Israel’s Prime Minister Said There’s “Plenty Of Areas” For Palestinians To Evacuate After Pushing Them To Rafah
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview that there are “plenty of areas” in the north of Rafah for 1.4 million Palestinians to evacuate to.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended plans for the country’s military to invade Rafah in the south of Gaza, where 1.4 million Palestinians are trapped, saying that there are “plenty of areas” in the north of Rafah for them to evacuate to.
Netanyahu announced the plan for a ground invasion of Rafah in the south of Gaza on Feb. 7, saying that the area – which it had previously declared as a “safe zone” – was the “last stronghold of Hamas”.
The announcement was met with massive opposition by the UN, Egypt, and even the US – Israel’s closest ally – as about 1.4 million Palestinians are currently crammed into makeshift tents in Rafah after Israel ordered them to evacuate there for their safety.
Rafah, at the border with Egypt, is now the most densely populated place on earth, with about 22,000 people per square kilometer.
Despite the opposition, Netanyahu declared on Saturday, Feb. 10, that Israel was going ahead with a ground offensive in Rafah, saying that it was working on a plan to evacuate civilians.
Appearing on an interview with ABC News a day later on Sunday, Feb. 11, Netanyahu was asked by presenter Jonathan Karl where the 1.4 million Palestinians are supposed to go.
Netanyahu then replied that Rafah is only a small percentage of Gaza.
“There’s an estimated 1.4 million people in that area right now. And as the German foreign minister said, they can’t just disappear. Where are they supposed to go?” Karl asked again.
Netanyahu then said that there are “plenty of areas” that Israel has cleared north of Rafah, adding that Israeli officials are working out a detailed plan for the evacuations.
“We’re not cavalier about this,” he said. “This is part of our war effort to get civilians out of harm’s way. It’s part of Hamas’s effort to keep them in harm’s way. But we’ve so far succeeded, and we’re going to succeed again.”
“Those who say that under no circumstances should we enter Rafah are basically saying, ‘lose the war, keep Hamas there,'” he said.
Karl then asked how many of the remaining 132 Israeli hostages Netanyahu thinks are alive.
“I think enough to warrant the kind of efforts that we’re doing. We’re going to try to do our best to get all those who are alive back and frankly, also the bodies of the dead. But I won’t go into that right now,” Netanyahu said.
Although it has yet to launch its ground invasion, Israel has already begun bombing Rafah, killing at least 67 people with early morning airstrikes on Monday, Feb. 12, while it aired a series of ads about its war on Gaza to bring hostages home during the Super Bowl.
