War Israel, Hamas: “Netanyahu has returned to square one”
The United Statesdespite the unexpected decision to block the last shipment of 2,500 bombs to Tel Aviv, today downplays Israel’s assault on Rafah by claiming that the operation – which saw tanks take control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and effectively isolate the Palestinian territory from the outside world – appears to be “limited”.
Several dozen Palestinians have already been killed on the first day of the Israeli operation in Rafah, while 200,000 residents of the eastern parts of the city have been ordered to evacuate. In Rafah, considered byestablishment little more than an agglomeration instead of a town, one and a half million innocent civilians are crowded together who always establishment defines “conglomerate of people.” Over 600,000 of them are children, many of them sick, injured, mutilated. Not to mention the tens of thousands of injured, many destined for certain death because there are only three hospitals in Rafah. And of those scattered across the Strip, only rubble remains.
The UN, EU and many humanitarian groups are warning of a “catastrophe” if the military operation were to intensify: “Humanitarian emergencies urge Israel to stop the assault on Rafah”, where yesterday Israel seized and closed the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt, effectively isolating the Strip from the outside world and from the hundreds of aid trucks piled up at the border Egyptian.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that “A full-scale invasion of Rafah by Israeli forces would be a strategic mistake, a political calamity and a humanitarian nightmare.” Furthermore, he added that a “massive increase in life-saving aid” is needed for the besieged and bombed territory. Also from the United Nations comes the dramatic warning that essential fuel supplies needed to power drinking water pumps, maintain communications and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza are set to run out today. The situation is particularly dangerous in northern Gaza, where drinking water facilities will soon be closed due to fuel shortages.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the United Nations World Health Organization, raised the alarm over the state of health care in Rafah. A few hours ago he stated on X that hospitals in southern Gaza only have three days’ worth of fuel to power their operations. “Without fuel all humanitarian operations will stop. The border closures also prevent the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza”, said Tedros who then asked, echoing the appeals of world political and humanitarian leaders, “the immediate suspension of military operations in Rafah” which instead, according to The Israeli army will move forward with or without a ceasefire agreement and a year-long war plan.
And a few seconds ago it arrived news from MAP of the closure of al-Najjar hospital, the largest in Rafah. MAP, an acronym for the organization Medical Aid for Palestine, says it has received an update from Dr. Marwan Homs, head of al-Najjar, who said the hospital is no longer functioning because all staff have been ordered to evacuate. “This was the largest hospital in Rafah,” he told MAP. “This means that the already overburdened and under-resourced health system in Rafah is now left with only the Kuwait Hospital, which is an NGO hospital with a capacity of around 16 beds; the Marwani field hospital, which is only a trauma stabilization point; and Al-Emairati hospital, which is only a maternity hospital,” he added.
A few hours ago, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry announced that the country strongly condemns Israel’s ground invasion and bombing of Rafah and calls for “urgent international action” to prevent “the commission of genocide”.
Human Rights Watch has in turn broadcast on its communications channels the appeal to stop the assault on Rafah: “Every day that the Israeli authorities block life-saving aid, more and more Palestinians risk dying.” And the death toll is now close to 35,000 people, while the number of injured is close to 80,000. Default numbers that do not take into account the thousands of people missing and left under the rubble.
The world that has armed Israel to the teeth must stop it now, blocking all aid, war supplies, financing, threatening it with sanctions, interruptions of diplomatic relations. If that world, at the head of which are the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, does not resort to all the paraphernalia necessary to force Israel, which has already been guilty and continues to be guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, to stop before committing the most atrocious and never-seen genocide in history, then none of us will any longer have the right, or perhaps the courage, to consider ourselves human.
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