New York: The United Nations has warned that an Israeli assault in Gaza's Rafah city, where over a million people have taken refuge to escape the devastating military offensive, was on the "immediate horizon" and that the progress by Israel on aid access to the besieged enclave could not be used to justify an operation. This came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to go ahead with a Rafah invasion with or without a ceasefire deal with Hamas.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed for states with influence over Israel "to do everything in their power" to prevent an Israeli assault on Rafah in southern Gaza, where more than 1.2 million displaced Gaza Palestinians are sheltering. "The world has been appealing to the Israeli authorities for weeks to spare Rafah, but a ground operation there is on the immediate horizon. The simplest truth is that a ground operation in Rafah will be nothing short of a tragedy beyond words," said UN aid chief Martin Griffiths in a statement.
Guterres told reporters that there had been "incremental progress" toward averting "an entirely preventable, human-made famine" in northern Gaza, but much more was urgently needed. "These improvements in bringing more aid into Gaza cannot be used to prepare for or justify a full-blown military assault on Rafah," Griffiths said, adding that a lack of security for humanitarians is a major obstacle in aid deliveries.
Israel PM vows Rafah invasion
Despite repeated US warnings against the Rafah operation, Netanyahu on Tuesday vowed to carry out an operation against Hamas in the southern Gaza city of Rafah regardless of whether or not a ceasefire and hostage release deal is reached. "The idea that we will stop the war before achieving all its objectives is out of the question," Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office.
The statement from Netanyahu came a day after he spoke to US President Joe Biden the latter reiterated his firm position on Rafah-- a border region which has been a centre of conflict between the two leaders. The White House said that Biden reiterated his “clear position” as Israel plans to invade Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah despite global concern for more than 1 million Palestinians sheltering there.
The US, Israel's closest ally, opposes the invasion on humanitarian grounds, straining relations between the allies. Recently, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that an "extraordinarily generous" ceasefire proposal has been given to Hamas calling for the release of some hostages and Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a pause in fighting.
The latest proposal by Egypt is laid into two phases - the first of which calls for the release of 20 to 33 hostages to be released over several weeks in exchange for the pause and the release of Palestinian prisoners. The second phase entails what sources describe as the "restoration of sustainable calm", during which the remaining hostages, captive Israeli soldiers and the bodies of hostages will be exchanged for more Palestinian prisoners.
Meanwhile, Blinken said on Tuesday he would hold discussions with Netanyahu over measures that Israel still needs to take to increase the flow of aid into Gaza during his planned talks in the country on Wednesday. "I'm now able to go to Israel tomorrow and go over with the Israeli government the things that still need to be done if the test is going to be met of making sure that people have what they need," Blinken said.
Why Netanyahu wants to invade Rafah?
Far-right allies of Netanyahu's ruling coalition are raising pressure on the embattled leader to reject a new Gaza ceasefire, jeopardising his government's stability if he backs away from an assault on Hamas in Rafah. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday urged Netanyahu not to back away from a ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, even as the premier is grappling with pressure from international allies to scrap assault plans due to the risk of high civilian casualties and a humanitarian disaster.
Smotrich said a ceasefire would be a humiliating defeat, and if Netanyahu fails to stamp out Hamas, "a government headed by you will have no right to exist." However, Benny Gantz, a centrist former defence minister who joined Netanyahu's emergency war cabinet in October, offered his own rebuke, saying that freeing hostages took precedence over an assault on Rafah.
Israeli police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have drawn US ire over anti-Palestinian remarks and policies supporting settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, even before the Gaza war. With their combined 13 Knesset seats, either could dissolve the government. If that happened, Netanyahu would have to obtain backing from more centrist parties or face an election. Successive polls have attested to his steep loss in popularity over Hamas' Oct. 7 attack - the worst on Jews since the Holocaust and Israel's single deadliest day. His present coalition faces a resounding election defeat, polls suggest. The longest-serving Israeku premier is also on trial on charges of corruption, in which he denies any wrongdoing, and facing mounting protests over his conduct of the war.
The war was sparked by Hamas' attack on October 7 into southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities, who say another 250 people were taken hostage. Hamas and other groups are holding about 130 people, including the remains of about 30, Israeli authorities say. Israel's retaliatory assault on Hamas has killed more than 34,500 people, most of them women and children, according to health authorities in Gaza.
(with inputs from Reuters)
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