Bengaluru: Despite worldwide condemnation and protests at home, the Israeli forces on Tuesday launched their invasion of Rafah, the small city in Southern Gaza, the Palestinian enclave that has been invaded by Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on October.
Before launching the invasion, the Israeli forces had asked the population to leave voluntarily from the small city in southern Gaza, where aid agencies have warned of an ongoing famine and an imminent bloodbath if Israel goes ahead with the operation.
Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) announced that it had created a humanitarian area for the displaced population, which it had expanded further, and had “facilitated” the availability of basic necessities including water, food and medicines. The IDF objective is to “sanitise” the area of Hamas fighters, by screening the Palestinian civilians in Rafah.
Soon after the operation began, IDF announced that it had taken control of the Gazan side of the southern crossing into Egypt, thus effectively blocking any escape route for Hamas operatives who may be seeking to slip into Egypt.
Details from the Israeli operation were sketchy, as the IDF released images of tanks and armoured personnel carriers rolling into Rafah. The army tweeted: “A precise counterterrorism operation to eliminate Hamas terrorists and infrastructure within specific areas of eastern Rafah began overnight, based on intelligence.”
The Israeli operation began even as Egyptian and Qatari negotiators worked feverishly to clinch a truce deal which would involve a 40-day humanitarian cease-fire, with Hamas releasing 33 Israeli hostages, after much bickering. Israel insisted that it had asked for the release of 44 hostages, and would not settle for the lesser number.
As news of Hamas agreeing to the deal spread, Palestinians all over Gaza rejoiced, and in Israel, families of hostages demanded that the Israeli government agree to the deal, and restore the hostages to their loved ones.
With the IDF now in control of the crossings, and Hamas bottled up in the city, clashes are likely in the following days, as IDF begins “persuading” the Palestinian civilians into the holding area, after screening them.
Meanwhile, the UN warned that the city was suffering from famine and that Gaza had just one day of fuel. Over the past few days, aid agencies warned of a “bloodbath” if the IDF went ahead with the operation.
Apparently, the Israelis informed the US of the operation, and went ahead despite disapproving noises from the Americans. The Biden administration, worried over the November elections in the light of the youth revolt on American campuses, is making an attempt to make Israel agree to a truce, which it hopes will prolong. The US is also apprehensive about the International Criminal Court (ICC) declaring them war criminals and issuing arrest warrants against Israeli government figures, as well as the commanders of IDF. After praising the ICC for issuing arrest warrants against Russian president Vladimir Putin, the US would be accused of being hypocritical, if it opposes such warrants being issued against Netanyahu and co.
Anticipating the warrants to be issued sometime this week, the US has been cautioning ICC about going ahead with prosecuting the Israeli leaders, while at the same time, asking Tel Aviv to be restrained.
But the Israeli government, just like the Democrats in the US, has its own political imperatives to act tough and reject any deal which it considers is a concession to Hamas. The Netanyahu government, led by Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, has a bare majority of 4 in a house of 120, and is dependent on religious far right parties for survival.
These parties include the Mafdal-Religious Zionism party led by Bezalel Smotrich and the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party of Itamar Ben Gvir. Both Smotrich and Ben Gvir are ministers in the Netanyahu cabinet, and have been instrumental in pushing Netanyahu to defy world opinion in continuing with the brutal operations in Gaza.
Both the voters of both the parties are hyper-religious Jews, and want the Hamas to be decimated, and the Palestine Authority in the West Bank to be completely emasculated.
It is such domestic politics that is now dictating the course of events in Gaza, worsening of which might even arouse the dormant and docile Arab governments that seem to be reconciled to accept whatever Israel does.
Israel rejects Arab-brokered truce deal, seals off Rafah crossing, trapping 1.4 million Gazans in enclave
51
0
08.05.2024
Bengaluru: Despite worldwide condemnation and protests at home, the Israeli forces on Tuesday launched their invasion of Rafah, the small city in Southern Gaza, the Palestinian enclave that has been invaded by Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on October.
Before launching the invasion, the Israeli forces had asked the population to leave voluntarily from the small city in southern Gaza, where aid agencies have warned of an ongoing famine and an imminent bloodbath if Israel goes ahead with the operation.
Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) announced that it had created a humanitarian area for the displaced population, which it had expanded further, and had “facilitated” the availability of basic necessities including water, food and medicines. The IDF objective is to “sanitise” the area of Hamas fighters, by screening the Palestinian civilians in Rafah.
Soon after the operation began, IDF announced that it had taken control of the Gazan side of the southern crossing into Egypt, thus effectively blocking any escape route for Hamas operatives who may be seeking to slip into........
© News9Live
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Rami G Khouri
Mort Laitner
Rachel Marsden
Donald Low
Bradley Blankenship
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
Abbas Juma
Michael Kwet
