Egyptian and Western officials say Cairo has threatened to suspend its peace treaty with Tel Aviv if Israel attacks the city of Rafah.
In an interview on February 10, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said sending troops to attack the city of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, to eliminate the remaining Hamas battalions there was necessary to win the more than 4-month military campaign against this force.
Two Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat said on February 11 that Egypt threatened to suspend the Camp David Accords if the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacked Rafah.
The Camp David Accords were a peace treaty signed by Egypt and Israel in September 1978, brokered by the United States, that has been considered the foundation for stability in the region for nearly half a century.
Hamas' Aqsa channel on February 11 quoted a senior official of the group as warning that "any IDF offensive on the city of Rafah would blow up the prospects of hostage exchange negotiations" with Israel, which are being brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar.
Israeli tanks and soldiers fight in the Gaza Strip on February 8. Photo: IDF
More than half of the 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip have fled to the city of Rafah to escape fighting in residential areas near the border with Israel. According to the United Nations, Rafah, with a population of nearly 300,000, has taken in up to 1.4 million people displaced from other areas in the Strip.
Egypt has recently reinforced its border with the Gaza Strip, establishing a 5km buffer zone and erecting a concrete wall. However, Egyptian officials fear that if the border is lost, the army will not be able to stop the flow of refugees from the Gaza Strip into the Sinai Peninsula.
Israel's plan to attack the city of Rafah has been met with opposition from many sides. Josep Borrell, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said that the IDF's operation against Rafah "would lead to an unspeakable humanitarian disaster and serious tensions with Egypt."
The United States, Israel's strongest supporter, has also warned that an IDF ground operation against Rafah at this time "would be catastrophic for civilians." Meanwhile, the IDF has been carrying out airstrikes against Rafah in recent days, an operation that is believed to be in preparation for an assault on the city.
According to health authorities in the Gaza Strip, at least 28,176 people have been killed and 67,784 injured in the fighting, most of them women and children.
Location of cities in the Gaza Strip. Graphics: BBC
Nguyen Tien (According to AP, AFP )
Source link
Comment (0)