After firing a new wave of deadly strikes on southern Gaza on Thursday, Israel vowed to launch a “powerful” operation in Rafah, an overcrowded city in the southern Gaza Strip, despite growing international condemnation.
After more than four months of a war that has flattened vast swathes of Gaza, displaced most of the territory’s population, and pushed people to the brink of starvation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted it must press ahead into Rafah for “complete victory.”
Hundreds of thousands of people have been driven into Gaza’s southernmost city, seeking shelter in a sprawling, makeshift encampment near the Egyptian border.
“We were displaced from Gaza City to the south,” said Ahlam Abu Assi. “(Then) they told us to go to Rafah, so we went to Rafah.”
“We can’t keep going and coming,” she added. “There is no safe place for us.”
At least 28,576 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s assault on the Palestinian territory, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
“We will fight until complete victory, and this also includes a powerful action in Rafah after we allow the civilian population to leave the battle zones,” Netanyahu said in a statement on his official Telegram account.
Australia, Canada, and New Zealand were the latest to warn Israel not to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, issuing a joint statement saying it would be “devastating” for the 1.5 million Palestinians trapped there.
“There is simply nowhere else for civilians to go,” they said.
The Israeli Army said troops had carried out “targeted raids” in the southern city of Khan Yunes overnight and killed a “number of terrorists,” as well as striking what it said was “underground terrorist infrastructure.”
The Health Ministry said 107 people, “mostly women and children,” had been killed in the overnight attacks.
With AFP
