Illustrative image (The Israeli Defense Forces)
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has completed all necessary preparations to take the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and can launch a ground operation against the Hamas Movement there the moment it gets government approval, a senior Israeli defense official told Reuters on April 24
Rafah, which is located right on the border with Egypt, shelters more than a million Palestinians who fled the half-year-old Israeli offensive through the rest of Gaza.
In addition to Reuters’ report, the Axios news site revealed that the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, Ronen Bar, and IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi visited Egypt in the morning to discuss the planned operation. The report, citing three senior Israeli officials, said that Bar and Halevi met with Egypt’s intelligence chief and other key officials to discuss the IDF’s looming operation in Rafah.
A day earlier, Israel’s Kan 11 reported that the IDF was preparing to begin the ground operation in Rafah “very soon,” beginning with a massive evacuation of over a million Palestinians.
Palestinians will reportedly be required to evacuate in the next four to five weeks to tent complexes that international aid organizations had set up.
The plan for the Rafah ground operation has been presented to American officials as well as several sides in the Middle East, Kan 11 said, noting that the operation will move forward in stages, based on a regional division of the city into defined areas.
At each stage, the IDF will inform the local population before they advance into each area so the local population can evacuate before Israeli troops move forward.
While the IDF has been pushing hard for a ground operation in Rafah, it continues to face difficulties in areas already occupied by its troops in northern and southern Gaza.
The IDF announced earlier in the week that a reservist was killed during fighting against Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip. The slain reservist was a tracker in the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade. His death brings the toll of slain Israeli troops in the IDF’s ground offensive against Hamas to 261. More than 1,500 others have been wounded, so far.
Overall, Israel appears about to launch a ground operation in Rafah. While the IDF has been promoting the upcoming operation as the final blow to Hamas, the only real outcome from the attack will likely be more dead or wounded Palestinian civilians.
The Israeli war has already claimed the lives of 34,262 Palestinians and left more than 77,229 others wounded, according to the latest update by the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
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