Destruction in Rafah continues (Picture: Asharq Al-Awsat English on Twitter)
Flee or be massacred. That’s the Israeli message to desperate people sheltering in Rafah in Gaza.
It’s a vile plan for ethnic cleansing and to allow Israel’s supporters in the West to back mass killings.
Britain, the United States and others who have hesitated to back openly a Rafah attack will say that Hamas did not accept a ceasefire and that Israel offered a way out for civilians.
By Tuesday morning Israeli tanks had taken over the Rafah border crossing after advancing during the night as Israeli warplanes pounded residential homes killing at least 12 people.
The Israeli military dropped red leaflets on the eastern areas of Rafah on Monday.
They stated, “To all of the residents and those currently sheltering in the Rafah Camp, the Brazil Camp and the neighbourhoods of Al-Shabura and Al-Zohour. Remaining in these areas puts your lives in danger.”
The leaflets also warn that the Israeli military “is about to operate with force in the area you currently reside”, adding that anyone in the area puts themselves and their family members in danger.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military told journalists it is evacuating “around 100,000 people” from eastern Rafah, ahead of an expected ground assault there.
The day before Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant had underlined Israel’s intention to wade through blood to assault Rafah, where around 1.5 million displaced people are sheltering.
“Hamas remains entrenched in its extreme positions, first among them the demand to remove all our forces from the Gaza Strip, end the war, and leave Hamas in power,” Netanyahu said.
“Victory,” Netanyahu said, is “the only way to guarantee our existence and our future.”
On the same day, far right Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said, “Netanyahu, go to Rafah now!” Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich shouted, “Rafah now!” at a rally in Jerusalem.
Any assault on Rafah will be disastrous. The United Nations says hundreds of thousands of people would be “at imminent risk of death”.
That warning came from Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The UN’s humanitarian chief Martin Griffith said, “The simplest truth is that a ground operation in Rafah will be nothing short of a tragedy beyond words.
“No humanitarian plan can counter that.”
Jonathan Fowler, a spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), said the consequences would be “devastating for the population of Rafah that’s six times the pre-war population—half of the 1.4 million people are children.
“Nowhere is safe in the Gaza Strip, people have been constantly displaced over and over again. Even contingency plans offer little solace. The fallout from such an offensive would be simply catastrophic.”
A Hamas rocket attack killed four Israeli soldiers and seriously wounded two others at a base near Kerem Shalom.
Immediately afterwards Israeli air strikes killed 16 people in Rafah. The blasts killed seven people from one family and nine from another were killed.
Hamas’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said on Monday its fighters targeted Israeli troops at the so-called Netzarim Corridor with “concentrated rocket barrages” from more than one direction.
The corridor, named after the Netzarim Jewish settlement in Gaza that was dismantled in 2005, was built by the Israeli army to separate northern Gaza from its southern part.
Palestinian armed groups carry out frequent attacks against Israeli forces around the corridor.
Palestinian resistance forces killed two more Israeli soldiers n northern Gaza on Monday, both with the rank of major,
Meanwhile a senior Iranian military commander has disclosed new details about Iran’s retaliatory strikes against Israeli-occupied territories last month.
He said 240 fighter jets from the US-led Nato military alliance were scrambled to shield Israel.
Major General Gholam-Ali Rashid said, “Had the Americans, British, French and others not rushed to the aid of the Israeli regime, 80 percent of Iran’s projectiles would have pounded the Zionist regime’s military bases.”
The united Nations assesses it will probably take 80 years to rebuild Gaza based on the present level of destruction.
On a highly unlikely best-case scenario, it will take at least 16 years.
That means leaving Palestinians in tents, with no proper infrastructure, schools or hospitals.
Israel’s attacks have “completely destroyed” more than 79,000 homes in Gaza, with another 370,000 damaged, “Even under optimistic scenarios simply from the narrow perspective of moving in building materials, it would still take until 2040 and probably longer to restore the housing units destroyed since the start of the war,” the researchers concluded.
In addition, schools, health facilities, roads, sewers, water pipes and all other critical infrastructure have all suffered massive damage.
Tuesday 7 May: emergency demonstration
Hands off Rafah, stop the genocide. Assemble 6pm, opposite Downing Street, London. Details here
Check with your local Stop the War or Palestine Solidarity Campaign group for similar protests in your area.
Saturday 11 May: local and regional demonstrations
Saturday 18 May: national demonstration
The coalition organising the national marches has confirmed another national demonstration to mark the anniversary of the Nakba when Zionist settlers and militias forced at least 800,000 Palestinians off their land to make way for the Israeli state.
It will also step up demands for an end to the genocide and to the arming of Israel.
Saturday 8 June
Interview with a French socialist
Reports from anti-racists in Bradford, Croydon and Southampton
Thousands of young women say, 'We are not marching for safety, we are here to protest for our freedom'
'The entire working class backs the students demands'
