Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza could continue through the remainder of 2024, according to a senior Israeli official. “The fighting in Gaza will continue for at least another seven months,” Tzachi Hanegbi, the prime minister’s national security adviser, told Israeli public radio Kan.
He also said that the Israeli army had taken control of 75% of the separation zone along the Gaza-Egypt border, while advancing an assault on the southern city of Rafah.
Meanwhile, residents there reported that there had been more Israeli airstrikes and that tanks had raided the central and western areas of the city before withdrawing.
A senior World Health Organization (WHO) official also warned that Rafah’s last hospital is barely functioning and that a “full incursion” by Israeli troops could lead to its closure and a “substantial” number of deaths.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday that troops were operating “very selectively” against the remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have fled in the past three weeks.
The US government also said it did not believe “a major ground operation” was underway that would trigger a change in its policy of military aid to Israel.
Israel has insisted it must take Rafah to achieve victory in the war sparked by the Hamas attack on the country on October 7, during which some 1,200 people were killed and another 252 kidnapped.
More than 36,000 people have died across Gaza since the start of the conflict, according to the Palestinian territory’s Ministry of Health.
Hanegbi, considered a confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Wednesday that he expected another seven months of conflict “to strengthen our achievements and what we define as the destruction of the governmental and military capabilities of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.” Palestine”.
That suggestion will worry many in Israel and outside the country.
There has been growing international pressure on Israeli leaders to outline a comprehensive strategy to end the fighting and a compelling post-war vision for the Palestinian territory.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was imperative that Israel formulate a post-war plan as soon as possible if it wanted to ensure a lasting defeat of Hamas.
“In the absence of a plan for the day after, there will be no day after,” he told reporters during a visit to Moldova.
The Philadelphia Corridor
In his interview, Hanegbi also suggested that Israel would soon take full control of the Philadelphia Corridor, a buffer zone, only about 100 meters deep in some parts, that runs along Gaza’s 13-kilometer border with Egypt.
“Within Gaza, the IDF now controls 75% of the Philadelphia Corridor and I believe that in time they will control everything,” he said.
He added that the plan was to work with the Egyptians to “ensure that weapons smuggling is prevented.”
Egypt has denied that weapons continue to be smuggled across the border. But the IDF said it was demolishing tunnels leading to the Sinai Peninsula.
Local residents have said that troops have seized about 9 kilometers of the Philadelphia Corridor, including the border crossing into Egypt, since the start of the ground operation in Rafah on May 6.
Troops have also been gradually advancing towards the built-up neighborhoods of Rafah city from the east and south and reportedly reached the Al Awda central roundabout on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, residents told Reuters that the tanks advanced towards the western areas of Tal al-Sultan and the central areas of Jibna and Shaboura before withdrawing towards positions on the border.
The IDF also announced that three Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in Rafah on Tuesday.
Overwhelmed hospitals
Sam Rose of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), who is in western Rafah, told the BBC that “most people are now packing up and leaving.”
“There is a lot of anxiety, a lot of fear in the air. The Rafah chapter of this conflict, which we hoped would not be upon us, is already underway,” he added.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Israeli bombing in Rafah was making it increasingly difficult for patients and health teams to reach the Emirati maternity hospital in Tal al-Sultan.
The WHO said the hospital was barely functioning and could no longer accept patients.
“If the raid continued, we would lose that last hospital in Rafah,” warned Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for Gaza and the occupied West Bank, in an interview with Reuters and AFP news agencies in Geneva.
With the European Gaza Hospital in the city of Khan Younis inaccessible due to evacuation orders issued by Israel and fighting on the ground, the estimated 1.9 million people in southern Gaza would be left “ dependent on a series of field hospitals along the coast,” he said.
According to the WHO, all field hospitals still operating in the Rafah area are overwhelmed by victims and short of supplies.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it had evacuated the al-Quds field hospital in al-Mawasi, a coastal area just northwest of Rafah.
“This action was taken due to the increased threat level from the Israeli occupation, continued aerial and artillery bombardment in the vicinity, and the complete evacuation of surrounding residents,” he explained in a statement.
On Tuesday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said six other medical facilities in Rafah had been forced to close.
Al-Najjar hospital, the largest in Rafah, was evacuated at the start of the Israeli operation, while the NGO Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) said the smaller Kuwaiti hospital closed “after that [el lunes] An Israeli tank attack outside the hospital killed two medical staff.”
Separately, WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said victims of an Israeli airstrike and subsequent fire at a camp for displaced people in Tal al-Sultan on Sunday had “completely overwhelmed” field hospitals in the south. from Gaza.
The Health Ministry said at least 45 people died in the incident. Hundreds more were treated for severe burns, fractures and shrapnel wounds.
Blinken said he was unable to verify U.S. media reports that U.S.-made GBU-39 guided bombs were used in the attack, which he described as “horrible.”
On Tuesday, Palestinians accused Israel of bombing tents in al-Mawasi, where it had advised civilians in Rafah to seek safety. But the IDF said it “did not strike in the al-Mawasi humanitarian zone.”
A displaced man from Zeitoun in northern Gaza, who asked not to be named, told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Today program that 18 members of his family were among the 21 reported dead.
Last week, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to “immediately stop its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza living conditions that could lead to its physical destruction in whole or in part.” .
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