The office of the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, released this Friday (9) a statement in which he informed that he had instructed the country's Defense Forces (IDF) to draw up a plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah, a city in the extreme south of the Gaza Strip, on the border with Egypt, before a major ground incursion against the Hamas terrorist group.
“It is impossible to achieve the war objective of eliminating Hamas by leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah. On the other hand, it is clear that a massive operation in Rafah requires the evacuation of the civilian population from combat zones,” the statement noted.
“That is why the prime minister instructed the IDF and the security system to present to the cabinet a dual plan for the evacuation of the population and the disbandment of the battalions,” the cabinet said.
Israel's military actions in Gaza, in response to Hamas' terrorist attacks in the Jewish state in October, were preceded by warnings to evacuate civilians from the north of the Palestinian enclave. With large displacements of civilians in search of safety, it is estimated that today more than 1.3 million Palestinians are in the Rafah region.
Netanyahu's statement comes at a time when the United States, Israel's main geopolitical partner, is raising the tone in its criticism of Israeli action in Gaza.
On Thursday (8), National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that a ground incursion into Rafah could be a “disaster”, while President Joe Biden described Israel’s military operation in the enclave as “ exaggerated.”
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