Gaza rights group says ‘time is running out’ to stop Rafah incursion
The Gaza-based rights group Al-Mezan Center has said that the international community must mobilise swiftly to stop an anticipated Israeli assault on Rafah, where more than one million displaced Palestinians are hemmed in with nowhere to flee. “For months, Al-Mezan Center warned of Israel’s evacuation orders as a pretext to push #Gaza’s population closer to the border with Egypt in preparation for their mass deportation,” the group said in a social media post today.
“Time is running out: the international community must act now to halt the ground invasion of Rafah.”
For months, @AlMezanCenter warned of Israel's evacuation orders as a pretext to push #Gaza's population closer to the border with Egypt in preparation for their mass deportation.
Time is running out: the international community must act now to halt the ground invasion of Rafah. https://t.co/SJ9zHszKSC
— Al-Mezan الميزان (@AlMezanCenter) February 9, 2024
Rafah operation must be stopped ‘before it’s too late’
Al Jazeera senior political analyst Marwan Bishara says Israel’s planned operation in Rafah has revived fears of forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza and that countries, such as the United States, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, must exert all possible leverage to prevent the assault from moving forward. “He [Netanyahu] is adamant about continuing to the southern tip of Gaza, where, as we’ve heard from our correspondent, over one million Palestinians are concentrated,” he said.
“This means so many things can go wrong now, in terms of the mass massacre of people, or, what we’ve been fearing all along, not just a massacre of people but the expulsion of the Palestinians into the Sinai,” he added. “This is the time for whoever has leverage, or for whoever cares, especially those in Washington, those in London, but also those in Riyadh and Cairo, to move now, before it’s too late,” he said.
Rafah invasion could lead to ‘military tension’ between Egypt and Israel
Sara Kira, founder and director at the European North African Centre for Research, told Al Jazeera that Egypt is trying to push Hamas to be flexible in their demands from an unwavering Israel. “Netanyahu has again become the hardliner for this peace plan,” she said, adding that the Israeli prime minister has called Hamas’s request for the destroyed hospitals and shelters in Gaza to be rebuilt “delusional”.
She added that if Israel starts bombarding Rafah, the people will have nowhere to go except for the Egyptian borders. “And that’s crossing the Philadelphia axis which Egypt has declared as a red line because that might cause, again, military tension with Israel,” she said.
Egypt stepping up security near border with Gaza: Report
The Reuters news agency has reported that Egypt has been taking steps to bolster security near the border with Gaza, deploying 40 tanks and armoured personnel carriers to northeastern Sinai over the last two weeks. The report, which cites two anonymous Egyptian security officials, comes as Israel prepares for an incursion into Rafah near the border with Egypt. Tensions between the two countries have also simmered over a possible Israeli effort to take control of the border area known as the Philadelphi corridor.
Since the beginning of the current war, Egypt has feared that Israeli forces may expel Gaza’s population into the Sinai.
