Israeli deafness towards warnings of a disaster.. Does Netanyahu expect the displaced people of Rafah to evaporate into the air?

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keeps repeating to his opponents, friends and allies alike, locally and internationally, that he will not stop his devastating war on the Gaza Strip before he “eliminates” the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), ignoring all warnings that indicate that what he is doing has caused An unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe that is getting worse every day, without achieving anything of what it aims to achieve.

The latest chapter of Netanyahu's "deafness" in the face of the voices warning him of the danger of his adventure in Gaza is his insistence on preparing to storm the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, the "last safe haven" in which about a million and a half refugees are crowded in harsh and inhumane conditions.

A few days ago, Netanyahu ordered his army commanders to prepare plans to storm the city of Rafah in order to “eliminate” what the occupation says are 4 Hamas battalions stationed in the city. Netanyahu’s office also said that he also ordered the army to develop a plan to evacuate Rafah of the civilian population.

Surprise and disapproval

There was surprise and disapproval in some of the statements that responded to Netanyahu, because his forces, which have been bombing Gaza for more than 4 months, did not leave its residents any safe shelter, and destroyed its homes, shops, schools, hospitals, mosques, and churches. So where does Netanyahu want to send these displaced people whom he displaced?

European Union foreign policy official Joseph Borrell says that “Netanyahu does not listen to anyone,” and added in statements to reporters last Monday: “They will evacuate? Where? To the moon? Where will they evacuate these people?”

In the same context, Borrell asserts, “Everyone goes to Tel Aviv, begging: Please do not do this, protect civilians, do not kill this large number. How many are considered excessive? And what is the standard?”

Another strong statement from Israel's allies denouncing Netanyahu's insistence on his plans was issued by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who considered that "an Israeli army attack on Rafah would lead, under these circumstances, to a complete collapse of the humanitarian situation."

Pribock adds that "people in Rafah cannot simply disappear into thin air," especially after they "were displaced from the combat zones in northern Gaza, mostly with nothing but their children in their arms and their clothes on their bodies," as the German official put it.

The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, also warned the day before Tuesday of the consequences of any Israeli military operation in Rafah, saying that “there is no longer any safe place at all to shelter civilians.”

He stressed that "it is not possible to expect more than a million displaced people living in very crowded places in Rafah Governorate to move again, so that Israeli forces can continue combing them in search of Hamas fighters."

In the context of Israel's request for civilians to move to other places, Lazzarini asked, "Where are they moving to? Every empty piece of land in Rafah is occupied by hundreds of thousands of people living in temporary plastic shelters."

Allied appeals

Appeals, international pressure, and warnings continue even from Israel's biggest allies who supported it unconditionally in its aggression against Gaza, such as the United States of America, France, Germany, and Britain, in addition to other parties such as the United Nations, international humanitarian organizations, and Arab countries such as Jordan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

Among the striking statements in this regard is what British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said last Monday, when he stressed that “Israel must think seriously before taking any further action in Rafah,” after the Israeli air strikes on the city, in which the number of people congregated in it has now increased. 6 times its population before October 7th.

Cameron told reporters, "We believe it is impossible to fight a war among this many people. There is nowhere for them to go." The Norwegian Refugee Council even called the city of Rafah a "giant refugee camp," and a doctor who recently left it described it as a "closed prison."

Even French President Emmanuel Macron, who has long reiterated and emphasized what he calls “Israel’s right to defend itself,” told Netanyahu that he strongly opposes Israel’s plan to launch an attack on the city of Rafah, and a French presidential statement in this regard said that “the humanitarian situation and the number of deaths in Gaza It cannot be accepted,” and that the expected Israeli attack “will lead to a humanitarian catastrophe,” considering that “the forced displacement of residents is contrary to international humanitarian law.”

This is the same thing that Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Ede warned about, saying that the planned Israeli ground operation in Rafah would have “catastrophic results,” and continued, “It is clear that Israel is not doing enough to protect civilians. There is no safe place in Gaza.” .

Where are they going?

Australia, Canada, and New Zealand in turn denounced the Israeli insistence on the attack on Rafah, and said in a joint statement that the expected attack would be devastating, and that “civilians simply have nowhere else to go,” especially after the ongoing Israeli aggression since the beginning of last October swept away Most of the cities and neighborhoods of the Gaza Strip, leaving more than 28,500 martyrs, most of whom were women and children.

As for international humanitarian organizations, they also warned of a humanitarian catastrophe that Israel is about to commit in Rafah, adding it to the hundreds of massacres it committed in the Gaza Strip during the past months, and called for an end to the aggression and the protection of civilians from indiscriminate killing.

The United Nations announced that it would not cooperate with any forced evacuation of Palestinian refugees, and Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, stressed last week the need to protect hundreds of thousands of people who have taken refuge in Rafah. He added, "In no way will we support forced displacement that contravenes international law."

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, also warned on Tuesday that Israeli military operations in Rafah “could lead to a massacre in Gaza,” calling on Israel to “stop ignoring” the calls of the international community.

Griffiths said in a statement, “More than half of Gaza’s population is crowded into Rafah and sees death coming to them. They can barely find food, receive practically no medical care, have no place to sleep, and no safe place at all,” noting that “history does not forgive and should This war must stop."

An unimaginable disaster

In turn, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said on Monday in a statement, “Any potential large-scale military incursion into Rafah is terrifying,” given the possibility of a very large number of civilian deaths and injuries, most of whom will be children and women.

He added: “Unfortunately, in light of the massacre that has occurred so far in Gaza, it is possible to imagine what awaits us in Rafah,” stressing that the possibility of such an operation occurring in Rafah under the current circumstances “threatens more brutal crimes,” and said: “ "The world must not allow this to happen."

For its part, the World Food Program expressed its “deep concern” about the expected Israeli military attack on the city of Rafah, and the World Health Organization warned yesterday, Wednesday, that the attack would cause “an unimaginable catastrophe, and will push the health system in the Strip closer to the brink of the abyss, and will increase "The scale of the humanitarian catastrophe is beyond imagination."

The more the voices warning of the catastrophe grow louder and more diverse, the more the Israeli government ignores it. The reason for this - according to what an Israeli demonstrator told Agence France-Presse during a demonstration in Tel Aviv against Netanyahu - is that the latter seeks to prolong the war to protect his position, and “has no idea what... He'll do it the next day."

He - in the words of demonstrator Gil Gordon - “is content with saying no, and he has no other solution than the military solution,” because he and his army are fighting what his Defense Minister Yoav Galant considered - in a statement at the beginning of the aggression - “human animals.”

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies