Pressure mounts on Israel for Gaza cease-fire

Palestinian Territories – AFP

Israel faced growing international pressure on Tuesday to agree to a cease-fire with Hamas, as it prepared for an incursion into the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah where more than a million Palestinians are trapped.

CIA Director William Burns met with Mossad chief David Barnea in Cairo Tuesday for a new round of talks on a Qatari-brokered cease-fire proposal, which would temporarily halt fighting in exchange for Hamas freeing Israelis.

The two intelligence chiefs were joined in Cairo by the Qatari prime minister and Egyptian officials, Egypt’s Al-Qahera News reported — two countries in the middle of mediation efforts as cease-fire proposals bounce back and forth between the two sides.

The meeting came after the United States and the United Nations warned Israel against carrying out a ground offensive into Rafah without a plan to protect civilians, who say they have nowhere left to go.

“Wherever we go there’s bombing, martyrs and wounded,” said Iman Dergham, a displaced Palestinian woman.

After White House talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Monday, US President Joe Biden said civilians in Rafah “need to be protected”.

“Many people there have been displaced — displaced multiple times, fleeing the violence to the north, and now they’re packed into Rafah — exposed and vulnerable,” he said.

King Abdullah pushed for a “lasting cease-fire” to end the more than four-month-old war, warning an Israeli attack on Rafah is “certain to produce another humanitarian catastrophe”.

Other countries urged caution on a ground assault, including China, Germany and Norway.

After rejecting Hamas’s terms for a truce last week, Israel conducted a Monday pre-dawn raid in Rafah that freed two Israelis and killed around 100 people.

– No safe place –

The rare rescue mission — which left Rafah with bomb craters and piles of rubble — came hours after Netanyahu spoke with Biden, who reiterated his opposition to a major assault on Rafah.

He was rebuffed by the Israeli premier, who said “complete victory” cannot be achieved without the elimination of Hamas’ last battalions in Rafah.

The United States has angered some Middle East allies by repeatedly refusing to back a full cease-fire, with Washington saying it supports Israel’s drive to eradicate Hamas and calling for shorter pauses with prisoner swaps instead.

A Hamas official told AFP they were waiting for the outcome of the Cairo meeting but were “open to discussing any initiative that achieves an end to aggression and war.”

Over half of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have sought refuge in Rafah, pressed up against the Egypt border in makeshift camps where they face outbreaks of hepatitis and diarrhoea, and a scarcity of food and water.

Some families, already displaced several times, were starting to dismantle tents and gather their belongings to flee once again.

“We escaped the north with empty hands, then we escaped Khan Yunis with almost empty hands,” said one, Ismail Joundiyah.

“We want to be ready this time.”

Netanyahu has said Israel will provide “safe passage” to civilians trying to leave, but foreign governments, Gazans and aid groups questioned where they could go.

“There is no place that is currently safe in Gaza,” said United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

A report in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday said Israel was proposing to create 15 large campsites, of around 25,000 tents each in the southwestern Gaza Strip, as part of an evacuation plan.

The newspaper cited Egyptian officials saying the camps and field hospitals would be installed and administered by Egypt, although there has been no confirmation from either country.

The UN’s human rights chief Volker Turk warned “an extremely high number of civilians” would likely be killed or injured in an Israeli incursion into Rafah, which could also spell the end of the “meagre” humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

“We’re almost out of flour in the north,” said a man in north Gaza’s Beit Lahia. “We can’t even find food and drinks for the children.”

At least 28,473 people, mostly women and children, have died in Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry.

The Israeli military said Tuesday that three more soldiers had been killed in fighting in Gaza, taking its losses to 232 since ground operations began on October 27.