The pamphlets that Israel dropped on Gaza this Monday contained several threatening messages to the population of Rafah (southern Gaza) to evacuate their places of residence. One of them was this: “We warn you not to approach the east and south wall.” That wall, or fence, is the one that marks the perimeter of the Strip on its border with Israel (east) and with Egypt (south) and from where at dawn on Tuesday, coinciding with the entry into the eighth month of war, the The army has launched a ground operation that the authorities had been announcing for weeks amid international pressure not to do so.
The European Union and Egypt have immediately criticized this attack. At the moment, the military has not launched an invasion with blood and fire and house by house, as they did in other towns in the Strip during the conflict, although they have taken control of the strategic Rafah crossing, which they claim was being employed by Hamas “terrorists.”
The attack, in which they have had agents from the Shin Bet (Israeli internal security service) and aviation support, has focused on “specific” hits and in “limited areas” of eastern Rafah to try to reduce the presence of militiamen from the fundamentalist group, according to military sources. About twenty of them would have already died during the night while the group’s infrastructure, both at the building and underground level, would have been destroyed.
Some media showed before dawn from the Egyptian side that the Israeli bombings continued to punish Rafah, where around 1.5 million people are gathered, more than half of the population of Gaza. The United Nations warns that the two main entry points for humanitarian aid, the Rafah crossing and the Kerem Shalom crossing, are currently closed. With this double blockade, “Israel is leading the region towards a disaster and continues with its policy of famine and persecution of the Palestinians,” Hamas denounces in a statement in which it accuses Israel of sabotaging the negotiations to reach the truce. The health authorities of the Strip add that there are thousands of cases of sick and injured people who cannot be evacuated to Egypt to receive care.
Israel launched this operation shortly after the half-hour telephone conversation between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. With this latest movement on the ground by his men, the Israeli president wants to demonstrate that, beyond the warnings of his American ally or the rest of the international community, it is he who holds the reins of the conflict and who takes the last steps. decisions. Of course, in parallel with the announcement made on Monday night that they were going to continue with the operation in Rafah to pressure Hamas to release the hostages, Netanyahu said that they were sending a delegation to Cairo, where negotiations are being held. to achieve a possible truce. Hours earlier, Hamas had accepted the proposed peace plan negotiated with Qatar and Egypt.
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The Israeli authorities launched an operation on Monday to evacuate tens of thousands of Gazans from the areas where they have taken refuge or where they reside because, from now on, they consider them combat zones. They urge them to move northeast, to a camping area called Al Mawasi near the Mediterranean coast.
The image of the Israeli armored vehicles circulating through the facilities of the Rafah crossing and the Israeli national flag flying on the flagpole as a new symbol of the occupation tries to mark the offensive line that the most far-right sector of the Government seeks to impose on Netanyahu, who depends on several of his ministers so as not to fall. In the face of this war machine, the voices of the families of the more than 100 hostages who remain captive in the Strip are raised and they ask for maximum priority for the agreement that opens the door to their release.
Humanitarian aid
“The two main arteries to bring aid to Gaza are currently blocked,” Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations humanitarian coordination office (OCHA), denounces from Geneva at a press conference, while recalling that UN agencies have reservations. very low levels within the Palestinian enclave. “If fuel does not arrive for a prolonged period of time, it would be a very effective way to bury the humanitarian operation,” adds Laerke while denouncing that the Israeli authorities had previously prohibited the agency from being present at the Rafah crossing.
Rafah is the only point that gives access from the Palestinian enclave to neighboring Egypt. Until now, it was the only way out of the war for the Gazan population, including the wounded, and, at the same time, one of the few points through which Israel allows the arrival of humanitarian aid. Since last October 7, between 80,000 and 100,000 people have been able to escape from the Strip through that crossing, according to the Palestinian National Authority.
“We call on the countries that committed themselves and requested lists of the sick and injured to fulfill their promises and work urgently so that they can travel,” the Gazan health authorities claim in a statement. “The closure of the Rafah crossing prevented the entry of trucks of medicines and medical equipment, and the entry of fuel necessary for hospitals,” they also point out.
Rafah is also an essential route for the arrival of humanitarian aid to the enclave, although it has always been controlled by the Israeli authorities no matter where it comes from. Its closure joins that of another pass through which some aid also flowed, that of Kerem Shalom. There, a Hamas attack on Sunday killed four members of the Israeli army, which has kept the facilities closed since then.
Both border crossings are a couple of kilometers apart, so the place where the Israeli tanks entered in the early hours of Tuesday is a strategic place of vital importance for the operation that the Jewish State wants to carry out. . Israel places the surviving Hamas battalions in Rafah and also fears that the majority of the hundred or so hostages, many already dead, could have been transferred to that town and its surroundings, the only area that, until now, had been spared. land occupation.
Meanwhile, the most wanted man in the entire Strip continues to be Yahia Sinwar, top leader of Hamas in the enclave, whom Israel accuses of being the mastermind of the attack on October 7 with which the conflict began. No data has emerged that places him outside the Palestinian enclave. Several times, according to local Israeli media, the occupation troops have been on their heels, but they have not succeeded. They also continue to consider him a key player in the negotiations and are given a fundamental role in the latest decisions that Hamas ends up making, such as a possible ceasefire.
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