The United Nations says it faces restrictions, particularly in delivering aid to northern Gaza. (document)
Palestinian territories:
The Israeli military has presented a plan to evacuate civilians from the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced on Monday, after he said a ground invasion of the Palestinian territory’s southern city of Rafah was necessary for a “total victory.” of.
Foreign governments and aid organizations have repeatedly expressed concern that such actions would cause large-scale civilian casualties.
More than 1.4 million Palestinians, most of them displaced from elsewhere, have gathered in Gaza’s last city untouched by Israeli ground forces.
It is also an entry point for much-needed aid via neighboring Egypt.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement in Hebrew on Monday that the Israeli military “submitted to the war cabinet a plan to evacuate people from fighting areas in the Gaza Strip, as well as an upcoming operational plan.”
The statement did not provide any details on how or where the civilians would be moved.
Egyptian, Qatari and U.S. “experts” held talks in Doha that also included representatives from Israel and Hamas, Egyptian state media reported, in the latest effort to secure a truce ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Israel’s ally, the United States, said ongoing mediation efforts had led to an “understanding” for a ceasefire and the release of hostages, while Hamas sources said the group insisted on an Israeli withdrawal.
But Netanyahu dismissed calls for a withdrawal as “delusional” and said a ground invasion of Rafah would give Israel within weeks a “total victory” over Hamas, whose October 7 attack sparked the war. .
“If we get a (truce) agreement, it will be delayed, but it will happen,” he said of the ground invasion in an interview with CBS on Sunday.
“It has to be done because total victory is our goal, and total victory is just around the corner – once we get going, it won’t be months, it won’t be weeks.”
The United Nations’ main aid agency to the Palestinians has urged political action to avert famine in Gaza amid an escalating humanitarian crisis.
Filippo Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, said severe food shortages in northern Gaza were “a man-made disaster” but could be alleviated.
“Famine can still be avoided with real political will to deliver meaningful aid and protect it.”
The United Nations says it faces restrictions, particularly in delivering aid to northern Gaza.
‘No aid’
Nearly five months into the war, desperate families in northern Gaza are forced to search for food.
“There is no food or drink for ourselves or our children,” Omar Karut told AFP as he waited for aid trucks to arrive near Gaza City.
“We are stuck in the north and no help is reaching us – the situation is extremely difficult.”
AFP reporters said hundreds of Palestinians found their way south, walking on rubbish-strewn roads between the blackened husks of bombed-out buildings.
Israeli forces continue to attack targets in Palestinian territory and battle militants in fierce urban fighting centered on the southern city of Khan Younis near Rafah.
According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Israeli military operations have killed at least 29,692 people in Gaza, mostly women and children.
The war broke out after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack that killed about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to official AFP statistics.
“Expanding the conflict”
According to Israel, the militants have also taken approximately 250 Israeli and foreign hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza and 31 of whom are presumed dead.
The Israeli army on Sunday confirmed the death of 19-year-old soldier Oz Daniel, whose “body remains in the custody of Hamas,” according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which said he was killed on the day of the attack.
Mediators expressed hope that a temporary truce and hostage-prisoner exchange could be achieved before the start of Ramadan on March 10 or 11, depending on the lunar calendar.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned that fighting during the holy month “will increase the threat of an expansion of the conflict,” according to a royal statement.
The French president said Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who hosted the Hamas leader and helped facilitate a week-long campaign in November, will arrive in Paris this week. truce.
Media reports say the warring parties are considering a six-week cessation of fighting and initially exchanging dozens of women, minors and sick hostages for hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel.
Hezbollah threat
Across from crowded Rafah, neighboring Egypt has kept its borders closed, saying it would not help any effort to push Palestinians out of Gaza.
But satellite images show it has built a wall near Gaza, apparently in response to the potential influx of refugees.
Inside Israel, pressure is mounting on Netanyahu from the hostages’ families for quicker action and resurgent anti-government protests.
Defense Minister Yoav Galant said there would be no let-up in operations against Hamas’ powerful Lebanese ally Hezbollah, whose militants have been fighting Israeli forces almost daily since early October.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are supported by Israel’s enemy, Iran.
“If anyone thinks that when we make a deal (with Hamas) … it will alleviate what’s going on here – they’re wrong,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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