Israel appears to be preparing to send troops to Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip. Rafah is the only place in the Gaza Strip that is not experiencing heavy ground fighting and is home to more than half of the Palestinian territory’s 2.3 million people.
The Israeli military announced on Wednesday that two brigades of reservists had been mobilized for the mission in Gaza, but videos circulating online showed rows of square white tents being erected in Khan Yunis, 3 miles (5 km) north of Rafah. It was shown that he was doing so. Israeli air and ground operations spanned several months.
This apparent mobilization comes as Hamas, the militant group that seized control of Gaza in a brief civil war with Fatah factions, seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 when it arrested Hersh Goldberg Pollin, a 24-year-old Israeli American who was abducted from the Gaza Strip in 2007. It started in response to the release of the video. Nova festival when the group attacked southern Israel on October 7th.
Mr. Goldberg-Polin, who lost his left arm below the elbow, said in a propaganda video that 70 hostages were killed in the Israeli bombing and called on the Israeli government to return the surviving hostages. The video is not dated, but appears to have been shot in the last few days, as Goldberg-Polin said he had been in captivity for “almost 200 days.”
Israeli authorities estimate that 129 of the approximately 250 people abducted on October 7 remain in Gaza, including 34 who the military has declared dead.
Israel said Hamas leadership and four battalions of fighters were camped in Rafah using Israeli hostages as human shields, and that ground operations were needed for a “complete victory” over the Palestinian militants and the return of the hostages. .
But the long-threatened plan to attack Rafah has drawn fierce opposition from Israel’s allies, including the United States, who say it will kill thousands of civilians and further disrupt aid deliveries.
A major ground operation in Rafah would almost certainly require coordination with Washington and Cairo, given the town’s location on the Egyptian border.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced last week that it was procuring 40,000 tents to evacuate hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians, and additional artillery and armored personnel carriers were being deployed around the Gaza Strip. There were also unconfirmed reports that this had happened.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet are expected to meet within the next two weeks to approve the evacuation of civilians in the first phase of the Rafah attack, which is expected to take about a month. Israeli media reported on Wednesday.
Ceasefire talks brokered by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar came after Israel and Hamas were unable to agree on the terms and duration of the ceasefire, as well as the identity and number of Israeli hostages to be released in exchange for the release of Palestinians held by Israel. It almost broke down. prison. A ceasefire in place at the end of November collapsed a week later.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the recent war between Israel and Hamas, according to the health ministry in the militant-held region. The October 7 attack that started the war killed about 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages, according to Israeli data.
