IDF to direct ‘significant’ number of Palestinians sheltering in Rafah to ‘humanitarian islands’ ahead of planned offensive

The Israeli military has said it plans to send a “significant” number of Palestinians hiding in Rafah to “humanitarian islands” ahead of the planned offensive in the area.

It comes as many of Israel’s allies, including the United States, feared that an offensive in a city densely populated with about 1.4 million people, many of whom are displaced, would be a catastrophe.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said a Rafah offensive is crucial to achieving Israel’s stated goal of destroying Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostage.

Israel’s chief military spokesman, Admiral Daniel Hagari, said the movement of people in Rafah to these designated areas would be done in coordination with international actors – and that temporary housing, food and water would be provided to evacuated Palestinians.

Rafah has grown in size in recent months as Palestinians in Gaza have fled fighting in almost every other corner of the territory.

Admiral Hagari said: “We must ensure that 1.4 million people, or at least a significant portion of the 1.4 million, will move. Where? Towards humanitarian islands that we will create together with the international community.’

He did not say when the evacuation of Rafah would take place, nor when the offensive would begin. He said Israel wanted the timing to be operationally right and coordinated with neighboring Egypt, which has said it does not want an influx of displaced Palestinians crossing the border. its border.

The US has been tough with Israel over its concerns over Rafah, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Washington has not yet received from Israel its plans for civilians there.

“We need to see a plan that will keep civilians out of harm’s way if there is a military operation in Rafah,” he told reporters in Washington after convening a virtual ministerial meeting on Gaza aid with officials from the UN, EU, Great Britain -Britain and Cyprus. , Qatar and the UAE. “We haven’t seen such a plan yet.”

Early in the war, Israel sent evacuees to a patch of undeveloped land along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast that it designated as a safe zone.

But aid agencies said there were no real plans to accommodate large numbers of displaced people there. Israeli attacks also targeted the area.

More than 31,270 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and most of the 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, Gaza’s health ministry says.

The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in the count, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

Meanwhile, fighting continued throughout Gaza. An Israeli attack on Wednesday hit a food distribution site in southern Gaza run by UNRWA, the UN agency that works with Palestinian refugees, killing one agency staffer and wounding 22 others.

According to UNRWA, it brings the number of the organization’s workers killed during the past five months of fighting to 165.

The Israeli military has admitted that two Palestinians they claimed were terrorists carrying a rocket-propelled grenade were in fact simply riding a bicycle when they were blown up in an airstrike.

Aerial footage released by the Israeli army on March 3 shows two people walking through the bombed streets of southern Gaza City before being engulfed by a massive explosion.

The video’s caption describes the scene as “the elimination of terrorists” and falsely claims that they are carrying an RPG.

Subsequent analysis of the clip has revealed what can be distinguished as wobbly wheels and handlebars, proving that it is a bicycle.

“When the video was published, the bicycle one of them was carrying was incorrectly marked as a rocket launcher,” the IDF said in a statement. The New York Times. “The IDF regrets the marking error.”

The black and white footage also appears to show one of the people carrying a bag of flour.

There also appear to be ruts made by the bicycle, disturbing the ground beneath it as it is pushed over it.

Despite claims that the pair were carrying the heavy weapon that have been debunked, the IDF insisted that the two people they killed were terrorists, without providing evidence.

“During the days leading up to the documented attack, armed terrorists used the route shown in the video to transfer ammunition and attack IDF forces,” their statement said.

“The attack took place after the people were identified as armed terrorists in real time, based on information gathered prior to the attack.”

The decision behind carrying out the attack will be reviewed by military investigators, the New York Times was told.

Mohammed Qreiqea, who spoke to witnesses to the strike, said one of the Palestinians in the footage was killed in the attack, while the other was injured but survived.

Qreiqea, a researcher for the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor who first pointed out the discrepancies in the images, said the people in the images were returning from collecting aid.

Israel has come under increasing pressure over its brutal bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip, where the death toll has surpassed 31,000 since the war broke out on October 7, according to the Hamas-led Health Ministry.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Wednesday that at least one of its staff was killed in an Israeli attack on a food distribution center in the war-hit enclave.

“At least one UNRWA staffer was killed and another 22 were injured when Israeli forces raided a food distribution center in the eastern part of Rafah in southern Gaza,” the organization said in a statement.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said six aid trucks entered Gaza through the north late Tuesday, as international pressure mounts for more humanitarian aid to Gaza.

About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed during the Hamas-led raid on southern Israel on October 7, and about 250 people were kidnapped. Hamas is believed to still be holding around 100 hostages.

Palestinian authorities claim that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been driven from their homes by the war.

The Hamas-led Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its death toll, says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

According to the United Nations, a quarter of Gaza’s population is hungry.