Who will stop them
Israeli security cabinet approved ‘expansion’ of Rafah operation: Report
Israel’s security cabinet approved the “expansion of the area of operation” of the Israeli forces in Rafah, Axios has reported citing three sources with knowledge of the details.
Two of the unnamed sources said this would be a “measured expansion” that did not cross US President Joe Biden’s red line while the third said it could be seen as crossing the line.
Earlier this week, Biden said the US was still committed to Israel’s defence and would supply rocket interceptors and other defensive arms but, if Israeli forces invade Rafah, “we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used.”
The three sources also told Axios the cabinet instructed the Israeli negotiations to continue efforts to reach a captive deal and try to formulate a new initiative that would lead to a breakthrough, with far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich voted against this decision.
Genocide Joe will just keep moving the 'red line'. They're in Rafah, (They're not in New York, they're just in the Bronx... logic) aid crossings closed and occupied. Houses anywhere in Rafah are being shelled and bombed. The tactic is obvious, go slow and move the 'red line' bit by bit until everyone able has fled Rafah and aid organizations and hospitals have collapsed in Rafah.
ICRC says ‘desperate’ to bring supplies into Gaza
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that hundreds of thousands of people are facing “an extremely chaotic situation” as they try to flee Israel’s Rafah offensive.
“The food and water and medical supplies situation is critical and if this continues, then we move towards catastrophic, or even more catastrophic, consequences from the situation that we now see,” ICRC spokesperson Jason Straziuso told Al Jazeera.
He said the ICRC is “constantly asking” Israeli officials to allow access to humanitarian goods following the shutdown of the crossings. “The Israeli officials know that we are desperate to bring in more supply trucks which we have waiting to cross the border as soon as they’re able to,” Straziuso said.
“There’s conversations also taking place about the need to spare civilian lives – no targeting of civilians, no targeting of civilian objects, meaning buildings, schools, medical facilities,” he added. “Those talks have been happening for months.”
‘Catastrophic’ situation as people flee Rafah
The expansion of the Israeli military operation to reach the far south of Gaza to Rafah, the area where the vast majority of Palestinians earlier have been told to seek refuge, has impacted negatively on all parts of the Strip, including Deir el-Balah … which is now completely overcrowded.
People have been arriving at Deir el-Balah without having shelters, so they are right now living in the open. The prevention of aid flow into the territory is absolutely devastating.
If there’s going to be no kind of reopening for the borders, the situation will completely turn to be catastrophic as people are fleeing day by day from Rafah to Deir el-Balah.
Truck drivers stranded on Egyptian side of Rafah crossing fear food won’t reach Gaza
Aid truck drivers stuck at the Egyptian side of the shut Rafah border crossing say the food they are taking to Gaza could spoil as they wait, exacerbating the besieged and bombarded territory’s hunger crisis.
“The closure of the border crossing is not good for all these trucks because these are fridges, which means machine failure doesn’t give a warning. If the [fridge] stops working, then all of the food inside will be ruined,” trucker Ahmed al-Bayoumi told Reuters.
“Here, there’s no [technician] available to fix things and then we will have to handle the packages again. In any country in the world, food in fridges has priority to be delivered.”
As we reported earlier, UN aid agencies warned today that the dwindling food and fuel stocks could force aid operations to grind to a halt within days in Gaza.
“Every day, trucks would go in and out of the border crossing and things were flowing,” truck driver Abdallah Nassar said. “But now that the border crossing is closed, we don’t know what our situation is now. And of course, we have food, and these things have expiry dates, and it can go bad.”
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