Israel begins evacuation of Rafah, warns ‘powerful’ operation near
By Sam Mednick and Josef Federman
Jerusalem: Israel has called on civilians to evacuate parts of Rafah on Monday in what appeared to be preparation for a long-threatened assault on Hamas holdouts in the southern Gaza Strip city where more than a million war-displaced Palestinians have been sheltering.
Instructed by Arabic text messages, telephone calls, and flyers to move to what the Israeli military called an “expanded humanitarian zone” 20 kilometres away, some Palestinian families lumbered out under chilly spring rain, witnesses said.
People were told to move to al-Mawasi, an Israeli-declared humanitarian area near the coast. The army said it had expanded assistance into the area, including field hospitals, tents, food and water.
Displaced Palestinians at a temporary camp in Rafah on Saturday.Credit: Bloomberg
The announcement complicates last-ditch efforts by international mediators, including the director of the CIA, to broker a ceasefire. Hamas and Qatar, a key mediator, have warned that an invasion of Rafah could derail a deal that would involve the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, said some 100,000 people were being ordered to move to al-Mawasi. He said Israel was preparing a “limited scope operation” and would not say whether this was the beginning of a broader invasion of the city. But in October, Israel did not formally announce the launch of a ground invasion that continues to this day.
On Sunday, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant claimed Hamas wasn’t serious about a deal and warned of “a powerful operation in the very near future in Rafah”.
His comments came after Hamas attacked Israel’s main crossing point for delivering assistance, killing three soldiers.
Israel last week briefed Biden administration officials on an evacuation plan for Rafah, according to US officials familiar with the talks.
The officials, who were not authorised to comment publicly and requested anonymity to speak about the sensitive exchange, said that the plan detailed by the Israelis did not change the Biden administration’s view that moving forward with an operation in Rafah would put too many innocent Palestinian civilians at risk.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to carry out a military operation in Rafah despite warnings from US President Joe Biden and other Western officials that doing so would result in more civilian deaths and worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis.
The Biden administration has said there could be consequences for Israel should it move forward with the operation without a credible plan to safeguard civilians.
A spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said: “Australia is gravely concerned by the prospect of a major Israeli ground offensive into Rafah.
“More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has sought shelter in Rafah, from the fighting elsewhere. Australia, the G7 and so many countries have called on the Netanyahu government to change course.
“The Foreign Minister [Senator Penny Wong] has made clear Australia’s view that Israel should not go down this path.”
Earlier on Monday, Israeli officials seized equipment from Al Jazeera after the nation’s cabinet approved a decision to shutter the Qatar-based TV news network’s operations in the Jewish state – an unprecedented step against an international media outlet.
Palestinian politics analyst Nehad Abu Ghoush broadcasting from inside the network’s office in the West Bank city of Ramallah.Credit: AP
Inspectors from the Communications Ministry, accompanied by police, arrived at the network’s offices in Jerusalem, confiscated equipment and cut off access. Al Jazeera’s broadcasts and access to its website had already been blocked throughout Israel.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi posted a video clip of the raid on X, formerly Twitter, where the inspectors can be seen and heard naming the equipment they found.
Karhi has been a key advocate for the termination of the network’s activity within Israel. He has also threatened Israeli newspaper Haaretz with closure and accused Kan, the country’s public broadcaster, of bias and threatened to cut its budget.
Al Jazeera denounced Israel’s move, calling it a “criminal act that violates human rights in access to information”. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) has petitioned the move to the country’s Supreme Court.
“This is a dark day for the media and a dark day for democracy,” Israel’s Foreign Press Association said in a statement. “Israel joins a dubious club of authoritarian governments to ban the station.”
The association expressed concern that Israel’s government “may not be done” with censorship as the prime minister now has the authority to target other foreign media he deems to be “acting against the state”.
Several ministers from Benny Gantz’s National Unity Party abstained from the vote and criticised its timing, underlining escalating tensions between the various factions of Netanyahu’s government.
An Al Jazeera reporter speaking live from the network’s office in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday. Credit: AP
Gantz’s party said that while it supported shutting down Qatari-owned Al Jazeera, Israel’s war cabinet had agreed to postpone any decision at the request of security officials, including the head of Mossad, to avoid harming ceasefire negotiation efforts now under way in Egypt.
Israel and Hamas, through intermediaries, continue to work towards a deal that would involve the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israel. Qatar has been a dominant mediator since the war in Gaza broke out following Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel.
The idea of shutting down the news channel has been circulating within Netanyahu’s cabinet, consisted mostly of hard-right, nationalist and Jewish Orthodox parties, since the early days of the war.
Al Jazeera was blamed by Israel for what were termed false reports that heavily relied on what was thought to be Hamas propaganda.
In late March, the channel ran a story claiming that Israeli soldiers had raped and murdered women at Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital, which the Israel Defence Forces denied. It was later removed from all of Al Jazeera’s platforms.
A law allowing foreign media outlets in Israel to be shuttered was approved by the nation’s parliament, the Knesset, in early April. It would give the prime minister the power to instruct the Communications Ministry to act against any foreign media entity deemed to be “harming the country”, pending the opinion of at least one security official and the approval of the cabinet or security cabinet.
Media outlets can then be subject to a range of actions, including shutting down offices in Israel, the confiscation of broadcast equipment, prevention of broadcasts by reporters, removal of the channels from Israeli cable and satellite companies, and blocking of websites in Israel.
“Al Jazeera harmed Israel’s security, actively participated in the October 7 massacre, and incited against IDF soldiers,” Netanyahu said when the law was passed. “It is time to remove the voice of Hamas from our country.”
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre criticised the move at the time as a concerning step. The US supports the work of journalists around the world, including those working in Gaza, she said.
AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
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