The Rafah assault is “inevitable,” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said. Any agreement with Hamas would only delay it.
Israel is considering an “evacuation plan” for civilians from unspecified areas of the Gaza Strip.
A plan to evacuate people from “combat zones” has been presented to the war cabinet by the military, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement Monday. The proposal comes as the Israeli military prepares for a long-threatened offensive against the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million people are trapped.
The war cabinet discussed on Sunday evening the “plan for evacuating the population from the combat zones in the Gaza Strip” and the “upcoming operational plan”, the prime minister’s office said.
However, the details are not confirmed. The brief statement did not specify that the plans are linked to the planned ground invasion of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been forcibly displaced.
“This is a dual plan of action. First, Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah, and second, an evacuation plan for nearly 1.5 million Palestinians seeking refuge in Gaza’s southernmost city,” said Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hamdah Salhut, from occupied East Jerusalem.
Only path to “total victory”
Reports of the plans followed shortly after the heads of Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad and domestic security service Shin Bet returned from the latest truce negotiations in Paris. They reportedly had in hand the outline of a potential agreement with Hamas which envisages a pause in fighting of up to six weeks to facilitate an exchange of Palestinian prisoners and Israeli captives.
The framework was presented to Hamas, but the group has not yet commented publicly. An Israeli delegation will be sent to Qatar in the coming days to continue negotiations.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Salhut pointed out that Netanyahu said no deal was yet reached or imminent.
“Also, when we talk about Rafah, the Israeli Prime Minister – speaking to the American media – said that if there was an agreement, the ground invasion would be delayed. If there is no agreement, the ground invasion will take place sooner,” she said.
“But whatever the outcome, Israel’s ground invasion at Rafah, despite all the international criticism and condemnation, will take place because he says it is the only way to achieve ‘total victory’ over Hamas.”
‘Same page’
Amid plans and negotiations, Israel’s ground invasion of southern Gaza continues in Khan Younis, and bombs continue to fall on Rafah and other areas of the besieged enclave, where an estimated 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7.
Netanyahu told US broadcaster CBS on Sunday evening that once the invasion of Rafah begins, the “intense phase” of fighting would only end in weeks. He said “we are on the same page with the United States” on the need to evacuate civilians.
“The reason you have this population in Rafah is because we pushed them out of the other combat zones we had, that’s why they’re there. So there is now room for them to go north of Rafah, to the places where we have already finished the fighting. »
The Israeli leader also reiterated that Tel Aviv has no intention of pushing Palestinians from Rafah towards the border Egypt.
Satellite images and reports indicate that Egypt is building a fortified buffer zone that could potentially shelter tens of thousands of Palestinians who could be forced across its borders by an Israeli attack, but Cairo has denied this. .
Egypt also threatened to jeopardize more than four decades of peace with Israel in the event of an invasion of Rafah.
According to Netanyahu’s office, a separate plan to “provide humanitarian assistance” was also presented to the cabinet, which would aim to “prevent the looting that has taken place in the northern Gaza Strip and other regions”.
Humanitarian convoys have struggled to pass through Rafah to reach other areas after Israeli forces targeted and killed Palestinian police officers who were trying to help aid convoys pass through hungry and desperate crowds.
