Israel faced international backlash on Saturday over the IDF operation in Rafah and its seizure of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing last week.
“We think an offensive on Rafah would be irresponsible. We warn against it,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a webcast event organized by the German newspaper group RND.
“We don’t believe that there is any approach that would not lead in the end to the incredible loss of human life of innocent civilians,” Scholz said, adding that he had told this to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The French Foreign Ministry warned on Friday that such an operation could cause a “catastrophic situation for the civilian populations of Gaza” and called on Israel to halt its operation without delay.
South Africa asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah as part of additional emergency measures over the war in Gaza, the UN's top court said on Friday.
US President Joe Biden had already warned last week that he would halt shipments of arms designated for use in Gaza if Israel launched a major operation there.
The White House said that it was watching “with concern,” but the Israeli operations appeared to be localized around the shuttered Rafah crossing and did not reflect a large-scale invasion.
Concern about the Palestinians evacuated to the southernmost point of Gaza
The international community has been particularly concerned about Rafah because there are over 1.3 million Palestinians located there, many of whom sought refuge in that area to escape bombing in the north at the start of the war.
On Thursday night, Israel’s security cabinet unanimously approved the expansion of a limited operation in Rafah, according to several sources who commented on the details of the discussion.
In addition, the cabinet approved renewing the mandate for the negotiation team to continue negotiations for the release of the hostages.
In an interview with the Doctor Phil Prime Time show that aired on Friday, Netanyahu said that Israel must enter Rafah to destroy the remaining four battalions, explaining that otherwise, Hamas will be able to maintain control over Gaza.
“We face very strong opposition to that, but we’re going to overcome it,” Netanyahu said, adding that when Israel is told not to enter Rafah, it is essentially being asked to leave Hamas in Gaza.
“Right-minded people, rational-minded people understand that we don’t have a choice, but there’s strong opposition,” Netanyahu said.
“If Israel has to stand alone, we’ll stand alone. But we also know we’re not alone because we have so many decent people everywhere who would support us,” he stated.
Concerning Biden, Netanyahu said, “We’ve had our disagreements; we’ve been able to overcome them. I hope we can overcome them now. But we will do what we have to do to protect our country, and that means protect our future. And that means we will defeat Hamas, including in Rafah. We have no other choice.
“I’ve said we’ll fight if necessary. I’ve said we’ll fight with our fingernails. I assure you, Dr. Phil, we have more than fingernails.”
Once Hamas has been ousted from Gaza, he said, there will be a civilian government “by Gazans who are not committed to our destruction.”
This governance structure will be done possibly “with the aid of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and other countries that I think want to see stability and peace,” Netanyahu said.
The IDF, however, would still need to operate in Gaza to root out terrorists, “because I don’t see anyone coming in to do that right now.”
The United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan rebuked Netanyahu in an early morning post on X, saying Abu Dhabi denounced the Israeli leader’s comments.
“The UAE stresses that the Israeli prime minister does not have any legal capacity to take this step, and the UAE refuses to be drawn into any plan aimed at providing cover for the Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip,” he said in an Arabic-language post.
Sheik Abdullah said the UAE would be prepared to support a Palestinian government that met the hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people, which he said included independence.
Egypt has refused to coordinate with Israel on the entry of aid into Gaza from the Rafah crossing due to Israel’s “unacceptable escalation,” Egypt’s state-affiliated Alqahera News satellite TV reported on Saturday, citing a senior official.
The official also said that Egypt held Israel responsible for the deterioration of the situation in the Gaza Strip.