Netanyahu promises ‘safe passage’ to Palestinians ahead of Rafah operation
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In an interview airing on Feb 11, Mr Netanyahu reiterated his intention to extend Israel’s military operation to Rafah.
PHOTO: AFP
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GAZA - The threat of an Israeli incursion into Gaza’s southernmost town of Rafah persisted on Feb 11, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising “safe passage” to civilians displaced there.
In an interview aired on Feb 11, Mr Netanyahu reiterated his intention to expand Israel’s military operation to the city.
Despite international alarm over the potential for carnage in a city crammed with more than half of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people, Mr Netanyahu told ABC News: “We’re going to do it.”
He conceded that he agreed with the Americans that the operation would need to first plan for the impact on civilians.
“We’re going to do it while providing safe passage for the civilian population so they can leave,” he said, according to published extracts of the interview.
But it is unclear where such a large number of people, who are pressed up against the border with Egypt and sheltering in makeshift tents, can go.
When asked, Mr Netanyahu would only say they are “working out a detailed plan”.
As Israeli forces have extended steadily southwards, Rafah has become the last major Gaza city that troops have yet to enter, even as it is bombarded by air strikes almost daily.
“They said Rafah is safe, but it is not. All places are being targeted,” Palestinian Mohammed Saydam said after an Israeli strike destroyed a police vehicle in Rafah on Feb 10.
The Israeli leader, who contends that “victory” over Hamas cannot be achieved without clearing battalions in Rafah, directed his military on Feb 9 to prepare for the operation
His announcement set off a chorus of concern from world leaders and aid groups.
“The people in Gaza cannot disappear into thin air,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on social media platform X, adding that an Israeli offensive on Rafah would be a “humanitarian catastrophe in the making”.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry warned on Feb 10 of “very serious repercussions of storming and targeting” Rafah and called for an urgent United Nations Security Council meeting, while British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said he is “deeply concerned” about the prospective offensive.
“The priority must be an immediate pause in the fighting to get aid in and hostages out,” he wrote.
Sharpening US rebuke
The war in Gaza was sparked by Palestinian armed group Hamas’ Oct 7 attack on Israel
Vowing to eliminate Hamas, Israel launched a massive military offensive in Gaza that the territory’s health ministry says has killed at least 28,000 people.
Hamas fighters also seized 250 hostages on Oct 7, 132 of whom are still in Gaza, although 29 are presumed dead, Israel has said.
Mr Netanyahu announced the plan for a ground operation in Rafah only days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel seeking a ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange.
Mr Netanyahu rejected the proposed truce
But Israel’s plans for Rafah have drawn sharp rebuke from main ally and military backer Washington, with the State Department warning that if not properly planned, such an operation risks “disaster”.
In unusually sharp criticism, US President Joe Biden on Feb 8 called Israel’s retaliatory campaign “over the top”
Gaza’s Hamas rulers warned on Feb 10 that a full-scale Israeli invasion of Rafah could cause “tens of thousands” of casualties.
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the move threatens security and peace in the region and the world and is “a blatant violation of all red lines”.
The Israeli military said it killed two senior Hamas operatives in a strike on Rafah on Feb 10.
It was part of a wider bombardment that killed at least 25 people in the city, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
UNRWA under pressure
To the north in Gaza City, Israel’s military claimed that its troops uncovered a Hamas tunnel under the evacuated headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA)
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called for its head, Mr Philippe Lazzarini, to quit.
Mr Lazzarini said the agency had not operated from the compound since Oct 12, when staff evacuated under instruction from Israeli forces.
Already under pressure after Israel claimed 12 UNRWA staff were involved in the Oct 7 Hamas attack, he called for an independent investigation into the latest Israeli accusations.
An AFP photographer was among a number of journalists taken to the compound and tunnel by the Israeli military on Feb 8.
UN premises are considered “inviolable” in international law and immune to “search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation and any other form of interference”.
Hamas has repeatedly denied Israeli accusations that it has dug a network of tunnels under schools, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure
Public fury
The war, now in its fifth month, has spawned intensifying public fury in Israel.
Protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv on the night of Feb 10 to demand the release of the hostages, for Mr Netanyahu to step down, and for fresh elections to be called.
“It’s clear Netanyahu is dragging out the war, he has no idea what to do on the day after,” Israeli protester Gil Gordon said.
The war has had far-reaching impact well beyond Israel and Gaza, with violence involving allies of Hamas surging across the Middle East.
A senior Hamas officer survived an Israeli assassination attempt in Lebanon, Palestinian and Lebanese security sources told AFP, but two other people, including a Hezbollah member, were killed in the attack.
And in Syria, Israeli strikes near Damascus killed three people, a war monitor said, adding that the targeted neighbourhood hosted villas for top military and civilian officials. AFP
