The US Secretary of State said that an Israeli attack on Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, where more than a million people displaced by the war live, would cause damage “beyond what is acceptable.”
The US Secretary of State said that an Israeli attack on Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, where more than a million people displaced by the war live, would cause damage “beyond what is acceptable.”
Israel did not present a plan to protect civilians during a possible attack, Antony Blinken recalled Friday during the McCain Institute’s Sedona Forum in Arizona.
“In the absence of such a plan, we cannot support a large-scale military operation in Rafah, because it would cause damage beyond what is acceptable,” Blinken declared.
In the seventh month of war, daily Israeli bombings continue in the Gaza Strip, threatened by hunger.
The attacks, which caused 26 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, were mainly directed at Rafah, a city in the south of the besieged Palestinian territory where Netanyahu wants to launch a ground offensive to annihilate the movement. last Palestinian Islamist brigades.
For Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’s political cabinet, Netanyahu’s statements about an attack in Rafah “are clearly intended to make any possibility of an agreement unviable.”
Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007, maintains its demands for any agreement, a definitive ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Israel rejects this proposal.
The latest statements cast doubt on the rapid conclusion of an agreement with a view to a ceasefire, despite the efforts of the international community, especially the United States, Israel’s main ally.
During a visit to the Middle East this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Hamas to accept the truce offer and also urged Israel to abandon the Rafah offensive.
Source: Observadora
