2024-04-18 11:13:00
British newspaper The Guardian said Israel had deployed more artillery and armored personnel carriers near Gaza, indicating preparations for a ground attack that Netanyahu has long threatened against the Palestinian town of Rafah, the only relatively safe place, to which more than a million displaced Palestinians have fled.
The Israeli newspaper Maariv reported yesterday Wednesday that the forces had been placed on alert and that the guiding principle of the operation had been approved by the General Staff of the Israeli army and Yoav Galant, the Minister of Defense, and that the Israeli army refused to comment. Reports.
He confirmed Israeli army It purchased 40,000 tents to prepare for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians sheltering in the town of Rafah, the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, Maariv said, a new operation in the six-year-old war. month. will first focus on securing northern and central Gaza, particularly the series of refugee camps around the town of Deir Dates.
This comes 10 days after Israel withdrew most of its ground forces from the Gaza Strip, leaving one division to man the Netzarim Corridor, the Israeli-built barrier that now divides the coastal region.
But Palestinians on the ground said there was a new presence of Israeli ground forces in northern Gaza this week, including in Beit Hanoun, where tanks surrounded school buildings where displaced people were sheltering.
Overnight, Israeli airstrikes bombarded the town of Rafah and several urban areas, with the Palestinian news agency Wafa saying 6 people were killed in a bombing of a market in Gaza City, and the army Israeli army said it had hit more than 40 targets. , including a cell operating armed drones and missile launch sites.
Israel announced a few weeks ago that it would launch a ground operation in the last corner of the country. Gaza This country has not experienced heavy ground fighting, despite strong opposition from its closest allies, including the United States. Israel says Hamas leaders and Israeli hostages are also in Rafah, alongside four battalions of fighters.
On Tuesday, the US State Department said it had not yet been briefed in detail on evacuation plans or Israeli humanitarian considerations regarding the potential operation.
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