Egyptian authorities on Sunday (11/2/2024) warned of the “terrible impact” of a ground attack on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip planned by Israel .
The Israeli military plans to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, home to more than a million residents seeking refuge, to defeat what Tel Aviv calls remaining “Hamas battalions”.
This plan sparked fears of a humanitarian disaster in Rafah City.
“Targeting Rafah, coupled with Israel’s policy of always blocking access to humanitarian aid, is a real contribution to implementing policies to expel Palestinians and destroy their struggle,” said a statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
Egypt emphasized that it rejected Israel’s official statement on the Rafah attack, warning that the planned attack “will have dire consequences, especially considering the risk of exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.”
Egypt called for united international and regional efforts to prevent a planned attack on Rafah, which currently hosts some 1.4 million Palestinian refugees who consider the city the last safe area in Gaza.
The Israeli military on Sunday approved plans for a ground attack on Rafah, according to Israel’s public broadcaster, KAN.
Palestinians sought refuge in the city of Rafah as Israel pounded the rest of Gaza since October 7, killing more than 28,000 people and causing mass destruction and a crisis of basic needs.
Earlier on Wednesday, the White House warned that an Israeli attack on Rafah “would be a disaster” for Palestinians.
Israel’s war on Gaza has displaced 85 percent of the population there amid a food, clean water and medicine crisis, with 60 percent of infrastructure damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
At the end of 2023, South Africa filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Israel of failing to uphold its commitments under the 1948 Genocide Convention.
In an interim ruling in January, the UN tribunal ruled that South Africa’s claims were reasonable.