JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the IDF General Staff on Friday to develop a combined plan for the evacuation of civilians from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip , and the elimination of the last Hamas battalions.
The Israeli army has intensified its offensive against Rafah, the last refuge of populations displaced by the ongoing conflict since October 7, by increasing airstrikes.
The Israeli strategy, which aims to completely eradicate Hamas, the Palestinian movement behind the October 7 attacks against the Jewish state, is strongly criticized by the American ally.
Washington said Thursday it would not support a ground operation in Rafah, ignoring the plight of thousands of civilians holed up in this Egyptian border town. US President Joe Biden was alarmed by an Israeli response that was now “out of proportion”.
“It is impossible to achieve the objective of the war without eliminating Hamas and leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah. Nevertheless, it is clear that the intense activity in Rafah requires civilians to evacuate the combat zones,” Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
“As a result, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli Defense Forces and the security apparatus to submit to the cabinet a combined plan for the evacuation of the population and the destruction of the battalions,” it reads.
The office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement Friday that the ulterior goal of this plan was to drive Palestinians from their land.
He adds that he will hold the Israeli government and the American administration responsible for the repercussions of this initiative.
Humanitarian organizations estimate that more than half of the Gaza enclave’s 2.3 million residents are in Rafah.
Strikes carried out Friday by the Israeli air force left at least 15 dead, including eight in Rafah, according to Palestinian medical sources.
The Egyptian army has deployed around forty tanks and armored vehicles over the past two weeks in the northeast of Sinai, on the border with the Gaza Strip, according to two Egyptian security sources.
“The entire house was destroyed. My daughter was killed. My daughter, her husband, her son, they are all martyrs. Two others were hospitalized,” testified Mohammed al Nahal, an old man, in front of the rubble of the habitation.
“We cannot tolerate a war in a gigantic refugee camp,” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. He says he fears “a bloodbath”.
A new report released Friday by the Palestinian Ministry of Health shows 27,947 deaths among the population of Gaza.
(Reporting Emilie Rose, with Emma Farge in Geneva, Maya Gebeily in Beirut, Henriette Chacar in Jerusalem, Steve Holland in Washington, Michelle Nichols in New York; written by Timothy Heritage; French version Sophie Louet)
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