On Friday, Israel granted authorization for a potential offensive on the city of Rafah in Gaza while simultaneously maintaining hopes for a ceasefire by arranging another delegation to Qatar. The purpose of this delegation is to engage in discussions regarding a potential hostage agreement with the Palestinian group Hamas. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that he had given his approval for the plan to target the city, which is located on the southern border of the devastated Palestinian territory. It is worth noting that over half of Rafah’s 2.3 million inhabitants have sought refuge there following five months of conflict.
The announcement raised alarms around the world that Israel is set to destroy a densely populated part of Gaza, sending displaced civilians fleeing into Egypt and risking a massive humanitarian catastrophe in a region already at a near-crisis level. The Israeli military is preparing for both the operational side of an operation in Rafah and to evacuate its population, the office said. The army added that the IDF is also preparing for an aerial attack.
A senior Hamas official told Reuters that Israel’s decision to move ahead with a plan to attack Rafah “shows that Netanyahu is determined to pursue the aggression against the people of Gaza and undermine all efforts exerted to reach a ceasefire agreement.” The official, Sami Abu Zuhri, was quoted as saying that Israel’s refusal to accept a prisoner exchange would “change everything.”
While Israel’s plan to attack Rafah has raised international concern over its potential effect on civilians, Netanyahu has insisted in recent days that he will not stop pursuing his goal of eliminating Hamas despite the widespread loss of life in the conflict. In a speech to his Cabinet on Wednesday, he said Israel was close to achieving its goal in the conflict that began Oct. 7 with a Hamas-led rocket strike on southern Israel.
On Thursday, Hamas presented a new proposal to mediate an end to the five-month-old war, according to an Israeli government official. The proposal is similar to earlier ones that called for a prisoner swap, including the release of all those captured by Israel in an initial phase, followed by the start of a permanent truce and an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, with an agreed-upon date for a complete and final withdrawal.
In a statement, Hamas’s politburo chief said the group had presented the proposal to foreign mediators at an emergency meeting. The mediators include the head of the United Nations refugee agency, Egypt’s foreign ministry, and Israel’s spy agency Mossad and domestic security service Shin Bet.
The United States has criticized Israel’s plans to invade Rafah, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calling on the White House to pressure Netanyahu into changing course. Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized that the US government cannot condone Israeli ground operations in Rafah without a clear and implementable plan to protect civilians there.
The US has also been exploring options for instituting the two-state solution to the decades-old conflict but has not yet formally recognized a Palestinian state. Israel has long argued that the Palestinians must be prepared to make peace with it before such a step can be taken.
