Image Credits - A News
Unnamed U.S. officials have revealed to The Associated Press that Israel briefed the Biden administration this week on a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of a potential military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. However, the officials stated that the plan outlined by Israel did not allay the administration’s concerns that such an operation would put too many innocent Palestinian civilians at grave risk.
This development comes just a week after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed apprehensions about the planned Rafah operation, stating, “We have not yet seen a plan that gives us confidence that civilians can be effectively protected.”
For months, regional powers and members of the international community have voiced vehement opposition to Israel’s plans to invade Rafah, which has become the last refuge for Palestinians displaced by the ongoing conflict. World leaders, diplomats, and aid agencies have repeatedly urged Israel not to proceed with a ground offensive in the city.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that a ground assault on Rafah would “put the final nail in the coffin” for humanitarian aid operations in the Gaza Strip. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs cautioned that “any ground operation would mean more suffering and death” for over a million displaced Palestinians sheltering in Rafah, with an official stating, “It could be a slaughter of civilians.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has declared that an attack on Rafah would be “completely unacceptable.” In a forceful statement, the foreign ministers of 26 EU member states called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to proceed with the offensive, stating that it would “worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation.”
President Joe Biden and other U.S. officials have repeatedly warned against a Rafah offensive, with Biden reportedly telling Netanyahu that the United States would oppose the operation unless adequate provisions were made to move and care for the Palestinians sheltering there.
Aid agencies have also sounded the alarm about the potentially devastating consequences of an offensive in Rafah. The Norwegian Refugee Council stated that it “would profoundly exacerbate the already catastrophic levels of need and the humanitarian emergency for millions of civilians with nowhere left to go.”
The dire warnings from the international community underscore the precarious situation in Rafah, which has become a densely populated haven for Palestinians displaced by the conflict. With healthcare facilities and infrastructure already strained to the breaking point, a military operation in the city could trigger a humanitarian catastrophe of unprecedented proportions.