Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
Egypt and Saudi Arabia have warned Israel against launching a ground operation in the area of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where more than 1,3 million Palestinians are reportedly taking shelter.
“There is limited space and great risk in putting Rafah under further military escalation due to the growing number of Palestinians there,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on February 10 during a press briefing, warning that an escalation would have “dire consequences.”
The Wall Street Journal reported on the same day that Egyptian officials warned the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel could be suspended if Israeli troops enter Rafah, or if any of Rafah’s refugees are forced southward into the Sinai Peninsula.
Reuters also reported that Egypt has over the past two weeks stationed some 40 tanks near its border with Gaza, after having reinforced the border wall since the beginning of hostilities, both structurally and with surveillance equipment. The measures are meant to forestall a massive influx of refugees.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia issued a statement on February 10 warning of “the extremely dangerous repercussions of storming and targeting the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip,” given the city being “the last refuge for hundreds of thousands of people.”
On February 9, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he had ordered the Israeli military to present the cabinet with a plan to both evacuate civilians from Rafah and destroy Hamas’s four remaining battalions in the area.
According to Netanyahu, a ground operation in Rafah is critical to completing Israel’s stated war aim of dismantling Hamas.
The prime minister, according to a report by Israel’s Israel’s Channel 12, thinks that the Israeli military would need to wrap up a Rafah campaign by the March 10 start of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.
Hamas warned in a statement released on February 10 that any military action in Rafah would have catastrophic repercussions that “may lead to tens of thousands of martyrs and injured,” for which the group would hold “the American administration, international community and the Israeli occupation” responsible.
As Netanyahu continues to ignore the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, the battle of Rafah appears to be nearing. The consequences of the Israeli attack on the heavily-populated area could extend throughout the Middle East and even beyond.
what‘s russia‘s position on this? surely, they, and china, could do much more to stop the genocide. so far, both seem to have done precious little.
rus and chn are nuclear p*ssypowers. chn is interested in trade with murika /eu, it won’t rock the boat no matter how many plstns die. p’s puke inducing history lessons, via a cia medium, aim to appease and accomodate the mighty yoosa-which-must-be-obeyed.
brics should cut loose both these yoosa-vassal p*ssypowers that have no interest at all in challenging the murikan hegemon.
neither will do a thing. this, people, is the new mp world. every man for himself. strange though that russia would mark yemen as terrorists, abide by sanctions on iran, yemen and syria…but do anything to israel? not for palestinians lives. no economic threats, boycotts, embargoes, no anything but bad words? if palestinians are wiped out, they don’t care. but if israel dies, they get their zionists back. there is more to this than meets the eye.
i have to agree and i support russia in their fight against the empire, not just those countries either, by now an arab army could have entered gaza from egypt to stop this genocide,also a international naval task force could have broken the blockade of gaza and forced their way in to carry aid and back it up with military force, the time for warnings is over.
‘rus in their fight against the empire’
what fight is that? failing to take the donbass? being fooled time and again by the west’s transparent tricks and lies (kv withdrawal, minsk accords, nto membership, budapest protocols etc)? failing to protect syr? failure to support gaza? tckr clsn cia interrog ffs!!
that ain’t fighting yoosa, it’s enabling it.
don’t forget the israel nukes. any arab nation leader has his own cities and people and even themselves, their home and family, a nuke is a big stick.
the usa and uk countries that most martyr jews for their nazi oppression are the first to enact the same atrocities on the palestinians in a grand display of their ultimate hypocrisy .
egypt saudi iran blah blah blah…the muslim “world” is subdued by the evil hollow co$t cult’s dying golem. except the trinity of resistance; the gallant heroes of hezbollah, the indefatigable warriors of hamas and the wonderful, fun loving houthi brothers… all the rest you can “drive them into the sea” and obviously the khazar demon will do so when it is finished making the desert boom and has annihilated the semitic people of gaza.
iran is also the gayest islamic country today. 100% trashtalk, zero percent no action required.
