“We call on the United States of America to ask Israel not to continue the Rafah attack. America is the only country capable of preventing Israel from committing this crime. What will happen in the next few days with Israel’s attack on Rafah, because all the Palestinians in Gaza are gathered there,” Abbas said during a conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
He added that only a “small blow” on Rafah would force the Palestinian population to leave the Gaza Strip and “the biggest catastrophe in the history of the Palestinian people would then happen.”
Israel has announced in recent weeks that it plans to launch a ground intervention in the city in the southern Gaza Strip, the only part of the enclave where it has not sent troops.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says brigades of Hamas fighters are hiding in the city. His government has vowed to “destroy” the terror group after cross-border attacks on October 7, when militants killed around 1,200 people and took 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
More than half of the Palestinian territory’s 2.3 million population sought refuge in Rafah after fleeing Israeli bombardment in other areas of the Strip.
The plan to attack the city has been criticized by Israel’s allies, including the US, who have warned that the military operation would cause thousands of civilian casualties and further disrupt aid supplies.
US President Joe Biden said Israel should not enter Rafah without credible plans to protect civilians.
For their part, the foreign ministers of the G7 countries expressed their opposition to the military operation, on the grounds that it would be catastrophic for the civilians sheltering there.
At least 34,454 Palestinians have been killed and 77,575 wounded in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since October 7, launched in retaliation for a Hamas attack, Gaza’s health ministry, led by the group, said on Sunday.
Photo: Hepta
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Tags: Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas Expects Israeli Assault Rafah Place Days
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