GAZA (Agencies) – The leaders of Australia, Canada and New Zealand have warned Israel against a potentially “catastrophic” ground offensive in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, amplifying a growing chorus of international concern.
Urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “not to go down this path”, the trio of Commonwealth nations issued a rare joint statement expressing deep and growing worry about Israel’s prosecution of the months-long offensive.
“About 1.5 million Palestinians are taking refuge in the area, including many of our citizens and their families,” the group of US allies said.
“An expanded military operation would be devastating. We urge the Israeli government not to go down this path. There is simply nowhere else for civilians to go.”
In the face of mounting international pressure and a death toll that Gaza authorities say has now topped 28,000, Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead. He has promised Israeli forces will soon conduct a “powerful” operation in Rafah — a city filled with countless Gazans displaced by fighting elsewhere in the territory.
Netanyahu vows ‘powerful’ Rafah operation after civilians leave
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed Israeli forces would carry out a “powerful” operation in Rafah after civilians in the overcrowded south Gaza city are allowed to leave, AFP reports.
“We will fight until complete victory and this includes a powerful action also in Rafah after we allow the civilian population to leave the battle zones,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued in Hebrew on his official Telegram account.
In a separate video statement, he said the only way to secure the release of hostages still held by Hamas was continued military pressure.
“So far we have freed 112 of our abductees through a combination of strong military pressure and firm negotiations,” he said.
“This is also the key to the release of most of our abductees: strong military pressure and very firm negotiations.”
Macron tells Netanyahu Gaza operations must ‘cease’, death toll ‘intolerable’
French President Emmanuel Macron has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Gaza death toll is “intolerable” and Israel’s operations there “must cease”, AFP reports.
The president’s office said that in a telephone call that saw Macron toughen his tone, the French leader expressed France’s “firm opposition” to an Israeli offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, saying it “could only lead to a humanitarian disaster of a new magnitude” and create a new risk of regional escalation.
The French leader stressed that a ceasefire agreement should be reached “without further delay”, adding that such a deal should “guarantee the protection of all civilians and the massive inflow of emergency aid”.
Macron said that the lack of sufficient access to “a population in an absolute humanitarian emergency was unjustifiable”, his office said.
He said it was “imperative to open the port of Ashdod” in Israel north of the Gaza Strip, “a direct land route from Jordan and all the crossing points.”
The French president also urged “the prime minister and all Israeli leaders to have the courage to offer their fellow citizens a future of peace”, which he believes only the “creation of a Palestinian state” can achieve, the statement said.
