International criticism of the planned attack on the Palestinian town of Rafah is growing. But the government in Israel is not contesting this; it is already planning alternative quarters for the population.
Before the planned military offensive on Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, Israel is proposing to set up extensive tent cities for the city’s population to be evacuated. , Israel’s evacuation proposal calls for the establishment of 15 camps, each with around 25,000 tents, in the southwestern part of the sealed-off coastal area.
Egypt should be responsible for camps near Rafah
Egypt, which borders Rafah, would be responsible for setting up the camps and field hospitals, it said. The city is overcrowded with hundreds of thousands of Palestinian internally displaced people seeking protection in a very small space. In the war against the Islamist Hamas, Israel is currently preparing for a military offensive on the city, which it sees as Hamas’s last bastion in Gaza.
The proposal to evacuate the population was made to Egypt in recent days, the newspaper reported. It comes at a time when Israel’s planned military offensive on Rafah is met with strong international criticism.
UN: “We will not participate in the displacement of people”
Israel’s government has called on UN agencies working in the region to help evacuate civilians from Rafah. Everything that happens in the southern part of the region on the border with Egypt must take place with full respect for the protection of the civilian population, said UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric in New York. “We will not take part in the displacement of people.” He also questioned whether there were safe havens in other areas of Gaza, also in view of the many unexploded bombs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his army last week to present a “combined plan to evacuate the population and destroy the Hamas battalions” in Rafah.
Two male hostages kidnapped by Hamas were freed during an Israeli special operation in Rafah on Monday night. According to the Islamist Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip and whose information cannot be independently verified, around a hundred people were killed in bomb attacks. Netanyahu then declared that “only sustained military pressure until complete victory” will “lead to the release of all of our hostages.”
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
