Satellite photos show a vast array of tents being set up near the southern Gaza city of Rafah ahead of an imminent ground invasion by Israeli troops which could become an “apocalyptic situation”.
After fending off a barrage from Iran that threatened to ignite another conflict in the region, the Israeli military has set its focus to an area in Gaza where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering from the war.
Israel claim the southern city is Hamas’ last stronghold in Gaza, with the nation’s Hayom newspaper saying troops will spill into the city “very soon”.
The imminent ground assault would prompt an “apocalyptic situation”, Jan Egeland, the boss of the Norwegian Refugee Councol claimed, called Rafah the “largest displacement camp on Earth”.
The UN has also warned Israel that Palestinians civilians will need to be evacuated before the fighting commences.
New satellite images showing tents popping up on the city’s edges led some experts to say they were in preparation for the ground assault.
But a Palestinian health official claims the tent camps, which are visible from space, are being set up to house displaced people who are now sheltering in a hospital and are unrelated to an imminent assault.
Another new tent compound was spotted under construction near the city of Khan Younis, prompting speculation civilians could be tranferred there before the Rafah offensive.
Former Israeli intelligence official Yossi Kuperwasser says an invasion of Rafah “would not be a simple operation, but it is clearly doable”, pointing to the “extensive empty areas around Rafah” where civilians could be relocated as the military rolls through pursuing Hamas fighters.
Israel is also spurred on by a belief the vast majority of the 133 hostages kidnapped on October 7 are being held in the city.
The operation, confirmed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in April, is expected to take up to six weeks.
“It will happen. There is a date,” he said.
“There is no force in the world that will stop us. There are many forces that are trying to do so, but it will not help since this enemy, after what it did, will never do it again.”
But aid workers and foreign governments critical of the ongoing campaign are warning of a catastrophe should Israeli troops invade Rafah.
Humanitarian organisations are continually dropping aid packages to the embattled civilian population, but the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has warned it’s barely “drop in the ocean” of what’s needed.
Half of Gaza’s population is currently starving and the situation on the ground is certain to get worse with no end in sight to the now six-month conflict.
That reason alone has prompted pushback from foreign officials, who argue against moving countless civilians who have already fled a hot zone to more temporary camps.
“We don’t want to see Palestinians evacuated from Rafah unless it is to return to their homes,” US Department of State spokesman, Matthew Miller said on Monday.
“There’s no way to conduct an operation in Rafah that would not lead to inordinate civilian harm and would severely hamper the delivery of humanitarian assistance.”
The Israeli government remains staunch in its mission to eradicate the existing military power in Palestine, despite ongoing pressure from international powers. The US has continued to pledge support, but has heavily criticised the needlessly high death toll.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,183 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Strikes on the area continue to put the population at risk, with three people killed and several wounded in an attack on a home in Rafah recently.
The Nuseirat refugee camp has also come under heavy fire, with five people from one family killed in a recent strike.
‘Brink of collapse’
Amnesty International has warned the post-World War II order is on the “brink of collapse”, threatened by bitter conflict on multiple fronts to the rapid and unregulated rise of artificial intelligence.
“Everything we’re witnessing over the last 12 months is indicating that the international global system is on the brink of collapse,” Amnesty’s secretary-general Agnes Callamard told AFP as the group released its annual “State of the World’s Human Rights” report.
“In particular, over the last six months, the United States has shielded and protected the Israeli authorities against scrutiny for the multiple violations committed in Gaza,” she said.
“By using its veto against a much-needed ceasefire, the United States has emptied out the (United Nations) Security Council of what it should be doing.”
The global rights monitor said that Hamas had carried out “horrific crimes” on Israeli communities bordering Gaza but that Israel had responded with “a campaign of collective punishment”.
“It is a campaign of deliberate, indiscriminate bombings of civilians and civilian infrastructure, of denial of humanitarian assistance and an engineered famine,” Callamard wrote in her foreword to the report.
“For millions the world over, Gaza now symbolises utter moral failure by many of the architects of the post-World War Two system,” she said.
Despite pushback from all levels of power in the US, Washington has now approved a $13 billion military aid package to Israel as the war continues.
Israel’s foreign minister on Wednesday thanked the US Senate for sending “strong message” to their enemies.
“I thank the US Senate for passing the Israel aid package tonight with an overwhelming bipartisan majority,” Israel Katz posted on social media site X shortly after the US Congress gave its final approval to the aid package.
“The Israel aid package that now passed both houses of Congress is a clear testament to the strength of our alliance and sends a strong message to all our enemies,” Katz added.
He also thanked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell “for your unwavering commitment to Israel’s security. The Israel-US strategic partnership is unbreakable”.