Hamas warned this Saturday that an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah could leave "tens of thousands of dead and wounded" in this city in the southern Gaza Strip, the last refuge for Palestinians displaced by the war in the territory.
In the early hours of Saturday, several witnesses reported bombings in the surroundings of that town on the border with Egypt, where 1.3 million Palestinians live, that is, more than half of the total population of Gaza.
The vast majority of them are refugees who fled the Israeli offensive in other areas of the Strip.
The Islamic extremist movement Hamas, which has ruled the Palestinian enclave since 2007, warned in a statement of the risk of "a catastrophe and a massacre that could lead to tens of thousands of martyrs and injuries."
Furthermore, the group stated that it would hold "the US administration, the international community and the Israeli occupation" responsible for the consequences.
Previously, the Hamas Health Ministry had reported that 110 deaths were reported in the Strip overnight.
He also reported
"intense fighting"
at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, in the south of the territory, where one person died and where 300 employees still remain, 450 wounded and 10,000 displaced.
A home in Rafah, after an Israeli bombing.
Photo: EFE
Israeli forces raided that city's other major hospital, Al Amal, on Friday.
After gaining a foothold in Gaza City and Khan Younis, Israeli forces would prepare a ground operation in Rafah.
Evacuation plan
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday asked the military to draw up a "combined plan" for the "evacuation" of civilians from Rafah and the "destruction" of Hamas in that city.
"It is impossible to achieve the goal of the war without eliminating Hamas and leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah," he said.
To do this, it is necessary for "civilians to evacuate combat zones," he added.
The population lives in maximum uncertainty.
"We are between life and death and we don't know if tomorrow there will be hope for a truce or changes on the ground," said Basel Matar, a displaced person from Rafah.
They warn of a humanitarian catastrophe
"Forcing more than a million displaced Palestinians in Rafah to evacuate again without a safe place to go would be illegal and have catastrophic consequences," said Nadia Hardman, migrant and refugee rights specialist for the NGO Human Rights Watch.
The United States, the European Union and the UN warned something similar on Friday.
This Saturday, more countries added their warning voices.
The head of German diplomacy, Annalena Baerbock, stated on the social network X that an offensive in Rafah would trigger
an "anticipated humanitarian catastrophe."
Other countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Spain, also expressed their fears, as did the United Nations.
The United States warned that it would not support an operation "without planning and without reflection" on the fate of civilians.
In a rare criticism of Israel since the war began four months ago
, US President Joe Biden judged "excessive" the "response in the Gaza Strip"
to the ferocious Hamas attack on October 7.
The conflict broke out that day, when Islamist militants killed more than 1,160 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250 in southern Israel.
A car catches fire in Rafah, after an Israeli airstrike.
Photo.
REUTERS
In response, Israel vowed to "annihilate" Hamas and launched a relentless campaign of bombing and ground operations against Gaza, where 28,064 people have died so far, mainly women, children and adolescents, according to the Gaza government's Health Ministry.
Negotiations stalled
On the diplomatic front, a "new cycle of negotiations", sponsored by Egypt and Qatar, and with the participation of Hamas, began on Thursday in Cairo with the aim of obtaining greater access to humanitarian aid to Gaza and an exchange of hostages held by the Islamist movement by Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
The Hamas delegation left the city on Friday after "good and positive talks" with mediators, a source in the group said.
A week-long truce at the end of November allowed a hundred hostages to be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.
It is estimated that some 132 people captured on October 7 are still in Gaza and that 29 of them have died.
According to the Axios portal, the head of the CIA will travel to Egypt next week to try to achieve a new pause in the fighting and the release of hostages.
The war in Gaza also exacerbated tensions in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen,
where Iranian-backed groups have launched attacks in support of Hamas, drawing retaliation from Israel and the United States and its allies.
In Yemen, US bombings killed 17 Houthi fighters early Saturday morning, the rebel group's official media reported after the funeral of the deceased in Sanaa, the country's capital.
Source: AFP
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