Follow-up – Al-Rashid
France issued a statement calling for an end to hostilities in the Gaza Strip, and warned of the risk of a humanitarian catastrophe in Rafah if Israel launched a large-scale attack on the city.
The French Foreign Ministry said: “The large-scale Israeli attack on Rafah would create a new and unjustified catastrophic humanitarian situation, and to avoid the catastrophe, we once again call for a cessation of hostilities.”
Paris called on Tel Aviv to take concrete measures to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip, and stressed that the future of the Gaza Strip and its residents will only be possible in light of peaceful coexistence between the Palestinian state and Israel.
The Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported last Friday evening that the Israeli army had approved a military operation in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.
The newspaper pointed out that preparations for an operation in Rafah began weeks ago, and the army has already agreed to a plan that includes the necessity of evacuating displaced Palestinians.
It is noteworthy that Rafah is a small city along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, and due to Israeli military operations, it has become the last refuge for about 1.4 million Gazans, according to the United Nations, most of whom were displaced from other places in Gaza.
The war broke out in the Gaza Strip on October 7 after Hamas attacked towns in Israel, which it said killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages to Gaza.
Israel responded with a major bombing and ground attack, which has so far resulted in the death of more than 28,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to medical authorities in Gaza.
