Despite the UN Security Council resolution that demanded immediate ceasefire in Gaza war, Israel is still determined to continue the conflict, announcing this Wednesday a new time for invading Rafah.
According to a report by the Cradle, Israel has set a new time for invading Rafah, a city in the southernmost of the Gaza Strip, after Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
After the UN Security Council passed a resolution this Monday demanding ceasefire in Gaza, Israel rejected the international initiative and rebuked both the UNSC and the United States, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising to continue to war by invading Rafah.
Israeli claims that the city is where a lot of Hamas members have taken shelter and the invasion of Rafah is therefore necessary to destroy Hamas.
Since November, Egypt has come alongside Qatar in coordinating peace talks between Hamas and Israel. According to Egyptian sources speaking to the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar this Wednesday, Israeli officials have confirmed to Egypt that they want a peace agreement in which all Israeli prisoners are released immediately and Gaza is government by an international body, with the Palestinian Authority having no say in administering the Strip.
No plan to cancel the invasion of Rafah!
But after Monday’s ceasefire demand by the UNSC in which none of the above demands was met, Tel Aviv reacted by further announcing a new time for invading Rafah.
Israeli officials “hinted” to Egyptian sources this week that they will launch an operation in Rafah “after the Eid al-Fitr holiday, or early next May, at the latest,” adding that the army will begin “special operations” in the coming days in order to “pave the way for and facilitate the ground incursion,” in the event that no truce agreement is reached by then.
“The storming of the city is to take as long as between four and eight weeks at most, to achieve the goal of eliminating the Hamas movement and liberating all the hostages,” Israeli officials said according to Al-Akhbar report.
But eliminating Hamas as Israeli claims to be its ultimate goal in the war is only the tip of the iceberg. Israel is also seeking to materialize mass deportations of over 1.5 million Palestinians from Rafah out of the Palestinian lands. Speaking to Al-Akhbar, one Egyptian source said the Israeli plan is “dangerous” and could “lead to further escalation.”
No ear to listen even to Washington!
In addition to Egypt, the US has also been warning Israel of the dangerous implications of invading Rafah. “US officials have publicly been warning Israel that an operation in Rafah poses serious concerns and that it would not allow the storming of the city unless there is a plan to safely’ evacuate over 1.2 million Palestinians stranded and besieged in the city,” the Cradle said in a report Wednesday.
The US Wall Street Journal (WSJ) also reported on the same day that Washington “is trying to shape Israel’s Rafah operation, and is working to come up with an alternative to a full-scale and perhaps premature military operation.”
A month before in February, Politico reported, citing US officials, that the US would accept and support more limited “counterterrorism operations,” rather than a full-scale invasion of Rafah, none of which has yet been favored by Israel.
