RAFAH: President Joe Biden has told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel must not start a military operation in the densely populated Gaza border town of Rafah without a proper plan to protect civilians in the area, said White House on Sunday.
They talked after Egypt threatened to suspend its peace agreement with Israel if the Israeli troops are sent into Rafah, where the fighting could force the closure of Gaza’s main aid supply route.
The threat to suspend the Camp David Accords, came after Netanyahu announced to send more troops into Rafah to win the four-month war against Hamas.
Over half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have moved to Rafah to avert the intense fighting in other areas. The displaced people are crowded into tent camps and U.N.-run shelters near the border.
Egypt fears a mass influx of Palestinian refugees who may never be allowed to return back to their own areas in Gaza.
The impasse between Israel and Egypt, started as aid groups warned that an offensive in Rafah would worsen the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where around 80 percent of residents have fled their homes and face starvation.
A ground military offensive in Rafah could cut off one of the only routes for delivering of food and medical assistance to Gaza.
Israeli move in Rafah to blow up peace talks
Hamas’ media quoted an unnamed Hamas official as saying that any Israeli move in Rafah would blow up talks brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar to achieve a cease-fire and the release of Israeli hostages.
“An Israeli offensive on Rafah would lead to an unspeakable humanitarian catastrophe and grave tensions with Egypt,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on X.
Human Rights Watch in a statement said that forced displacement is a war crime and that civilians who don’t leave the war zone are still protected by international humanitarian law. Refugee and migrant rights researcher Nadia Hardman said that nowhere is safe in Gaza.
The White House, has also warned against a Rafah ground offensive under current situation, saying it would be disastrous for civilians.
According to the United Nations, the town of Rafah, which normally houses fewer than 300,000 people, now hosts 1.4 million more who fled war.
Meanwhile Gaza’s Health Ministry on Sunday said that the bodies of 112 people killed across the territory had been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, as well as 173 injured people. It said 28,176 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war in Gaza.
Hamas has said it will, not free any more hostages unless Israel ends its war and withdraws from Gaza. It has also demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, languishing in Israeli jails.
