Israel prime minister has rejected a new truce proposal and ordered troops to prepare for an attack on the overcrowded city
FEB 8, 2024 – The Cradle
(Photo credit: Abed Rahim Khatib/DPA)
Nearly two million Palestinians stranded in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah have been struck with panic, in anticipation of an onslaught hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a new truce proposal and ordered the army to prepare an attack on the city.
“Panic is growing in Rafah” after the prime minister’s statement, Al-Jazeera reported on 8 February.
As the army prepares to move into southernmost Rafah, where displaced Palestinians from across the strip are taking shelter, Israeli jets are stepping up air raids on the crowded city.
Since Wednesday evening, 14 people – including five children – were killed in Israeli strikes on Rafah.
Al-Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported from Rafah on Thursday that “what people are experiencing in the southern part of the Gaza Strip is a surge in attacks from air, land and sea.”
“The children are scared all the time, and if we want to leave Rafah, we don’t know where to go. What will be our destiny and that of our children?” Sara Maarouf, a woman displaced from the north of Gaza, told Al-Jazeera.
In the first months of the war, hundreds of thousands of residents in north and central Gaza were forced to flee to Rafah – where Tel Aviv repeatedly said civilians would be safe from harm. Israeli warplanes nonetheless continued to bombard Rafah.
As the army began pushing into the southern city of Khan Yunis in early December, hundreds of thousands more were forced deeper south into Rafah. Palestinians are trapped in the city as fighting rages across the entirety of the strip, where homes and infrastructure have been wiped out.
A military operation in Rafah would have catastrophic effects on the civilian population. In mid-December, the UN said that nearly half of Gaza’s entire population is now in Rafah.
On Wednesday evening, Netanyahu publicly rejected the latest truce proposal being mediated by the US, Qatar, and Egypt. The prime minister declared that the Israeli army has been ordered to prepare for the assault on Rafah.
“Giving in to the bizarre demands of Hamas that we have just heard will … only invite another massacre,” Netanyahu said in reference to Hamas’ response to the proposal, which makes many demands, the main ones being an end to the war and a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. The Hamas response also calls for a prisoner exchange, an end to the blockade of Gaza, and a reconstruction of the war-ravaged enclave.
“Victory is within reach,” the prime minister added, vowing to continue the war until Israel’s stated goal of eradicating Hamas is completed.
He added the army had been ordered to “prepare to operate” in Rafah and that the coming months would bring “total victory.”
As Israel rejected the proposal, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Hamas’ response included “some clear non-starters,” but has the potential to “create space for agreement to be reached.”
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Hezbollah pounds Israeli military outposts in support of Palestinians in Gaza
Friday, 09 February 2024 6:21 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 09 February 2024 6:47 AM ]
A screenshot taken from a video, released by the media bureau of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement on January 6, 2024, shows the operation against the Israeli Meron air base in the northern part of the 1948 occupied territories. (Photo via social media)
Fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement have carried out a string of strikes against Israeli military positions to show their support for the Palestinians’ resistance amid the unrelenting Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
Lebanon’s Arabic-language al-Manar television channel, citing a Hezbollah statement, reported that the group struck the command headquarters of the 3rd Infantry Brigade of the Israeli military at Ein Zeitim base in the 1948 occupied territories at around 11:00 p.m. local time (2100 GMT) on Thursday with dozens of Katyusha rockets.
Lebanese resistance fighters also pounded the Branit barracks and its garrison with a salvo of missiles, and destroyed targets there.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah dismisses Israeli threats, says ‘ready’ to confront aggression
Earlier in the day, Hezbollah targeted a number of military posts and a command center in the northern part of the occupied lands as Israeli artillery shelled several border towns in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it had attacked the Jalil command center in Kiryat Shmona, soldiers in Metula, and the radar post in the occupied Shebaa Farms.
An officer and two soldiers were wounded in the Kiryat Shmona attack, the Israeli army radio said.
Israeli artillery units meanwhile shelled the southern towns of Kfarkila, al-Khiam, al-Hamames and the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab.
Moreover, Lebanon’s Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television news network reported that Hezbollah fighters had bombed the Meron air base with several Falaq (Dusk) rockets earlier on Thursday.
The Lebanese resistance group said it attacked the strategically important Israeli air base in support of resilient Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and also in response to the Israeli attacks on Lebanese villages and civilians.
The Israeli regime launched its devastating hostilities in the Gaza Strip on October 7 after the territory’s Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.
Hezbollah warns Israel of ‘strong slap in the face’ if it wages all-out war on Lebanon
The Israeli military has also been carrying out attacks against the Lebanese territory since then, prompting retaliatory strikes from Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah in support of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
The movement has vowed to keep up its retaliatory operations as long as the Tel Aviv regime continues its onslaught on Gaza.
The Israeli campaign in Gaza has killed at least 27,840 people, most of them women and children. Another 67,317 individuals have also been wounded.
Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:
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FILE PHOTO. © Jack Guez / AFP / Jerusalem Post
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Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke at a news conference in Tel Aviv and referenced The Bible. Netanyahu refers to the Palestinians as “Amalek”, who are the staunch enemies of the Israelites in the Old Testament.
BIG BROTHER in the 21. Century 