Egyptian fears of a mass exodus from Rafah Twelve women sue the FBI in the Epstein case

Israel’s planned military offensive is facing increasing international criticism. The Israeli army wants to advance on the city of Rafah, which is located in the south of the Gaza Strip and is overpopulated with a million Palestinian refugees. There may be a mass exodus from the Gaza Strip to neighboring Egypt. The Egyptian government is already building a detention center, writes the American daily ‘Wall Street Journal’, citing security insiders.

But Egypt denies the construction.

According to the newspaper, the 20 square kilometer camp could accommodate 100,000 people – which would be about the same as if the entire population of the city of Winterthur were crammed into a third of its current surface area. The camp in Egypt will be built in the desert, far away from settlements and surrounded by high concrete walls, insiders say.

For weeks, Egypt has been trying to increase security along the Gaza border with soldiers, fences and armored vehicles to prevent a rush of desperate Palestinians to the Sinai Peninsula. According to the Wall Street Journal, the country has reportedly even threatened to terminate the peace treaty with Israel if it comes to that.

Criticism of Netanyahu’s Rafah plans

US President Joe Biden warned in a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to protect the more than one million civilians in Rafah. Biden reiterated “that a military operation should not proceed without a credible and feasible plan to ensure the safety and support of the civilian population in Rafah,” the White House said that evening.

Netanyahu recently ordered the military to submit plans for an offensive on Rafah and the evacuation of civilians there. It is about destroying the last fighting units of the terrorist organization Hamas. According to the UN, about 1.3 million people currently live in Rafah.

If Israel decides to launch the offensive, the Israeli army will try to “relocate” the civilian population from Rafah to the north, out of the combat zone but inside the Gaza Strip, the Wall Street Journal reported, according to a senior Israeli military official. Most of Rafah’s residents had previously fled the northern Gaza Strip, partly on orders from the Israeli army, which promised them protection from attacks there.

Serious charges in hospital after military operation

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said it had begun an operation at a clinic in Khan Yunis, which like Rafah is in southern Gaza. Soldiers entered Nasser Hospital to recover the bodies of hostages, the army said. Dozens of suspects were arrested, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said.

Some were involved in the massacre in Israel. Through interrogations with the suspects and statements from the released hostages, the army was able to confirm that people kidnapped from Israel were being held on the clinic grounds. There is also information that there are also bodies of hostages there. This information cannot be independently verified at this time.

The United Nations human rights office made accusations against Israel after the operation. UN human rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said in Geneva:

Israeli Army spokesman Hagari emphasized that the army had and would continue to act in accordance with international law in all operations in hospitals in the Gaza Strip. “We have no intention of disrupting the operation of the hospital,” he said.

Israel’s concern for a two-state solution

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated his rejection of a two-state solution after the phone call with Biden. “Israel categorically rejects international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians.”Netanyahu wrote on X that evening.

Such an arrangement can only be reached through direct negotiations between the parties and without prior conditions. Israel will also defend itself against the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. This would “reward terrorism and prevent any future peace settlement,” he wrote.

According to Israeli newspaper Maariv, Israel is concerned that the US could recognize a Palestinian state without Israel’s consent as part of its efforts to find a two-state solution. A two-state solution means an independent Palestinian state that coexists peacefully with Israel. The terrorist organization Hamas, which violently seized power in the Gaza Strip a year after the 2007 election victory, also rejects this.

Dispute over the distribution of relief supplies

Israel has meanwhile called on the United Nations to improve the distribution of aid to the people of the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of truckloads of humanitarian aid have not been collected at the Kerem Shalom border crossing for days, Israel’s Cogat authority, which is responsible for contacts with Palestinians and humanitarian aid, wrote on the short message service

Aid groups accuse Israel of blocking the distribution of aid. The Cogat authority denies this: Israel controls more trucks than are ultimately processed and forwarded by the United Nations. On Thursday, Federal Foreign Minister Baerbock spoke out in Israel in favor of significantly more aid deliveries, namely 500 trucks per day. That’s how many trucks carrying humanitarian supplies entered the closed coastal area every day before the start of the war. Baerbock also called for opening additional border crossings in Israel.