Israeli plan to evacuate Rafah civilians

Egyptian officials have shared details of Israel’s alleged plan to evacuate Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where 1.3 million Palestinians are sheltering.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on February 13 that the plan calls for displaced Palestinians to be concentrated in the western area of the enclave, within the coastal strip, along the sea.

Israel says it will establish 15 camp villages along the coast between Rafah and Gaza City in central Gaza. The areas included are south of Al-Mawasi and Sharm Park. Each camp will be equipped with 25,000 tents.

Egyptian officials say that Israel expects the camps, which would include medical facilities, to be funded by the US and Arab states.

However, it is unlikely that over 1 million people could be safely evacuated. 

Nadia Hardman, a refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, stated, “Forcing the over one million displaced Palestinians in Rafah to again evacuate without a safe place to go would be unlawful and would have catastrophic consequences. There is nowhere safe to go in Gaza.”

If Israel proceeds with the offensive, its army will disrupt the already minimal aid entering Gaza and cause extensive destruction in Rafah, as it previously did in Gaza City and Khan Yunis. These action would exacerbate the uninhabitable conditions in Gaza, both during and after the war.

If Palestinians in Gaza are increasingly concentrated in tent camps along a tiny strip on Gaza’s coast, with no homes to return to, no functioning hospitals, and little food and humanitarian aid, this will enable Israel’s efforts to force Gaza’s population to ‘voluntarily’ flee to Egypt by land or other third parties by sea.

Israeli leaders have stated they wish to make life so difficult and dangerous for Palestinians in Gaza that the most humanitarian solution for them will be to leave Gaza and allow Israel to take it over for Jewish settlement.

The situation would resemble 1948, when Zionist militias forced Palestinians from Haifa to flee north to Lebanon by land and by boat from the city’s port.

While Gaza is on the brink of famine, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces criticism from his far-right allies for allowing any aid at all, the WSJ reported further.

“The minimal aid we committed to is an important condition for the continuation of the war because if there is a large humanitarian collapse, we can’t continue the war,” he told reporters last week.

Israel in December reopened its Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza to allow the UN and NGOs to increase aid. However, right-wing protesters have repeatedly blocked humanitarian convoys at the crossing, and the Israeli army has not taken any action to remove them.

 

Israeli-linked tanker seized in Gulf of Aden

Reportedly, unidentified armed individuals have seized a tanker carrying a cargo of phosphoric acid in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday, the vessel's managing company and a US defense official said.

The incident, involving the chemical tanker Central Park, is the latest in a series of attacks in Middle Eastern waters since a brutal war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas broke out on October 07.

It followed a seizure of an Israeli-linked cargo ship by Yemen Houthis, allies of Iran, in the southern Red Sea last week. The group, which also fired ballistic missiles and armed drones at Israel, vowed to target more Israeli vessels.

"US and coalition forces are in the vicinity and we are closely monitoring the situation," the US official said.

Central Park, a small chemical tanker (19,998 metric tons), is managed by Zodiac Maritime, a London-headquartered international ship management company owned by Israel's Ofer family. The Liberian-flagged vessel was built in 2015 and is owned by Clumvez Shipping Inc, LSEG data showed.

Zodiac Maritime said in a statement Central Park, which is carrying a full cargo of phosphoric acid, was involved in a suspected piracy incident while crossing international waters, approximately 54 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia.

Phosphoric acid is mostly used for fertilizers.

"Our priority is the safety of our 22 crew onboard. The Turkish captained vessel has a multinational crew consisting of a crew of Russian, Vietnamese, Bulgarian, Indian, Georgian and Filipino nationals," the statement added.

Britain's Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) said on Sunday it was aware of a possible attack in southwest Aden and called on other vessels to exercise caution.

The US has blamed Iran for unclaimed attacks on several vessels in the region in the past few years. Tehran has denied involvement.

A container ship managed by an Israeli-controlled company was hit by a suspected Iranian drone in the Indian Ocean, causing minor damage to the vessel but no injuries, a US defence official said on Saturday.

Hamas fighters rampaged into Israel on October 07, killing 1,200 people. Since then, Israel has rained bombs on Gaza, killing about 14,000 people, roughly 40% of them children, Palestinian health authorities say.

Palestinians halt Israeli ground offensives

The al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli forces on Tuesday, troops were trying to infiltrate south of Gaza city. 

A Hamas spokesman confirmed the presence of Israeli tanks in Salah ad-Deen highway, located in the middle of the Strip, which he pointed out the Palestinian resistance forces have prevented them from moving north toward Gaza city. 

Reports from inside Gaza have also said that attacks by the resistance fighters forced the occupation troops to withdraw from the Salah ad-Deen area, east of the Zeitoun neighborhood in central Gaza, following heavy clashes. 

Hamas also attacked two Israeli tanks and bulldozers in northwest Gaza with missiles.

The al-Qassam brigades added its fighters targeted Israeli forces with Al-Yassin 105 shells, and destroyed a Zionist vehicle east of Erez (located one kilometer north of the Gaza Strip), with an explosive device and two Al-Yassin 105 shells.

