Israel is making clear that its military will will shift to a Gaza city that has become a haven
Israel's Defense Minister has indicated that ground troops will advance on the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, which has become a refuge for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes by nearly 13 weeks of war.
Rafah, which has also been a gateway for humanitarian aid, consists of a warren of tents and makeshift shelters against the border with Egypt. About half of Gaza's 2.2 million residents have gathered in and around the city, which was home to about 200,000 people before the war, the United Nations said Friday.
The town is one of the last in southern Gaza that Israeli ground forces, who have been fighting house-to-house fighting in nearby Khan Younis, have not yet reached.
“We are completing the mission in Khan Younis and we will also reach Rafah and eliminate any terrorist there who threatens to harm us,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a visit to troops in Khan Younis, according to footage. spread around his office late Thursday evening.
The prospect of fighting in an area with so many displaced people has alarmed refugees there and United Nations officials.
“We fear what comes next,” Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said at a news conference in Geneva on Friday. He described Rafah as a “pressure cooker of despair.”
Mr Gallant's comments came as Israel and Hamas considered an American-led proposal for an extended ceasefire and an exchange of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel .
It was not clear whether Mr. Gallant's reference to Rafah reflected an immediate military objective, or whether it was intended more as a signal of resolve to the Israeli public and Hamas as Israel waited for the group's response to the proposal for a ceasefire.
The top official of Hamas's political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said in a statement Friday that the group was studying the proposal but insisted the deal would “completely end” the fighting. The proposal does not include a permanent ceasefire.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will continue fighting Hamas in Gaza until it achieves a “complete victory,” even as he faces mounting domestic pressure to strike a deal to free the remaining hostages, and international calls to facilitate fighting and limit damage to civilians. citizens.
For weeks, Israeli ground forces have waged heavy fighting in Khan Younis, where Israel says it is trying to kill or capture Hamas leaders they say are hiding in and under the city in an extensive network of tunnels.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces attacked a hospital complex in Khan Younis on Friday, killing a number of people, including one of its staff. The Israeli military declined to comment on the report. But it says its intelligence indicates Hamas is operating in and around Al-Amal hospital, although it has provided no evidence to support its claim.
The Al-Amal complex and a second hospital, the Nasser Medical Complex, have been surrounded by Israeli ground forces for days, according to aid groups and the Gaza Health Ministry, trapping thousands of patients, medical staff and displaced Palestinians who had sought shelter.
Many Palestinians who have fled fighting in Khan Younis and other parts of Gaza in recent weeks are camping in Rafah, often with only the clothes they were wearing.
Ahmed Alghazaly, a 26-year-old Gaza resident, said by phone Friday that he feared the Israeli advance would drive him out of Rafah, yet another displacement for his family, who are originally from Gaza City.
Speaking from a rain-soaked tent in Rafah, Mr Alghazaly described feeling “besieged on all sides” by Israeli forces as the cold set in. Food was scarce and took hours to get there, he said. But “wherever they tell us to run, we will run,” he said with obvious exhaustion.
Israel's goal of overthrowing Hamas's rule in Gaza would most likely require at least some of its forces entering Rafah to attack the group's network there. But if Israel were to approach the city, it is not clear how it would ensure the safety of civilians, many of whom have fled several times as Israel has ordered evacuations in areas it planned to shell.
Mr Laerke, the UN spokesman, said on Friday that severe restrictions on the supply of supplies such as food, water and medicine, along with escalating disease rates, had increased the sense of desperation.
Mr. Netanyahu has said Israel must take control of a strip of land along Gaza's southern border with Egypt to defeat Hamas, which led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to the kidnapping into Gaza of 240 others.
The move could effectively cut Egypt off from Gaza, potentially weakening Egypt's regional role and bringing the fighting to the border. Health officials in Gaza say the death toll from the Israeli bombardment and invasion of the enclave has exceeded 26,000 people.
Egyptian officials have said that Israeli military control of the land corridor would violate agreements between the two sides.
“It must be strictly emphasized that any Israeli move in this direction will lead to a serious threat to Egyptian-Israeli relations,” Diaa Rashwan, a spokesperson for the Egyptian government, said in late January.
Raja Abdulrahim contributed reporting from Jerusalem.