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IDF presents a plan for a Rafah offensive to war Cabinet
The Israeli military has proposed a plan for the evacuation of civilians from “fighting areas” in Gaza to the country’s war Cabinet, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement today.
The statement said the Israel Defense Forces had presented its operational plan for a ground offensive into Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city along the border with Egypt, where 1 million Palestinians have sought safety.
“In addition, the plan for providing humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip in a manner that will prevent the looting that has occurred in the northern Strip and other areas was approved,” the statement said.
The statement did not mention the specific areas the military was going to evacuate.
Palestinian government announces resignation
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh submitted the resignation of his entire government today, a long anticipated move that comes amid calls from the United States and others to reform Palestinian politics to prepare for Gaza’s postwar reconstruction.
Shtayyeh said in a statement that his government was resigning because of “aggression against our people in Gaza” and “the unprecedented escalation in the West Bank.” But he also said that the “next stage” for the Palestinian territories needed “an inter-Palestinian consensus” and the extension of his government’s “authority over the entire land of Palestine.”
The Palestinian Authority, or PA, has loose governance over parts of the occupied West Bank but lost control of Gaza following a power struggle with Hamas in 2007. Fatah, the party that dominates the PA, has been in talks with Hamas over forming a unity government and are due to meet in Moscow on Wednesday.
The U.S. and others have said that a reformed PA should be responsible for governing Gaza after the war. But Netanyahu has not only rejected the path, but also the idea of a postwar Palestinian state in general. The Palestinian government’s resignation will have to be approved by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Gaza death toll since Oct. 7 reaches 29,782, health officials say
At least 29,782 people have been killed in the enclave since Oct. 7, the Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement on Telegram today.
More than 70,000 people have been wounded in the city, and thousands of people are still missing under the rubble, the statement added.
A boy looks out over a ruined Rafah mosque
A Palestinian boy looks out over the ruins of the Al-Faruq mosque, leveled by Israeli bombardment in Rafah, southern Gaza, yesterday.
Israel is blocking aid to Gazans in violation of ICJ order, Human Rights Watch says
Israel has failed to comply with an order by the United Nations’ top court to provide urgently needed aid to desperate people in the Gaza Strip, Human Rights Watch said Monday, a month after a landmark ruling in The Hague ordered Israel to moderate its war.
In a preliminary response to a South African petition accusing Israel of genocide, the U.N.’s top court ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza. It stopped short of ordering an end to its military offensive that has triggered a humanitarian catastrophe in the tiny Palestinian enclave. Israel vehemently denies the charges against it, saying it is fighting a war in self-defense.
Under the orders, Israel must submit a report on what it is doing to adhere to the measures within a month. While Monday marked a month since the court’s orders were issued, it was not immediately clear whether Israel had handed in such a report. The Israeli Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment.
Human Rights Watch said Israel was not adhering to the court’s order on aid provision, citing a 30% drop in the daily average number of aid trucks entering Gaza in the weeks following the court’s ruling.
It said Israel was not adequately facilitating fuel deliveries to hard-hit northern Gaza and blamed Israel for blocking aid from reaching the north, where the World Food Program said last week it was forced to suspend aid deliveries because of increasing chaos in the isolated part of the territory.
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