GAZA: International pressure is piling up on Tel Aviv not to launch its planned incursion into the crowded city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians are trapped after being driven out of all other parts of the enclave ravaged by relentless Israeli bombardment.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Gute­rres said he hopes talks on a pause in the Israel-Hamas war will be successful so an Israeli offensive in Gaza’s Rafah can be avoided, warning that it would have “devastating consequences”.

The UN humanitarian office has not received any communication from Israel of a plan to evacuate Gaza’s Rafah area either alone or jointly and would not participate in any forced evacuation even if it did, a spokesperson said.

“We have not received any official communication from Israeli officials,” Jens Laerke, spokesperson for OCHA said in response to questions about Rafah plans.

UN chief, US, China, Italy, Germany, Norway caution against civilians’ deaths

“Regardless, the UN does not participate in forced, non-voluntary evacuations. There is no plan at this time to facilitate the evacuation of civilians,” he said.

Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy previously called for UN agencies to evacuate civilians from the warzone.

Israel has a duty to guarantee “safe corridors” for civilians in Rafah before conducting any incursion against Hamas in the southern Gaza city, Germany’s foreign minister said as talks between representatives of several countries were underway in Cairo for a ceasefire and to stop Israeli forces from ongoing attacks on Rafah.

The border to Egypt is located to the south of Rafah, and the crossing remains closed to Gazans.

China gives warning

On Tuesday China asked Israel to stop its military operation in the Gazan city of Rafah “as soon as possible”, warning of a “serious humanitarian disaster” there if fighting did not stop.

“China follows closely the developments in the Rafah area, opposes and condemns actions that harm civilians and violate international law,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Beijing urged Israel to “to stop its military operation as soon as possible, (and) make every effort to avoid innocent civilian casualties, in order to prevent a more serious humanitarian disaster in the Rafah area”.

Israel is facing growing international pressure to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas as it began an incursion into Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians are trapped.

US President Joe Biden in a talk with Netanyahu reiterated his opposition to a major assault on Rafah.

After White House talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Monday, Biden said civilians in Rafah “need to be protected”, calling them “exposed and vulnerable”. King Abdullah pushed for a “lasting ceasefire” to end the more than four-month-old war, warning an Israeli attack on Rafah would “produce another humanitarian catastrophe”.

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Other countries cautioned Israel against a Rafah ground assault, including China, Germany and Norway, while Italy said Israel’s bombing in Gaza had been “disproportionate”.

Disproportionate response

On Tuesday, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said there were “too many victims” in Gaza, saying Israel’s ongoing assault on the Palestinian territory following the unprecedented Hamas attacks was “disproportionate”.

In an interview on RAI radio, Tajani, whose country holds the rotating G7 presidency this year, said that at this point Israel’s “reaction against the Palestinian civilian population is disproportionate… there are too many victims who have nothing to do with Hamas”.

Tajani distanced himself from comments made last week by Francesca Albanese, an Italian who is UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, who denied the Hamas attacks were “anti-Semitic”.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Interior Minister Moshe Arbel called her online remark “outrageous” and said in a statement Monday that she was now “denied entry to the State of Israel”. Tajani said he did “not agree with a word” of Albanese’s statement.

“Because the Hamas attack was not a military attack, it was an action aimed at hunting Jews,” he said.

Tajani rejected statements by some who call the bombardment of Gaza a genocide, but said: “Israel is making a mistake, because the reaction after the horrible attack of October 7 is causing too many civilian victims.”

With the city on edge, some of Rafah residents started to dismantle their makeshift tents and prepared to move on again. “We are sleeping in the street, (the tent) doesn’t have a roof, it’s made of nylon — if it gets hit by a missile, you will die instantly,” said Gazan Fayez Abed.

At least 28,473 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground offensive in Hamas-run Gaza since then, according to the health ministry in the Palestinian territory.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2024