Having seized upon the October 7 attacks as a pretext, Israel has moved to implement a long-term plan to render Gaza uninhabitable and either kill or expel its population. The assault on Rafah will mark a new stage in this vast crime. Andre Damon, World Socialist Web Site
On Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to prepare a plan for the forced expulsion of Palestinians located in Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza where over 1.3 million displaced civilians have taken refuge in tent cities. The announcement was met with howls of protest from political leaders and human rights groups around the world who understand that Israel is now implementing the final phase of its ethnic cleansing operation which began on October 7. Despite the public outcry and mounting opposition, Netanyahu is moving ahead with his plan to drive the non-Jewish population from their historic homeland in order to establish a permanent Jewish majority on Palestinian territory. This is from an article at Politico:
On Friday, Netanyahu announced he had ordered defense forces to “submit to the cabinet a dual plan for both evacuating the population and bringing down the battalions” ahead of an “intensive operation.”…
In preparation of the assault, Israeli forces have ramped up their airstrikes and shelling on the southern Gaza metropolis…. Netanyahu’s plans raised alarm among aid agencies and world leaders alike, who fear the consequences of a ground assault on a city already overcrowded with civilians…
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres expressed similar sentiments, saying that an operation in Rafah would “exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences.” Netanyahu orders Rafah evacuation ahead of expected ground invasion, Politico
Keep in mind, Netanyahu is using a fully-equipped, state-of-the-art military to subdue an unarmed civilian population. This is not a war in any traditional sense of the word. The Palestinians are being terrorized into compliance and forced at gunpoint to move from one location to another. Now they are going to be driven from the urban area in Rafah to a barren plain that is devoid of food, water or protection from the elements. The objective of this maneuver is to create a humanitarian crisis so colossal that foreign leaders will be forced to enact an emergency resettlement program that will address the refugee problem while absolving Israel of any legal responsibility. This is from the Telegraph on Saturday:
Netanyahu said a “massive operation” is needed in Rafah, adding that he has asked security officials to present a “double plan” that would encompass civilian evacuations …
It comes as Israel on Friday bombed targets in Rafah, expanding its Gaza ground offensive to the densely populated southern city where more than half of the territory’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge.
Airstrikes overnight and into Friday hit two residential buildings in Rafah, while two other sites were bombed in central Gaza, including one that damaged a kindergarten-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians. Twenty-two people were killed, according to AP journalists who saw the bodies arriving at hospitals. Netanyahu orders Rafah evacuation plan, Telegraph
The reason Israel continues to kill non-combatants who are in-no-way connected to Hamas, is because it convinces everyone else that the bombing is “indiscriminate” which, in turn, suggests that the perpetrator is a deranged madman driven by irrational hatred. This is how one terrorizes the public into doing whatever is demanded of them. We expect that much of Israel’s current pysops in Gaza was meticulously worked out with a battery of behavioral psychologists long before the first bomb was dropped, perhaps, years before the Hamas attack on October 7.
It’s also worth noting, that Israel’s unexpected blitz on Rafah comes on the heels of explicit promises from senior-level Israeli officials that Palestinians who willingly left their homes in the North would find safety in the South. Now these same people are being pelted with bombs and pushed into the desert where their prospects for survival are dismal at best. We can only conclude that the reason the Palestinians are being treated so horribly is because they are part of the non-Jewish minority who are widely regarded as inferior to the Israeli Jews. The Palestinians are not being expelled because they pose a national security threat but because they are more prolific than the Jews who want to maintain a sizable majority whatever the cost. In other words, the Palestinians are not being deported for something they’ve done but for who they are. This is from Reuters:
Egypt is moving to avert a mass exodus from the Gaza Strip into its Sinai Peninsula… Israel’s assault on Gaza has caused alarm in Egypt, which has urged Israel to provide safe passage for civilians from the enclave rather than encouraging them to flee southwest towards Sinai….
Egypt has sent about 40 tanks and armoured personnel carriers to northeastern Sinai within the past two weeks as part of a series of measures to bolster security on its border with Gaza….The military has also taken up new positions close to the border, running patrols to monitor the area…
Rafah is the sole possible crossing point into Sinai for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents. The rest of the densely populated strip is surrounded by the sea, and by Israel…
On Tuesday, the Israeli military revised a recommendation by one of its spokespeople that Palestinians fleeing its air strikes in Gaza head to Egypt. Egypt moves to prevent exodus of Palestinians from besieged Gaza, Reuters
There it is in black and white. Israel is going to drive the Palestinians into the desert, create a ghastly humanitarian crisis, and eventually force the majority of them across the border and into Egypt. This is Netanyahu’s endgame, a Jewish-only homeland from the River to the Sea.
Who will stop him?
