retaliation. for a terrorist attack in October.

“First, it happens. Second, we will have a very strict operational plan because it is very complicated there. Third, a humanitarian operation will be held at the same time as this,” said an Israeli security official.

The Israeli government believes that, in addition to the four remaining Hamas battalions, Rafah is also home to most of the approximately 130 hostages kidnapped by the soldiers from southern Israel on 7 October and which Hamas still holds.

“We will increase military and political pressure on Hamas in the coming days, because only then can we free our hostages and achieve victory,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a message on Sunday, without making special mention of the proposed operation in Rafah.

Also in today’s speech, he promised “more military and diplomatic efforts aimed at freeing the virgins.”

Netanyahu claims again that if Israel is to achieve its main war goals, ie to completely destroy Hamas in the Gaza Strip and liberate its enemies, troops must enter Rafah.

However, 1.4 million Palestinians, more than a million of whom fled the fighting in other parts of the Gaza Strip, are crammed into the city near the Egyptian border.

Apart from the international community, Israel is discouraged from the planned operation in Rafah by its main ally the US. Washington is urging the Netanyahu government not to launch the operation until all civilians have been evacuated to safety.

“President (Joe) Biden has been very clear about this: We cannot support large-scale military operations in Rafah,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.

Such a move, he said, would have “terrible consequences” for any civilians who remain in the city. Israel’s war aims can be achieved through other means, Blinken said.

The war in the Gaza Strip began last year on October 7 with a terrorist attack by Hamas, when Palestinian militants killed nearly 1,200 people on the Israeli border and kidnapped about 250 people in the Palestinian territory.

They are still holding 130 of them, but it seems that at least three dozen hostages died in captivity.

On the Palestinian side, according to Hamas-controlled authorities, the war has left more than 34,000 dead, with another 77,000 Palestinians wounded in the fighting. Among the dead are thousands of Hamas fighters, but the majority are civilians, mostly women and children.