A diplomatic dispute is escalating between Israel and the United States over the former’s plans to advance to the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, which after four months of devastating war has become the “last refuge” for about two million displaced Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last weekend that the Israeli campaign in Gaza put victory “within reach,” although his stated goal of “eliminating” the Hamas militant group still appears elusive.
The Israeli threats sparked protests from the White House, where President Joe Biden warned that an attack on Rafah should not be launched “without a credible and implementable plan to ensure the safety and support of more than a million people who have taken refuge there.”
“Netanyahu and the Israeli government have proven time and time again that they will take whatever measures they believe will best serve Israel’s security, regardless of what their allies or regional partners call for,” Professor Adria Lawrence of Johns Hopkins University told Newsweek.
She added: “The United States simply does not have the ability to deter the Israeli government, which some of Biden’s critics believe he possesses.”
The stricken city of refuge in Gaza
Before the war, Rafah’s population was only 300,000, and an attack on the southern border city would endanger 1.5 million Palestinian civilians who have flocked there to escape Israeli bombing elsewhere in the Strip.
Sarah Parkinson, also a professor at Johns Hopkins University, told Newsweek that the city’s infrastructure is collapsing under the weight of the war.
She added: “Many Gazans in Rafah are basically starving. People resort to eating grass or animal feed, and it is almost impossible to find clean drinking water. Tens of thousands of families live in tents. According to UN estimates, about 80,000 people lack families to suitable shelter, and therefore there is no protection from Israeli bombing or exchange of fire.”
She continued: “The Israeli army’s ground operations and the bombing that accompanies them will make searching for scarce food and water – or trying to access medical care in the few remaining partially functioning hospitals – a deadly dangerous matter. There is no way to guarantee the safety of civilians under these circumstances. There was no A safe place in Gaza for months.”
The Biden-Netanyahu problem
David Tzur, a former member of the Israeli parliament, told Newsweek that any action in Rafah would be “complicated.”
He added that the danger to Rafah is due to the “cynical” negotiating methods followed by Hamas, which proposed a serial release of prisoners over a period of several months in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Talks between the United States, Egypt, Israel and Qatar regarding a truce in Gaza ended without achieving a breakthrough on Tuesday, with increasing international calls for Israel to retreat from its planned attack on Rafah.
On Tuesday, the United Nations warned of a possible Israeli military invasion of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, saying that the attack could “lead to a massacre” in the city in the southern Palestinian Strip, which is crowded with more than a million displaced people.
The American newspaper The Washington Post reported, citing informed sources, that President Joe Biden and his senior aides are closer to breaking with Netanyahu than at any time since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, indicating that they no longer view him as a partner who can be influenced.
The Washington Post explained that Biden’s frustration with Netanyahu, which has been building for months, was clearly evident last Thursday, when he said that the Israeli military campaign in Gaza had “exceeded the limit,” considering that this statement was “the harshest rebuke yet.”
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2024-02-14 10:27:42
