Palestinian president ‘expects Israeli assault on Rafah to happen in the next days’Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, said at a conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh that only the US could stop Israel attacking Rafah, adding he expected an assault on the city in the next days, Reuters reported.
“We call on the United States of America to ask Israel to not carry on the Rafah attack. America is the only country able to prevent Israel from committing this crime,” Abbas told a special meeting of the World Economic Forum.
“What will happen in the coming few days is what Israel will do with attacking Rafah because all the Palestinians from Gaza are gathered there,” Abbas said.
He added that only a “small strike” on Rafah would force the Palestinian population to flee the Gaza Strip. “The biggest catastrophe in the Palestinian people’s history would then happen.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends the World Economic Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Photograph: Hamad I Mohammed/ReutersIsrael has signalled it plans to push ahead with a ground operation in southern Rafah, the only part of Gaza where it has not sent in troops. More than half of the Palestinian territory’s population of 2.3 million has sought shelter in Rafah after fleeing Israeli bombardment from elsewhere.
The long-threatened plan to attack the city has drawn intense opposition from Israel’s allies, including the US, which said it would cause thousands of civilian casualties and further disrupt aid deliveries.
The US president, Joe Biden, has said Israel should not go into Rafah without credible plans to protect civilians, and foreign ministers from the G7 countries have said they opposed a full-scale military operation on the grounds it would be catastrophic for people sheltering there.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says four brigades of Hamas fighters are hiding there and must be tackled. His government has vowed to “destroy” the group, after the 7 October cross border attacks when militants killed about 1,200 people inside Israel and took 250 hostage.