War in the Middle East: Israel’s army advances further in Rafah

The Israeli army says it is continuing to advance against the Islamist Hamas in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. Its own ground troops have now reached the Shabura area, from where the Hamas terrorists are operating, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari announced.

Today, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will rule on South Africa’s demand that Israel’s military withdraw immediately from Rafah. Decisions of the World Court are binding. However, the UN judges have no power to force a state to implement them.

However, they can call on the UN Security Council to take action on the matter. “We are not storming Rafah, but we are proceeding carefully and precisely,” stressed Hagari. Israel wants to destroy the last remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah.

Israel Army: Dozens of terrorists killed in Rafah

“So far, we have eliminated more than 180 terrorists in Rafah,” said Hagari. The army has also destroyed launchers and rockets that were intended to be fired into Israeli territory. In addition, underground Hamas tunnels and shafts have been dug. Work is underway to locate more. “The operation on the ground is intensive and determined, with difficult fighting in complex areas,” the spokesman explained.

Following Israel’s calls for evacuation, around one million civilians have now left the city. Before the Israeli army began its invasion, more than one million internally displaced people from other parts of the Gaza Strip sought protection in Rafah. South Africa’s urgent application is arguing that it is about preventing genocide against Palestinians. The reason given is that the court’s previous measures in connection with the war in Gaza are not sufficient.

Israel’s advance into Rafah began on May 6 in the east of the city bordering Egypt. The United States, Israel’s most important ally, recently stated that operations in Rafah had not yet reached the scale that the US government had warned about. The United States rejects a major Israeli ground offensive in Rafah. Israeli operations to date “have been more targeted and limited and have not included major military operations in the center of densely populated urban areas,” said US President Joe Biden’s security adviser Jake Sullivan.

“We now have to wait and see how the situation develops,” he added. Having reached Shabura, the army is now fighting near the center of Rafah, wrote the New York Times. After almost eight months of war, Rafah is the last halfway intact city in the Gaza Strip.

Minister Gantz wants commission of inquiry to meet on October 7

The war was triggered by an unprecedented massacre by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups on October 7 last year in the Israeli border region. More than 1,200 people were killed in the terrorist attack and more than 250 were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.

According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, more than 35,700 people have been killed in Israel’s subsequent military offensive in Gaza. Benny Gantz, minister in Israel’s war cabinet, meanwhile called for a commission of inquiry to clarify how the terrorist attack on October 7 in Israel could have happened.

“It is not enough that we take responsibility for what happened – we must learn from it and act so that it never happens again,” he said in a video message on the X platform. Prime Minister Netanyahu had previously denied in a statement that he had received warnings from the military about a possible attack from the Gaza Strip.

According to media reports, before Hamas’ surprise attack, scouts on the border with the Gaza Strip had repeatedly warned in vain of suspicious activities in the sealed-off coastal area.

Report: CIA director wants to revive negotiations

Five of these spies, kidnapped in the October 7 raid on Gaza, are seen in disturbing Hamas video footage. The young women’s parents agreed to the release in the hope that the gruesome images could help secure the release of their daughters and other hostages in a deal between Israel and Hamas.

According to the usually well-informed Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, CIA Director Bill Burns will travel to Europe in the next few days to meet with the head of Israel’s foreign intelligence service Mossad, David Barnea, to try to revive stalled talks on a hostage release and a ceasefire. Qatari and Egyptian officials may attend the meeting, Ravid wrote on X. Since Israel and Hamas are not negotiating directly, the US, Egypt and Qatar are acting as mediators.

Report: USA considers advisory role after end of war

Gantz had threatened to leave the government if Netanyahu did not present a plan for the post-war order in the Gaza Strip by June 8. The US government is meanwhile considering supporting a future administration and the reconstruction of the coastal region in an advisory role from outside for the period after the end of the war.

As the portal “Politico” reported, citing four unnamed US officials, a plan is being discussed internally to assign a civilian US official to a future predominantly Palestinian security force in Gaza, who would not, however, be stationed in the Gaza Strip.

Although there is still debate in Washington about how much official authority this adviser would have, it is part of a plan in which the US would play a “prominent” role in overcoming the consequences of the ongoing war in Gaza. Netanyahu said in an interview that once Hamas is defeated, a sustainable demilitarization of Gaza must be achieved.

“We want a civilian administration run by citizens of Gaza who are neither members of nor committed to Hamas.” The Washington Post had previously quoted defense officials in Israel as saying that their strategy included a Palestinian security force in Gaza.

This would consist partly of administrative staff from the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and would be overseen by a Palestinian Governing Council – with the support of Arab states such as Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Netanyahu, however, firmly rejects the involvement of the Palestinian Authority. “I am clearly against exchanging Hamastan for Fatahstan,” he said recently. In the West Bank, the comparatively moderate Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is the leading party.