Netanyahu orders plan for evacuation and military action in Gaza’s Rafah
It is impossible to achieve the goal of the war without eliminating Hamas, and by leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah," the Prime Minister's Office stated..
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF, REUTERSUpdated: FEBRUARY 9, 2024 20:44 Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on February 7, 2024.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/POOL)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed the IDF and the defense establishment to bring to the war cabinet a plan for both the evacuation of civilians in the south Gaza city of Rafah and the neutralization of the four Hamas battalions therein, the Prime Minister’s Office stated on Friday.
Hamas cannot be defeated with four battalions remaining in Rafah
It is impossible to achieve the goal of the war without eliminating Hamas, and by leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah," the statement noted. "On the contrary, it is clear that intense activity in Rafah requires that civilians evacuate the areas of combat."
The Prime Minister's Office:It is impossible to achieve the goal of the war without eliminating Hamas, and by leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah.On the contrary, it is clear that intense activity in Rafah requires that civilians evacuate the areas of combat.
"Therefore," the statement continued, "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the IDF and the security establishment to submit to the Cabinet a combined plan for evacuating the population and destroying the battalions."
Therefore, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the IDF and the security establishment to submit to the Cabinet a combined plan for evacuating the population and destroying the battalions.
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, take shelter in a tent camp, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at the border with Egypt, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 8, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA)
Abbas's response and claims
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday a plan announced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a military escalation in Rafah at the southern edge of the Gaza Strip aims to drive Palestinians from their land.
The office of Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority that exerts partial self-rule in the West Bank, said it holds both the Israeli government and the US administration responsible for the plan's repercussions.
The Palestinian presidency called on the UN Security Council to take heed, "because (Israel) taking this step threatens security and peace in the region and the world. It crosses all red lines," the statement said.
Palestinian civilians in Rafah in the Gaza Strip need to be protected, but there should not be any forced mass displacement, the United Nations said on Friday after Israel began drawing up an evacuation plan to allow it to defeat Hamas in the area.
"We're extremely worried about the fate of civilians in Rafah," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Friday.
"What is clear is that people need to be protected, but we also do not want to see any forced displacement - forced mass displacement - of people, which is by definition against their will," Dujarric said. "We would not support in any way forced displacement, which goes against international law."
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the country's military on Friday to draw up a dual plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Rafah in southern Gaza and to defeat the last Hamas fighters there.
More than half Gaza's 2.3 million people are sheltering in Rafah, many of them penned up against the border fence with Egypt and living in makeshift tents.
"The unprecedented density of Rafah's population makes it nearly impossible to protect civilians in the event of ground attacks," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday. "The congestion in Rafah has reached a point where normal routes are blocked by tents set up by families seeking any flat, clean space available."
