April 24, 2024. Posted by Periscope - Hellas
Israel said
Wednesday it is "moving ahead" with its planned operation to attack
the southern Gaza city of Rafah, despite international outcry over fears for
the 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering there.
"Israel is moving ahead with our operation to target Hamas in Rafah," the occupation government spokesman David Mencer told a press briefing.
"The
four battalions which remain in Rafah cannot be shielded from Israel. They will
be attacked."
He added
that "two reserve brigades" had been mobilized "for defensive
and tactical missions in Gaza" against the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Israel's
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said repeatedly that he will press
ahead with the threatened assault on Rafah, the last major population center in
Gaza that Israeli ground troops have yet to enter.
A majority
of Gaza's 2.4 million people have taken refuge in Rafah, many sheltering in
makeshift encampments.
Countries
including Israel's top ally the United States have warned Israel against
sending troops into Rafah, fearing huge civilian casualties.
"A
full-scale military invasion of Rafah would have an enormously harmful
effect" on civilians trapped there and "would ultimately hurt
Israel's security", US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said
earlier this month.
Red Cross
official Fabrizio Carboni said humanitarian groups did not know of reported
plans to move Rafah's residents away from the city ahead of the assault.
"There
is no condition for a military operation without devastating humanitarian
consequences," he told AFP on Tuesday.
Nabil Abu
Rudeineh, the spokesperson for President Mahmoud Abbas, squarely placed the
blame on the US administration for the recent Israeli threats and escalation in
Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
He
particularly referred to the alarming reports concerning an imminent Israeli
military offensive in Rafah, which could result in massacres, disasters, and
the displacement of civilians, marking the beginning of a period of long-term
conflict, WAFA news agency reported.
In a press
statement late on Wednesday, Abu Rudeineh emphasized that "the US
decisions to provide military and financial aid [to Israel], along with the use
of veto in the UN Security Council, make America complicit in the war of
genocide."
"Such
a stance is hostile to the Palestinian people, the Arab nations, and all
countries that stood with Palestine in the UN Security Council," the
Palestinian presidential spokesman affirmed.
Abu
Rudeineh pointed out that the massive protests sweeping through world capitals,
including recent encampments at US universities calling for an end to the
Israeli war crimes in the Palestinian Territories, serve as a call for Joe
Biden's administration to review its positions.
Hamas wants
a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, which Netanyahu refuses and
deems "unacceptable."
Since
Oct.7, Israel's brutal military campaign in the Gaza Strip has killed
34,262, most of them women and children, according to the Palestinian health
ministry.
Ahram Online