The city of Rafah, where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are crowded, is preparing Monday for a possible offensive by the Israeli army, after international mediators met in Cairo to negotiate a truce in the Gaza Strip .
These discussions, also aimed at leading to the release of hostages held by the Hamas terrorist movement, are experiencing “significant progress”, the pro-government Egyptian media Al-Qahera News reported on Monday, citing a highly placed Egyptian source.
“All the streets have been bulldozed”
On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant indicated that his country’s forces “are preparing to continue their missions (…) in the area of Rafah”, a town bordering Egypt on the southern tip of Gaza, where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are gathered, the majority displaced.
A few hours earlier, Israeli troops had withdrawn from Khan Younes, another town in the south of the coastal territory, the epicenter of the fighting, in order to “prepare for future operations” according to the army. Netanyahu reaffirmed his determination to eradicate Hamas “across the entire Gaza Strip, including in Rafah”, a city he presents as the last great bastion of the Islamist movement.
Historical allies of Israel, the United States have repeatedly expressed their disapproval of a possible operation in Rafah, considered too costly in human lives. On Sunday, dozens of Palestinian refugees in Rafah headed back to Khan Younes, immediately after the Israeli withdrawal, according to AFP images.
On foot, by car or on carts pulled by donkeys, photos show lonely men and women walking in a city that has become a field of ruins. “All the streets were bulldozed. And the smell… I saw people digging and taking out the bodies,” Maha Taher, 38, mother of four, returned to AFP on Sunday. Khan Younes.
“Significant progress”
The Israeli army’s announcements came at the same time as a new series of indirect negotiations in Cairo between Hamas and Israel via international mediators Egypt, the United States and Qatar. The source cited by Al-Qahera News, a media outlet close to the Egyptian security services, reported “significant progress” in terms of reconciling points of view on several points of dispute in the agreement under discussion.
The delegations of Qatar and Hamas left Cairo and will return there “within two days to finalize the terms of the agreement”, the media also indicates. The American and Israeli delegations are due to leave the Egyptian capital “in the coming hours” and consultations will continue over the next 48 hours, explains the same source.
On Saturday, the terrorist organization Hamas assured that it would not give up its demands for an agreement: “a complete ceasefire”, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a return of the displaced and a “serious” agreement exchange of Palestinian hostages and prisoners. Netanyahu responded Sunday that there would be no ceasefire without the release of all the hostages.