Saturday 10 Feb-2024 {HMC} Israeli airstrikes pounded the Gaza Strip city of Rafah Saturday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his military to prepare a plan to evacuate civilians from the southern border city ahead of an expected ground invasion.
The Associated Press, citing health officials and eyewitnesses, reported 28 people were killed when airstrikes hit several homes in the Rafah area. AP said the dead included 10 children.
Netanyahu’s office said Friday the military was ordered to develop a plan to evacuate civilians in Rafah and destroy four Hamas battalions it said was deployed there.
“It is impossible to achieve the goal of the war of eliminating Hamas by leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “On the contrary, it is clear that intense activity in Rafah requires that civilians evacuate the areas of combat.”
The statement did not say by when he wanted the plan or to where he thought the more than 1.4 million Palestinians could evacuate. United Nations officials have repeatedly said nowhere in Gaza is safe.
Netanyahu said this week that Rafah and the city of Khan Younis are the “two last strongholds of Hamas.” Hamas is a U.S.-designated terror group.
Rafah borders Egypt and officials there have warned that any ground operation in the area or mass displacement across the border would undermine its 40-year-old peace treaty with Israel.
It is also the main humanitarian entry point to Gaza; intense fighting could further hamper relief efforts.
Meanwhile, Syria said Israeli airstrikes Saturday hit several sites outside the capital, Damascus. State media quoted Syrian military officials as saying the strikes came from the direction of Israeli-held Golan Heights. The Britain-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three people were killed in the strikes.
The strikes come as tensions across the Middle East have intensified following the October 7 Hamas attack against Israel and a drone attack in January that killed three U.S. soldiers in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border.
Source VOA