The Israeli military acknowledged that its troops were attacked by anti-tank missiles and machine gunfire. 

Reports from inside Gaza say the resistance engaged in heavy clashes with the occupation, east of the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip, and thwarted the regime's incursion attempt.

The Palestinian resistance is said to have inflicted casualties on the occupation ranks after confronting regime troops at the Karam Abu Salem site east of Rafah near the border with Egypt. 

Elsewhere, the resistance engaged in clashes with the occupation forces during their attempt to storm eastern Bureij.

Reports point out that the Palestinian resistance launched surface-to-air missiles to confront Israeli aircraft, believed to be drones, in the eastern Gaza Strip.

Violent clashes have also taken place, according to verified reports from inside the coastal sliver, between the resistance fighters and the occupation forces east of the town of al-Qarara, which is located near the southern city of Khan Yunis.

The heavy clashes indicate two main points. 

One is that Palestinian resistance factions have heavily disrupted Israeli attempts to advance into urban areas of the Gaza Strip, restricting the regime's troops to the enclaves' borders and agricultural land, which it had bombed before. 

There are no military achievements so far, according to Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasim. 

This is contrary to Western reporters who are spreading unverified information while outside the Gaza Strip and relying mainly on Israeli military statements. 

The Israeli military has forbidden any reporters to accompany them into the battlefield. 

Experts say this is supposed to avoid reports being published of any ambushes and traps, and would essentially increase the anger of Israelis watching on intensely across the occupied territories and beyond.

Secondly, the fierce exchange of fire and airstrikes in the Southern Gaza Strip debunk the Israeli myth that it would have been safe for Palestinians to travel south. 

A series of Israeli raids have targeted residential areas east of Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip, as well as other areas in the south where the regime is bombing civilian sites and trying to conduct military operations by land. 

Actually, for the civilian population trapped in Gaza there is nowhere to run or to hide.  

The high level of Israeli bombings so far (from the air, sea and land) has not stopped Palestinian resistance forces in the Gaza Strip from launching retaliatory operations. 

Israeli media reported that air raid sirens sounded in many settlements, including Netiv Haasara, Kissufim, Erez, Ashkelon, Zikim, and Sderot as a result of Palestinian rocket barrages on Monday and Tuesday. 

These are mostly settlements north and northeast of the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military claims to be attacking with more intensity. 

Air raid sirens sounded in the Red Sea settlement of Eilat with an Israeli military warning of an approaching aerial target. 

A statement warned of a possible hostile aircraft intrusion. The Israeli military said its systems identified an aerial target approaching Israeli (occupied Palestinian) territory.

Unconfirmed reports on Israeli radio have suggested that a drone was spotted over the Red Sea.

Hours later, Israeli media reported fresh explosions in Eilat with a flying object spotted. 

Eilat is a large southern Israeli settlement that has come under constant fire (during the current war on Gaza) by long-range missiles launched from the strip.

However, reports have emerged that the explosions may be the result of projectiles fired from Yemen in response to the regime's massacre of civilians in Gaza. 

Israeli media has reported that the first test of the land (operations) appears to have been disappointing, noting that the government is gambling with the lives of soldiers in Gaza.

This is while the al-Qassam brigade issued another brief statement on Tuesday afternoon stating that it was eliminating a Zionist force after it entered a building in Beit Hanoun, inside which our fighters were present and ambushed the force while targeting (another) bulldozer and a vehicle.

 

Need to stop violence by West Bank settlers

The Israeli government is supportive of these attacks and does nothing to stop this violence.

With international focus on the horrors of Israel's assault on Gaza, 30 Israeli human rights and anti-occupation organizations on Sunday aimed to draw attention to a surge in settler violence against Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank.

The coalition of groups—including B'Tselem, Breaking the Silence, and the Israeli arms of Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights—released a joint statement calling on the international community to act urgently to stop the state-backed wave of settler violence which has led, and is leading to, the forcible transfer of Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

In retaliation for a Hamas-led attack earlier this month—in which over 1,400 Israelis were killed and around 200 others were taken hostage —Israel has waged what some legal scholars are calling a genocidal  war, killing more than 8,000 people in Gaza.

"Settlers have been exploiting the lack of public attention to the West Bank, as well as the general atmosphere of rage against Palestinians, to escalate their campaign of violent attacks in an attempt to forcibly transfer Palestinian communities," the coalition noted.

"During this period, no fewer than 13 herding communities have been displaced. Many more are in danger of being forced to flee in the coming days if immediate action is not taken."

"Palestinian farmers are particularly vulnerable at this time, during the annual olive harvest season, because if they are unable to pick their olives they will lose a year's income," the groups explained.

"Lately Bilal Muhammed Saleh from the village of As-Sawiya south of Nablus was murdered while tending to his olive trees. He was the seventh Palestinian to have been killed by settlers since the current war began."

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Saturday that 111 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed since October 07.

