Israeli media reported on Wednesday that Israel is preparing to send forces to the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, which it considers the last stronghold of the Hamas movement, and said that preparations are being made to evacuate the displaced Palestinians who are sheltering there.
The widely circulated newspaper “Israel Hayom” quoted an Israeli government decision, after the faltering ceasefire talks with Hamas, that the operation to invade Rafah, which was postponed for several weeks due to disagreements with Washington, will take place “very soon.”
Several other Israeli media published similar reports. Some pointed to footage on social media that appeared to show the establishment of a tent city to receive those who will be evacuated from Rafah.
There has been no comment yet from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office nor the Israeli army spokesman’s office.
Rafah, adjacent to the Egyptian border, is filled with more than a million Palestinians who fled from other areas of the Gaza Strip during the war that has been going on for more than six months.
Their fate raises concerns among Western powers and the Arab world. Israel, under pressure due to the increasing humanitarian toll resulting from the war, pledged to take measures to protect civilians in Rafah.
Netanyahu’s government says that Rafah has four full-fledged Hamas combat battalions, and says that these battalions received reinforcements from thousands of the movement’s fighters withdrawing from other areas.
Netanyahu’s government insists that victory in the Gaza war, which began after Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, will be impossible without taking control of Rafah, crushing Hamas and retrieving any prisoners who may be held there.
Hamas did not comment on the issue of the presence of combat brigades in the city.
In a speech he delivered yesterday, Tuesday, coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the war, Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the military wing of the Hamas movement, said that Israel had reaped nothing but “shame and defeat” in the campaign, which officials in the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip say resulted in the killing of more than 34 people. One thousand Palestinians.
Israeli statistics indicate that 1,200 were killed and 253 were detained in the October 7 attack. The Israeli army says that 262 other Israeli soldiers were killed in the ground operations that witnessed the invasion of most parts of the Gaza Strip.
