Israel and Hamas at war, day 142 | Israel presents plan for ‘evacuation’ of civilians in combat zones

The Israeli army presented a plan for the “evacuation” of civilian populations from “combat zones” in the Gaza Strip, the services of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday.

This announcement comes before an expected Israeli offensive in Rafah, a crowded town in the south of the Palestinian territory, presented by Mr. Netanyahu as the “last bastion” of the Islamist movement Hamas.

Israel vowed on Sunday to launch a ground offensive on the crowded town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, despite ongoing negotiations to reach a new truce in the war against Hamas.

An offensive on this city where nearly a million and a half civilians are massed, according to the UN, trapped against the closed border with Egypt, would only be “delayed” if a truce was concluded, declared the Prime Minister Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu, on the American channel CBS.

By launching this operation, Israel will be “a few weeks away” from a “total victory” over the Islamist movement, he said.

While talks for a truce continue in Qatar, new bombings targeted Rafah on Sunday and fighting rages in the ruined town of Khan Younes, a few kilometers further north.

The Hamas Ministry of Health on Sunday counted 86 deaths in 24 hours across the Palestinian territory.

The Gaza Strip, besieged by Israel, has suffered a major humanitarian catastrophe since the start of the war on October 7 and 2.2 million people, the vast majority of the population, are threatened with “mass famine”. , according to the UN.

On Sunday, according to an AFP correspondent, hundreds of people, driven by hunger, fled northern Gaza, where 300,000 inhabitants risk starvation according to the UN.

“God, our only hope”

International aid, which enters in dribs and drabs from Egypt through Rafah, is subject to Israel’s green light and its delivery to the north is almost impossible due to the destruction and fighting.

Palestinians in Gaza have told AFP in recent days that they are forced to eat leaves, fodder for livestock, and even slaughter draft animals for food.

Among the civilians fleeing the north, Samir AbdRabbo, a 27-year-old man, arrived in Nousseirat, in central Gaza, on Sunday morning with his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter.

“I can’t describe the kind of famine that is spreading there. There is no milk [pour ma fille]. I try to give her bread that I make from fodder, but she doesn’t digest it. Our only hope is God’s help,” he said.

“Killing our people by starving them is a crime of genocide that threatens the entire negotiation process,” said a Hamas official in northern Gaza.

A famine can still be “averted” in Gaza if Israel allows humanitarian agencies to bring in “significant aid”, the commissioner general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe, said on Sunday. Lazzarini.

The war was sparked on October 7 by an unprecedented attack carried out in Israel by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza, which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count. based on official Israeli data.

During the attack, some 250 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. According to Israel, 130 hostages, 31 of whom are believed to have died, are still being held there.

In retaliation, Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007 and which it considers, along with the United States and the European Union, to be a terrorist organization.

The Israeli offensive has left 29,692 dead in Gaza, the vast majority civilians, since October 7, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.

Common ground ”

Despite multiple international warnings, Benjamin Netanyahu announced an upcoming ground operation in Rafah, where he intends to defeat Hamas in its “last bastion” after four months of a ground offensive which began on October 27 in the north of Gaza before expanding south.

The prime minister announced on Saturday that he would convene “at the beginning of the week the cabinet to approve the operational plans of action in Rafah, including the evacuation of the civilian population.”

“There is room” for civilians “to go north of Rafah, to the areas where we have finished the fight,” he said on CBS on Sunday.

The mediating countries are meanwhile trying to extract a compromise from the two parties with a view to a truce. Egyptian, Qatari and American representatives, as well as Israel and Hamas, resumed negotiations on Sunday in Doha which “will be followed by meetings in Cairo”, according to a television close to Egyptian intelligence, AlQahera News.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that “common ground” was found at a recent meeting in Paris between representatives of Israel, the United States, of Egypt and Qatar, on the “contours” of a possible agreement relating to the release of hostages and “a temporary ceasefire”.

“There should be indirect discussions between Qatar and Egypt with Hamas, because in the end, they will have to agree to the release of the hostages. This work is ongoing,” he added on CNN.

The Emir of Qatar, Tamim ben Hamad Al-Thani, is also expected in Paris on Tuesday or Wednesday to discuss the ongoing negotiations with French President Emmanuel Macron.

According to a Hamas source, the discussions concern the first phase of a plan drawn up in January by the mediators, which envisages a six-week truce associated with the release of Palestinian hostages and prisoners held by Israel, as well as the entry into Gaza of a large quantity of humanitarian aid.

But to reach a deal, Israel first requires the release of all hostages and has warned that a pause in fighting does not mean the end of the war.

Hamas, for its part, is demanding a complete ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, the lifting of the blockade imposed by Israel since 2007 and safe shelter for the hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced by the war.