Israel Mobilises For Rafah Offensive Despite US Plea

Israel looks to be readying troops for an offensive in the last remaining corner of the Gaza Strip untouched by heavy fighting.

- TOM WATLING

A spokesperson for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military was moving ahead with its plans for a ground operation in Rafah, while the Israeli military said that it had mobilised two more reservist brigades for missions in Gaza.

Israel’s long-threatened plan has drawn intense opposition from Israel’s allies, including its most powerful ally the US, which said such an attack on Rafah would cause thousands of civilian casualties and further disrupt aid deliveries. More than a million Palestinians have been displaced into the small southern city, many of whom are living in makeshift tents.

“We’ve had very detailed discussions … to talk through not just our concerns but our view that there is a different way to go about dealing with the Hamas threat in Rafah,” US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters in Washington.

Although Israel says it has dismantled most of the initial two dozen Hamas battalions since the start of the war, it believes there are four remaining battalions holed up in Rafah, using civilians as human shields. Officials say that a Rafah offensive is necessary to achieve total victory over Hamas, the central premise of their ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.