As of: February 13, 2024, 8:41 p.m
By: Kilian Beck
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William Hague sees Rafah as a “Hamas trap”.
Affected civilians would be radicalized by an Israeli attack.
This narrows the scope for peace negotiations.
London/Tel Aviv – Britain's former foreign minister William Hague warned Israel against an offensive on the town of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The “fate” of the Middle East could be decided in a city bordering Egypt, he wrote in a guest article for the London Times
newspaper
.
According to the ex-diplomat, the planned Israeli military offensive on Rafah would be a “fatal mistake” for both humanitarian and strategic reasons.
More than a million internally displaced people are staying in Rafah.
© Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the country's armed forces to prepare an offensive on the Rafah.
According to him, the last four combat battalions of the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas are located there.
Israel's ultra-right government announced it would "dismantle" the terror group following the atrocities carried out by Hamas in southern Israeli communities on October 7.
Joe Biden calls on Netanyahu to have a “credible plan” for Palestinian civilians in Rafah
In Rafah, up to 1.4 million people sought protection from the heavy urban fighting and Israeli bombardments during the war, which has now lasted four months, estimated the left-liberal Israeli daily
Haaretz
.
US President Joe Biden demanded that Netanyahu come up with a “credible, actionable plan” to protect civilians.
Israel is currently considering
relocating refugees to tent cities in other parts of the Gaza Strip, according to
the Wall Street Journal .
This should then administer Egypt.
At the same time, according to the Times of Israel,
a six-week ceasefire
is being negotiated in Egypt .
At the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Israel is currently defending itself against allegations of violating the Genocide Convention in the Gaza war.
Former British Foreign Minister “Deterrence” logic doesn’t work because Hamas doesn’t care about civilians
The conservative former Foreign Minister Hague explains the logic behind Israel's massive attacks on Hamas in the Gaza Strip as “deterrence”.
This is fundamentally understandable.
She just has a mistake.
Deterring attacks through military power and demonstrations of it only works against states and their armies.
But if you are dealing with “armed groups” that “don’t care about the civilian population,” this logic not only fails.
It is also an effective means of making things worse.
William Hague in the 2017 election campaign. Behind him stands the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Theresa May. © HANNAH MCKAY/AFP
Rafah could be a “Hamas trap” – the future of the Middle East is at stake
Hague pointed to the tens of thousands of orphans left behind by the war between Israel and Hamas.
If there is “no hope for peace” for them, they would one day “form even larger Hamas battalions,” said Hague.
In his opinion, Israel has already experienced something similar.
When the Israeli military withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 and Hezbollah recovered after 14 years of guerrilla warfare, it became stronger "than ever before."
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If Israel Rafah now attacks, the “Hamas trap” threatens to spring shut.
According to Hague, their goal, in accordance with Hamas's founding charter, is to prevent any negotiations on a two-state solution.
This is the “only way” to lasting peace, he wrote, referring to his former boss and current Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
Israel must not “narrow” the scope for this path by attacking Rafah and making the civilian population suffer in the process.
The long-term perspective of the Middle East is at stake.
(kb)