Palestinian president Abbas pleads with US to stop Israel’s assault on Rafah
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has pleaded with the US to stop Israel attacking the Gaza border city of Rafah – saying he expects an assault to begin within days on an area where more than a million people have taken refuge.
Mr Abbas, who heads the Palestinian Authority (PA), said that the US is the only nation capable from halting Israel’s plans for an assault on the southern city, which would force much of the Palestinian population to flee. At least half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are believed to be sheltering in Rafah.
“We call on the United States of America to ask Israel to not carry on the Rafah attack. America is the only country able to prevent Israel from committing this crime,” Abbas told a special meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
Israel, which has threatened for weeks to launch an all-out assault on the neighbourhood saying its goal is to destroy Hamas’ remaining battalions there, stepped up airstrikes on Rafah last week.
The UK, US and a number of other nations have called on Israel not to go into Rafah, fearing what will happen to those gathered there. Israel has moved from north to south in its near-seven month war on Hamas – who run Gaza. And many residents have been forced further south as the Israeli military has moved.
“What will happen in the coming few days is what Israel will do with attacking Rafah because all the Palestinians from Gaza are gathered there,” Mr Abbas said, adding that only a “small strike” on Rafah would force the Palestinian population to flee the Gaza Strip.
“The biggest catastrophe in the Palestinian people’s history would then happen,” Mr Abbas said.
He reiterated that he rejects the displacement of Palestinians into Jordan and Egypt and said he is concerned that once Israel completes its operations in Gaza, it will then attempt to force the Palestinian population out of the occupied West Bank, which the PA controls parts of, and into Jordan.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas led a brutal attack on southern Israel on 7 October in which around 1,200 people were killed and another 250 taken hostage. More than 34,000 Palestinians have have been killed in the Israeli aerial bombardment, ground assaults and blockade that has followed, according to the Gaza health ministry.
On Saturday Israel’s foreign minister said Israel could suspend the incursion if there was a hostage deal. “The release of the hostages is the top priority for us,” Israel Katz said. Meanwhile, the Israeli military said its chief Herzi Halevi had approved plans to continue the war, with Israeli media saying this referred to the Rafah operation.
US President Joe Biden plans to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later on Sunday, a US official said. That comes after White House national security spokesman John Kirby told ABC News that Israel “assured us they won’t go into Rafah until we’ve had a chance to really share our perspectives and concerns with them. So, we’ll see where that goes.”
Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, former speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said Mr Netanyahu “couldn’t have done things worse” in the conflict with Hamas. Speaking on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Pelosi said she is “not a big fan” of Mr Netanyahu and that he “has never been an agent for peace”.
“Israel has the right to defend itself – the manner in which they are doing it is really challenging because Netanyahu has never been an agent for peace,” she said. “I’m not a big fan of his, but he couldn’t have done things worse than tens of thousands, whatever the figure may be of people dying, children malnourished, and the uncertainty that is there, and that’s what people are speaking out about.”
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is due to travel to Saudi Arabia for talks about efforts to agree a ceasefire in Gaza and getting more humanitarian aid into the besieged strip.
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