What’s happening in Rafah? The keys to Israel’s latest threat to Gaza and international pressure

2024-02-15 21:32:56

The Palestinian city of Rafahat the southern end of the Gaza Strip, has been making headlines in the media for days. From the offices of world leaders and the main global organizations, we look towards this border town with Egypt with severe concern. Both the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, as senior military officials have announced that Rafah is the next target for Israeli tanks. There, as in the rest of the enclave for more than four months, the bombings have not stopped, but the presence of Israeli troops appears imminent with a ground raid that would reach the last corner of Gaza. The consequences could be even more lethal, which has motivated diplomacy to act quickly to try to avoid it.

Since last October 7, Rafah, with barely 64 square kilometers On the Gazan side, its population has multiplied by six. Before, it was already one of the most densely populated cities in the Gaza Strip. Today, there are 1.5 million people in this border town, with more people arriving to escape from Khan Younis, where the Israeli Army has been concentrating its efforts for days. In each of these square kilometers, at least 22,000 refugees. Most of these people moved following Israeli orders that asked them to evacuate to this supposed “safe zone” in the south. Many of them live under four plastic sheets, in vacant land, on the beach or on the sandy ground next to the border wall with Egypt. Others are crowded into dirty and overcrowded collective shelters. Aid workers are overwhelmed, while infectious diseases and hunger spread with a collapsed health system. Furthermore, most of the little humanitarian aid Those who enter the enclave do so through the Rafah Pass, making this point a key place for the survival of the Gazans.

2. Israel’s motives

Netanyahu is very clear about it. We must enter Rafah, because he claims that he is the “last bastion” of Hamas, with the four remaining battalions of armed men that would remain to be neutralized to achieve their objective of eliminating the Palestinian group. Last week the Israeli leader ordered troops to prepare to enter Rafah but, aware of the serious impact it could have on his already damaged image public an incursion of these characteristics in an area with a high presence of civilians, the next day he asked the Army for a evacuation plan. The rescue of two Israeli hostages this Monday in Rafah, while Palestinian civilians were bombed and a hundred perished, has given Netanyahu more arguments to accelerate the entry of his troops with the aim of freeing more than a hundred captives who still remain in Loop.

3. International mission

Throughout the planet, voices are emerging demanding that Netanyahu stop. The administration of the American president Joe Biden, its main ally, is beginning to lose patience and has said that at this time they would not support a military operation in Rafah. “Given the circumstances and conditions we see now, we believe that a military operation at this time would be a disaster for those people”said White House spokesman John Kirby. United Nations has insisted on the seriousness of the current situation and the terrible consequences of an evacuation. “We would not support in any way the forced displacement, which goes against international law,” said Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric. Leaders of the European Union, France, Germany y United Kingdom They have repeated the same message. Countries like Spain and Ireland They lead European efforts to avoid the catastrophe, demanding measures from Brussels for Israel’s violation of human rights in Gaza.

4. “Catastrophe” announced

Despite demanding its evacuation, no Israeli representative has told the Palestinians in Rafah where to go to save their lives. Most of them have been displaced a handful of times during the Israeli offensive that has killed more than 28,000 of your fellow citizens in the last four months. They cannot return to their homes in the devastated north, because the Israeli Army has devastated them and the fighting still continues and basic supplies are scarce. Egypt It has closed the border and, from the beginning, has said that it would not allow large numbers of Palestinian refugees to cross into the Sinai Desert for fear that they would never be allowed to return. In turn, Cairo has moved 40 tanks and armored vehicles to the border with Gaza and has expressed that the forced displacement of thousands of Palestinians to its territory would put the Peace Agreements signed four decades ago. Furthermore, the Palestinians themselves do not want to abandon their land. The memory of the Nakbathe exodus of 750,000 Palestinians for the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, is more present than ever.