GAZA: If Israel launches a military attack in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, hundreds of thousands of civilians would be “at imminent risk of death,” according to the UN humanitarian relief organization.
The city is home to a large concentration of Palestinian refugees and has proven vital for humanitarian help.
International leaders have asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to exercise caution when entering Rafah, the scene of an Israeli attack that killed seven people last night, the most of whom were youngsters.
President Joe Biden will decide how the US responds to such an incursion, according to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who stated on Thursday that “conditions are not favorable to any kind of operation” at this time.
According to local health professionals, the number of deaths in Gaza has risen to almost 34,500, and the whole population of the region is facing a humanitarian crisis.
About 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forced from their homes by the Israel-Hamas conflict, which has also severely damaged several towns and cities and brought starvation to the region’s northern areas.
Hamas assaulted southern Israel on October 7, starting the conflict and kidnapping around 250 people and murdering about 1,200, most of them civilians. According to Israel, extremists are still holding some 100 captives, along with the bodies of about 30 more.
Hundreds of protesters protested outside Israel’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv on Thursday night, calling for an agreement to free the hostages. In the meantime, Hamas said that it will dispatch a team to Cairo right once to continue working on cease-fire negotiations. A proposed truce that was leaked suggests concessions from both parties following months of impasse in negotiations.
Protests against the Israel-Hamas conflict and tent camps have proliferated on college campuses around the United States.
Over the course of the last two weeks, more than 2,000 demonstrators have been taken into custody as they stage demonstrations against the high death toll from the conflict and demand that colleges distance themselves from any businesses supporting Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
