Israeli military orders evacuation of parts of Rafah ahead of possible ground invasion • FRANCE 24

Israeli military orders evacuation of parts of Rafah ahead of possible ground invasion • FRANCE 24

uh now here on set Philip you heard exactly what Israel said you’ve heard what Hamas has said as well and it does seem to be coming doesn’t it as that growing uh threat if you like of that ground incursion on Rafa seems to be continuing this has been a pretty fast moving story all morning uh here in Paris uh Stuart first glimpse of something happening came in around 7 o’ this morning about 3 or 4 hours ago uh and the military is saying in Israel that what they’re doing is is they are uh instigating a limited scope evacuation of about 100,000 people from Rafa now they haven’t said they’re going to launch The Invasion now or anytime soon but I mean all of this leads one to believe that this is what is happening and this is the next thing uh that the Israeli military is planning there has been a call between uh y of gallon the defense uh minister of Israel and Lloyd Austin the defense secretary of the United States overnight obviously to talk about what is going on we know the United States is against uh this mil action in Rafa but if you look at the uh opinion pole ratings for Benjamin Netanyahu back at home they’re not pretty good right now then pretty mediocre for him uh only 57% uh say he’s doing a poor or very poor job 28% good or excellent only 14% a Soo job so he needs to do something to try to show that he’s in control that he’s in charge and all the way down the line one of the objectives of the Israeli government has been okay okay we want a Ceasar deal with Hamas but we’re not going to abandon the idea of a ground offensive in Rafa now the reason for that is that is the Israeli government thinks and knows that it has four Hamas cells that are operating from within Rafa which is where l a large number of uh Palestinian refugees have uh gathered uh they say that they need to uh Crush those Hamas cells be able to finish off the job in getting rid of Hamas to make sure that doesn’t come back and uh take control again of the Gaza Strip rebuild its military and be in a position to launch fresh attacks against Israel so all this has been building up over uh the last few weeks uh but there’s been no letup uh even though Israel said it wants a cease fire deal in its determination to launch this ground offense in Rafa and that’s what we appear to be seeing the premises of right now so the ceasefire talks and the Israelis linking uh what’s happened this morning directly to those talks what’s gone wrong at them okay well if you look at the details that were originally put forward for this ceasefire deal a 40-day ceasefire Hamas to release 33 of the 130 hostages that it’s holding Israel to release a thousand if not um uh Palestinian prisoners uh displaced families allowed to return specifically to Northern Gaza and an Israeli PL for a period of sustained calm uh this has not been accepted by Hamas which says what it wants is a total ceasefire and a total withdrawal of Israeli forces from the gasa strip Israel has said that is uh not negotiable and that is something they’re not willing to give into so Israel has not been present at the talks in Kyo uh Hamas has returned to Qatar to see what their response is going to be to this they you back in Kyo again later today or tomorrow uh to reply to that but it looks like the prospect of a ceasefire deal anytime soon is being pushed further and further into the long grass and that of course is not good news for any of the refugees uh Palestinian refugees who have been moved around in Gaza especially right now as this ground offensive appears to be uh coming sooner rather than later yeah as you were talking earlier Philip we saw those images in fact of those tent cities where the Israelis said they’re due to evacuate those people to nearby Khan unun and Al mwasi um of course all of this is not going to help that situation in the Gaza Strip the threat of famine across the whole strip really growing and growing by the day and more bad and depressing news for the people in the Gaza Strip when they hear about how bad the famine threat is uh this has gone up remarkably according to the world food program since December uh back then 570,000 people were threatened with uh shortages of food now it’s 1.1 million and the problem is that that famine uh which is rif in Northern Gaza is moving slowly Southern wordss that hasn’t been helped by uh the attack against the crossing point Kim Shalom which is now closed uh due to skirmishes between uh Hamas and Israeli forces uh that was one of the key entry points for Aid into the Gaza Strip that is bad news and going back to the uh impending ground offensive in Rafa we don’t know what the future of the Rafa Crossing is going to be if that ground offensive gets underway so could be uh even greater threat of famine and lack of food uh in the Gaza Strip uh for the people there so uh it’s really not uh good news today I’m afraid for uh the million and a half also Palestinians who are desperately in need of food food Aid and uh looking for food to survive over the next few days Philip thanks very much Philip Taylor International feder

Israel’s military has ordered tens of thousands of people in the southern Gaza city of Rafah to begin evacuating, signaling that a long-promised ground invasion could be imminent. The prospect of a high-casualty operation worries Western powers and neighbouring Egypt, which is trying to mediate a new round of truce talks between Israel and Hamas under which the Palestinian Islamist group might free some hostages. France 24’s journalist Philip Turle has more details.
#Israel #Rafah #talks

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