The US has warned Israel that staging a military offensive into Gaza’s southern city of Rafah without proper planning would be a “disaster”. Some 1.5 million Palestinians are surviving in the city bordering Egypt in dire humanitarian conditions. The White House said it would not support major operations without due consideration for the refugees there.
Reported Israeli air strikes on Gaza on Friday killed at least 15 people including eight in Rafah, officials from the Hamas-run health ministry said. Israel did not immediately comment.
Most of the people in Rafah have been displaced by fighting from other parts of Gaza and are living in tents.
Speaking on Thursday evening, and without referring to Rafah, US President Joe Biden said Israel’s actions in Gaza had been “over the top”.
The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, told the BBC that such an operation in Rafah – which he called “the world’s biggest displacement camp” – would be a catastrophe.
Earlier, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the Israeli military had a “special obligation as they conduct operations there or anywhere else to make sure that they’re factoring in protection for innocent civilian life”.
Speaking in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said any “military operation that Israel undertakes needs to put civilians first and foremost… and that’s especially true in the case of Rafah”.
Washington sends around $3.8bn (£3bn) in military aid to Israel each year, making the country the world’s biggest recipient of such funding.
Around 1,300 people were killed during the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October, according to Israeli officials.
More than 27,800 Palestinians have been killed and at least 67,000 injured by the war launched by Israel in response, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
“They are living in overcrowded makeshift shelters, in unsanitary conditions, without running water, electricity and adequate food supplies,” was the stark assessment of the situation by UN chief António Guterres on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered troops to “prepare to operate” in Rafah and that “total victory” by Israel over Hamas was just months away.
Hamas sets out three-stage plan for ceasefire deal. Netanyahu rejects Hamas’s proposed ceasefire terms.
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