While the United States warned on Thursday that any Israeli military operation in Rafah, “without planning or with little thought,” would be a “disaster,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a proposal to end the war in the Gaza Strip.
US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters on Thursday, “We will not support doing something like this without serious and reliable planning because it concerns more than a million people sheltering there, and also without considering its implications for humanitarian aid and the safe departure of foreigners.”
Patel added that the United States “has not seen evidence that Israel has seriously planned such an operation.”
Fears that the Israeli army will launch a military operation in Rafah stem from repeated statements made by senior Israel
i officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant, regarding the expansion of military operations in the city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt.
American concern and Israeli neglect
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken informed Netanyahu and Gallant on Wednesday that President Joe Biden's administration is deeply concerned about the possibility of expanding the Israeli military operation in the city of Rafah.
As the Israeli war entered its fifth month on its 125th day, eyewitnesses and medical sources reported that Israeli bombing targeted the southern Gaza Strip, especially the city of Rafah.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that the Nasser Medical Complex in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, is being exposed to a health and humanitarian catastrophe as a result of the Israeli siege and targeting, stressing that 300 medical staff, 450 wounded, and 10,000 displaced people in the Nasser Medical Complex are being exposed to death and starvation.
Disastrous situation
The Ministry indicated a severe shortage of anesthesia and intensive care medications and surgical supplies, in addition to the stopping of electrical generators within less than 48 hours due to the lack of fuel, which led to the disconnection of electricity from parts of the hospital for several hours due to the lack of fuel, adding that the Israeli army prevents the movement of ambulances. It impedes the arrival of the wounded and sick to Nasser Medical Complex Hospital.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health warned that the Nasser Medical Complex would continue to be exposed to a disaster as a result of the accumulation of medical and non-medical waste in the departments and courtyards, as the Israeli army prevented its exit.
For his part, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wensland, warned of the “catastrophic” consequences of any Israeli attack on Rafah, which is crowded with civilians.
He pointed to intense discussions taking place between Israel and Egypt about what could be done along the Philadelphia axis. It is a demilitarized buffer zone on the Gaza border with Egypt, under the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement.
Wensland revealed, in a press conference inside the United Nations headquarters in New York, before heading to Washington to hold a series of meetings with officials in the administration of President Joe Biden, that this issue was the subject of discussion by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, with both Cairo and Israel, adding. He does not see a way out of this conflict except for the two parties to sit down and talk about the issue.
Riyadh meeting
Meanwhile, a consultative ministerial meeting in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Thursday evening, discussed developments in the situation in the region, most notably the developments in the Gaza Strip and its surroundings, and the efforts made to deal with its security and humanitarian repercussions.
The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and the UAE participated in the Arab ministerial meeting, in addition to the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
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