israel has nukes that can flatten cairo and riyadh and is backed by the most aggressive violent government in the world; usa. what can egypt or saudi arabia seriously do, that does not threaten their own people with horrible retaliation from israel?
nuclear deterrents in the muslim world is the answer
yeah, right. israel will use their nukes, if they are going to, no matter what. the rest of islamic countries having nukes won’t scare them if they are going down. all using nukes will do is dirty the entire area for quite some time for everyone left. why do you think iran doesn’t want one? the only usefulness would be if they had icbms to attack other continents…like n america and europe. why ruin their own area?
nukes on both sides help a war stay conventional and limited with negotiated end, as both sides know if the otherside is cornered, it could use its nukes. but when one side only has nukes, they do not give a shit what level of violence they go to, hence the savage massacre israel state does now.
maybe, maybe not. israel lies. yes, they have nukes. but they would have to be on the verge of total destruction. neither the us or even uk would allow their use. they would have to launch against all odds and it would also be the true end of their experiment…not to mention destroy the entire world economy. having a deterrent doesn’t mean you use it, it’s value is as a threat. once used, there is no more deterrent and likely no more israel. those nukes also target europe it is said.
egypt and saudi arabia can stop all their trading with israel
true. if turkey did it as well, that would be massive pressure on israel.
israel is even more dependent on outside sources for its economic needs than germany, so, boycott and sanctions would definitely get their attention or else they would be heading towards yemen-hood themselves.
do it!!!
if israel used nukes, it would secure it’s own destruction. the response from the arab world and others will not be to merely condemn, it will unleash a devastation never before seen and israel will be one of those to be most negatively affected and almost certainly devastated. frankly, i couldn’t think of a more stupid thing for israel to do right now.
all good points. the israel nukes still stop egypt, saudi arabia from escalating in a serious way to deter israel. although a trade blockade should ave been tried, as many posts have suggested.
russia and china can threaten to flatten israel if that happens and nuclear fallout doesn’t respect borders, so if those zionist nutter use a nuke on egypt the fallout could and would contaminate israel, the fact is the saudis and egypt just don’t have the balls to do anything or they would have.
i especially like meet tratz crazy canuck in tel aviv gay bar
the cancer in the region is not going to end well. peace treaties with jordan and egypt are going to get ripped up soon
why did they have any in the first place?
fat annual aid bribes from usa were part of the treaties. $4bn per year for egypt mostly low military grade stuff so the egypt government can suppress the local population, but not threaten its neighbours. this has pissed of president sissi so has looked to buy military stuff from elsewhere like france and russia.
not so fast- what keeps those treaties effective is the wads of american dollars passed around to the ruling elites of egypt and jordan as part of the deal. they ain’t giving that up easily…
israel’s leadership is dead set on committing violent crimes and will not listen to reason. in this case only forceful measures will be effective against them.
it’s wrong to give evil people a chance over and over at the expense of the innocent and good.
warning about glue and senility cannot fix stupid
while we all would like to see israel get it’s due, there is reality. the biggest obstacle is states like ksa qatar, bahrain, etc. all they need to do is turn off the taps. the west would force israel to capitulate. but these cowards are still owned, they are waiting for ‘the usual’. for hamas to fail, israel win and then the return to business as usual. they don’t even have to fire a shot. but they don’t care about palestine, only their ability to do business.
indeed, and all the “countries” you mentioned have regimes in place that are in power as a result of british and us interference, this is why they behave as they do, very infuriating, same for morocco even though it’s much farther away.
bit unfortunate that by their statements, egypt appears to be more worried by the possible influx of refugees then by the fact that thousands of innocent people, women and children are being massacred on their doorstep! same for jordan!
that’s it, i’m dead.
plot twist:
ismael haniyeh’s son was reportedly killed! what a sad day to start our ramadan
the one that needs to protect the plstns are the arab-muslim countries.
why arent egypt and sa on the phone with the hamasians telling them to surrender. seems like both countries are backing hamas against israel….?