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[Live] Gaza: strong fears for Rafah after the announcement of an Israeli operation

While Hamas has drawn up a plan for a four and a half month truce, in three stages, likely, according to it, to lead to the end of the conflict which has opposed it to Israel since October, and by then, to the release of the hostages , Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused this prospect and asked the army to prepare for the offensive in Rafah. Thursday February 8, fears increased in this city where refugees were piling up.

An Israeli tank maneuvers along the northern border of the Gaza Strip, seen from Israel, February 7, 2024. © Amir Cohen / Reuters

By: Internet Editorial

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What you must remember :

■ While the Palestinian group

Hamas confirmed on Tuesday February 6 that it had submitted its response

to the Egyptian and Qatari mediators regarding the 

truce proposal

that had been made to it,

Israel

refused this project. 

■ Benyamin Netanyahu also implemented what his government had been announcing for several days: “ 

We have ordered the Israeli defense forces to

prepare an operation in Rafah

as well as in two camps

 ” for refugees. He sees them as the “ 

last bastions

 ” of Hamas.

■ The

UN is alarmed by the idea of ​​a ground invasion in Rafah

, which could “ 

constitute

a war crime

". On the border with Egypt, the town is now home to half of the Palestinian population, who have come to take refuge, notably following Israeli instructions. Its population has increased fivefold, with refugees sometimes crowding into cemeteries.

■ According to the latest report from the Hamas Ministry of Health, communicated on Wednesday February 7,

27,708 people have been killed in Gaza

since the start of the war on October 7, 2023. The dead are mostly women, adolescents and children. children. There are also

67,147 injured

.

Times are given in universal time (UT, i.e. Paris time -1),

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5:00 a.m.: Great fears for Rafah after the announcement of a land operation

Fears are growing on Thursday over the fate of more than a million Palestinians stuck in Rafah, a town at the southern tip of Gaza where Israel is preparing to carry out an offensive, as a new round of talks opens in Cairo for a truce.

After a first phase of its deployment which was concentrated in the north of the Palestinian territory, the Israeli army progressed towards the center and south of Gaza, notably in the town of Khan Younes, the epicenter of fierce fighting and raids in recent weeks. continuous aerial flights.

Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he had ordered the Israeli army to “ 

prepare

 ” an offensive on Rafah, a city located on the closed border with Egypt, where there are 1.3 million Palestinians, the vast majority of whom are displaced people. by the clashes of recent months.

During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, witnesses and hospital sources reported deadly strikes in the south of the Gaza Strip, particularly in Rafah.

► Find

our live from February 7 here

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