Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the army’s “action plans” for an offensive in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, according to a statement sent to the press on Friday. “The Israeli army is ready for the operational side and for the evacuation of the population,” according to the press release which gives no further details on this long-announced operation, against which the United States and the UN continue to oppose. to warn.
“We will complete the elimination of Hamas battalions”
Benjamin Netanyahu has been promising for weeks to continue the war until the elimination of Hamas and has repeatedly announced an upcoming offensive against Rafah, stuck on the closed border with Egypt, and where, according to the UN, there are massed approximately one and a half million Palestinians. Washington, for its part, repeats its opposition to any offensive in Rafah endangering the civilians who are refugees there. “I will continue to reject pressure. We will enter Rafah. We will complete the elimination of Hamas battalions,” he repeated Thursday in a message on the social network X.
The Israeli Prime Minister last month asked the army to present him with a plan for evacuating civilians. The army submitted a plan to the war cabinet at the end of February, no details of which have been leaked. Visiting Vienna, American Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared on Friday “not having yet seen a plan” provided by the Israelis, while recalling that the United States demanded to have a “clear plan that can be implemented”. “A large-scale offensive in Rafah cannot be justified,” responded German diplomacy. “More than a million people have taken refuge there and have nowhere to go. A ceasefire is needed now,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared on X, two days before a Sunday visit to Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Israel.
In Ramallah, the presidency of the Palestinian Authority expressed “its deep concern about the imminence of an Israeli military offensive in Rafah, which could lead to a new massacre and new population displacements”, according to the official Palestinian agency Wafa. “The presidency requested rapid intervention from the American administration and the international community to avoid this military offensive,” adds Wafa. The announcement of approval of the army’s plans for Rafah comes as hostage negotiations in Gaza are expected to resume with Friday’s announcement that an Israeli delegation will be sent to Doha, Qatar.