Jewish settlers have recently tried to scare Palestinians into fleeing the West Bank by displaying dolls covered in blood or a substance meant to mimic it and distributing leaflets with messages like "Run to Jordan before we kill our enemies and expel you from our Holy Land, promised to us by God."

The coalition said Sunday, “Unfortunately the Israeli government is supportive of these attacks and does nothing to stop this violence. On the contrary: government ministers and other officials are backing the violence and in many cases the military is present or even participates in the violence, including in incidents where settlers have killed Palestinians."

Over the past three weeks, Israeli forces fatal violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has included raids and an airstrike on a mosque in the densely populated Jenin refugee camp.

"Moreover, since the war has begun there has been a growing number of incidents in which violent settlers have been documented attacking nearby Palestinian communities while wearing military uniform and using government-issued weapons," the coalition continued. "With grave concern and with a clear understanding of the political landscape, we recognize that the only way to stop this forcible transfer in the West Bank is a clear, strong, and direct intervention by the international community."

In response to the statement, Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), said on social media that the "world must act."

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Israeli forces have moved to a second stage of the war with ground operations, despite global demands for a cease-fire—though notably not from the US government, which provides Israel with billions of dollars in annual military support.

"Israel's major ground offensive in Gaza, following weeks of bombardment that have reduced large parts of neighborhoods to rubble, raises grave concerns for the safety of all civilians caught in the fighting," HRW executive director Tirana Hassan said in a statement Sunday. "Thousands of children and other civilians have already been killed."

"Palestinian armed groups are continuing to indiscriminately launch rockets at Israeli communities," she added. "All civilians, including the many who cannot or do not want to leave their homes in northern Gaza, retain their protections under the laws of war against deliberate, indiscriminate, or disproportionate attacks."

Over objections from Israel and the United States, the U.N. General Assembly on Friday adopted a nonbinding resolution demanding that "all parties immediately and fully comply with their obligations under international law," and calling for "an immediate, durable, and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities."

Israeli ground operation risks endless violence in region warns Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia issued a stark warning against the dangers of Israel's ground operation in the Gaza Strip. A Saudi official emphasized that such a ground invasion could plunge the region into a prolonged and endless cycle of violence.

The Kingdom expressed concern that the operation would have serious and grave repercussions for international peace and security.

He highlighted the real challenge and ethical responsibility facing the international community, particularly the UN Security Council, urging swift and binding action to halt the violence, protect civilians, and address the ongoing conflicts.

Saudi Arabia called for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire to prevent further deterioration of the humanitarian situation and underscored the need for urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan conducted multiple calls with Arab counterparts, including those from Jordan, Morocco, and Egypt.

The discussions focused on intensifying collective efforts to halt military escalation, prevent forced displacement of Gaza citizens, and engage the international community in providing consistent relief aid and medical assistance.

Furthermore, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary-General, Jassem Al Budaiwi, stressed the absence of a political solution contributing to worsening conditions in Gaza, emphasizing the Security Council's responsibility for achieving peace and security in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Israel continued its military actions, urging Palestinians in Gaza to move south temporarily for their safety. The Israeli army accused Hamas of using civilian areas for military purposes, widening its air and ground attacks.

The death toll in Gaza has risen significantly, with a disproportionate impact on women and children. The UN General Assembly called for an immediate humanitarian truce, a resolution supported by 120 states but rejected by Israel.

Gaza's 2.3 million residents face severe shortages of essentials due to the ongoing conflict and blockade.

Pro Israeli remarks trigger walkout at IPU meeting

The inaugural speech at the 147th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in Luanda, Angola, drew an angry reaction from several Muslim delegations that deemed President Duarte Pacheco’s remarks in favor of the Israeli regime unjust and misleading.

On Monday the president, who is wrapping up his three-year term, kicked off his speech by commenting on “Israel’s right to defend itself”, referring to the regime’s heavy and relentless bombardment of Gaza in recent days.

The attacks have so far resulted in the death of more than 5,000 people, with children making up half of the casualties. Israel has also begun a full siege of the territory not allowing any food, water, fuel, and medicine inside Gaza. 

Delegations from South Africa, Iran, Kuwait, Palestine, Algeria, and some other Muslim countries reportedly walked out of the opening ceremony after a member of the Iranian delegation shouted “Israel is a terrorist entity” to protest the president’s remarks. 

The Parliamentary delegations returned to the ceremony once the speech was over and once again voiced their strong opposition to the rhetoric against the Palestinian Resistance. 

After the incident, Pacheco’s past interactions with the regime were brought to the limelight. The IPU president, who is supposed to represent 179 parliaments from around the world, visited the occupied territories in 2021 a year after being elected. 

During an interview with Israeli media, the official expressed regret that the IPU has chosen to condemn the regime at some instances. “I regret that there are such condemnations against Israel, because I don’t believe that they contribute to a spirit of dialogue,” he said while talking to the Jewish News Syndicate. 

Pacheco was also called a true friend of Israel during a meeting with the Knesset speaker Mickey Levy.