The Israel is ready to send troops to Rapha, the city in its southern part Gaza Strip which it considers the last stronghold of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Israeli media reported today, noting that preparations are underway to remove war-displaced Palestinian civilians who have taken refuge there.
The business in Rafa, which has been postponed for several weeks amid disagreements with Washington, will take place “very soon”, reports the widely circulated Israeli newspaper Hayomciting the Israeli government’s decision after the stalemate in ceasefire talks with Hamas.
Similar reports appear in other Israeli media. Some point to videos on social media that appear to show a city of tents being built for those who will be removed from Rafa.
The office of the prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli military spokesman’s office have not yet commented on the matter.
The population of Rafah, which is near the border with Egypt, has been joined by more than a million Palestinians who fled other parts of the Gaza Strip during the more than six-month war in the Palestinian enclave.
Their fate is causing concern among Western powers and Cairo, which has ruled out any influx of refugees into the Egyptian Sinai. Israel, which is under pressure due to the humanitarian impact of the war, has pledged to take measures to ensure the safety of Rafah’s civilians.
The Netanyahu government says there are four intact Hamas battalions in Rafah, which it says have been reinforced by thousands of fighters from the Islamist movement withdrawn from elsewhere.
A victory in the war in Gaza, which was launched after Hamas’s unprecedented Oct. 7 offensive in southern Israel, is not possible without the operation in Rafah to crush Hamas and retrieve any hostages that may be held there, according to the Israeli government.
THE Hamas does not comment on the development of its fighters.
In a speech yesterday, Tuesday, on the occasion of the completion of 200 days since the war in Gaza began, the representative of the armed wing of Hamas Abu Ubaydah stated that Israel only succeeded in provoking it “humiliation and defeat” of with a campaign that according to health officials in Gaza has claimed the lives of over 34,000 Palestinians.
Hamas killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 253 in its October 7 attack on Israel, according to Israeli accounts. Ground military operations in most of the Gaza Strip have killed 262 Israeli soldiers, according to the Israeli military.
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