With the Iran factor apparently cleared up after the Israeli attack on Thursday night, plans for a military ground incursion in Rafah, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, continue, as do contacts between the Israeli and American governments, still dissatisfied with some aspects of the Israeli plan.
No date has been announced for the troops' arrival in Rafah, but the Tsahal (Israeli army) has been concentrating soldiers, armored vehicles and artillery in the area, and according to Egyptian sources cited by the Qatari portal Al Araby al Jadeed, preparations have increased pace since last Monday afternoon. The same Egyptian sources revealed the “full availability and readiness of [Egyptian] agencies and forces present in northern Sinai and along the 14-kilometer border strip with Gaza, as part of a plan to deal with the scenario of repeated Israeli announcement of an invasion of the city of Rafah.” Egyptian concern is evident regarding the Israeli plan, which would consist of dividing Rafah "into numbered grids, so that one square after another will be attacked, inciting those in it to move away, especially towards Khan Younis and Al Mawasi."
This version coincides with that offered by a US official to the Axios portal. The plan presented by the Israelis to Washington would consist of a gradual and slow operation in specific neighborhoods of Rafah, which would be evacuated in advance, rather than a comprehensive invasion of the entire city.
In any case, the Biden Administration was not convinced of these plans yesterday, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who noted in the framework of the G7 meeting in Capri that “we believe that Israel's objectives can be achieved without the “Rafah offensive.”
Those objectives are, officially, four Hamas brigades that remain in Rafah, a city that has multiplied its inhabitants with hundreds of thousands of refugees in recent months. One and a half million Gazans are concentrated there today in extremely precarious conditions and subjected to constant aerial bombardments, which between Wednesday and Thursday cost the lives of dozens of people.
The Biden Administration does not want to risk an even more horrendous panorama than Gaza presents today, with almost 34,000 dead. In this sense, the presidential envoy for humanitarian affairs, David Satterfield, has said that “displacing these already displaced people in their current state of hunger and lack of basic services without taking appropriate measures to provide them with adequate shelter, medical care, water, food and everything they need right now in Rafah and can't get..., if you move them again, we think the circumstances will be disastrous."
In recent weeks, senior US and Israeli officials have been holding meetings, the last of which was last Thursday, hours before the Israeli attack on Iran. In this regard, Antony Blinken added yesterday that high-level conversations continue. However, no new meeting has been announced and the Israeli side did not issue any statement.
The White House said Thursday that Israel agreed to take into account the American point of view and continue discussing. However, in a video broadcast by the Israeli state channel Kan, the commander of the 32nd battalion of the Nahal Brigade is seen saying in a speech to his soldiers: “Let's go to Rafah.”
