Rafah crossing; The new target of Israel’s war machine

Mehr News Agency, International Group: After advancing in the north and parts of the central parts of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army has decided to use the pretext of destroying the four battalions of Ezzeddin al-Qassam and freeing the prisoners. Israeli troops attack the Rafah crossing. In recent days, the Zionists were able to find two of their prisoners in the Rafah region, and get the necessary excuse to attack the last refuge of Palestinian refugees and the only safe place to send humanitarian aid. The new round of attacks by the Zionist regime was accompanied by a negative reaction from the international community, and most of the influential actors in the Palestinian crisis called for the cessation of these operations. The western neighbor of the Gaza Strip, Egypt, has also reacted to the new decision of Netanyahu’s right-wing cabinet by deploying defense systems in the north of the Sinai desert and threatening Tel Aviv to suspend the peace agreement. In the continuation of this note, we will try to analyze the causes of the Israeli army’s planning to attack Rafah and its consequences for the Zionist regime, Egypt and the international community.

Why is Rafah important?

More than 130 days have passed since the air-ground aggression of the Israeli army to the Gaza strip with the aim of countering the threat of the Hamas movement, but the Israeli national emergency cabinet has still not been able to achieve goals such as “the complete destruction of Hamas”. , “freedom of captives” and “change in the geopolitical situation of Gaza” and this issue has caused the expansion of the scope of the Zionists’ aggression to different parts of Gaza. The border city of Rafah is of great importance for the connection between Gaza and the outside world due to hosting the border crossing and the Philadelphia axis. In recent years, in addition to being a place to meet Gaza’s internal needs, this area has also been used as a secret route for the transfer of all kinds of weapons and ammunition needed by the resistance.

Now, after four months of the Gaza war, a large part of the residents of the north-central areas of this strip were forced to go to the region to escape Israeli attacks and receive international aid. prosper According to “The Times of Israel” there are currently around 1.4 million Palestinians living in this area. Now, with Tel Aviv’s announcement of the deadline for starting military operations in Rafah, some of the residents of this area are returning to the north and central parts of this strip. It is interesting to note that the UN forces announced that they will not participate in the Rafah evacuation process due to the lack of a “safe point” in Gaza. Previously, in an interview with “ABC News”, Benjamin Netanyahu announced the regime’s commitment to create a “safe passage” for civilians to leave Rafah, but he did not give any explanation about the security of other parts of Gaza and the fate of the people who took refuge at the border points.

Egyptian polynomial equation

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges for the Israeli army to start military operations in Rafah is the possible reaction of the al-Sisi government. Due to the geographical proximity of the Gaza Strip to the Sinai desert, Egypt is extremely worried about the (possible) sending of waves of refugees to the other side of the border. Although the Israeli government has announced plans to transfer Palestinian refugees to the center of the Gaza Strip, a serious scenario could be the sudden transfer of a part of the civilian population of Gaza to Egypt. Accordingly, during the last week, Cairo has warned against the start of Zionist operations in southern Gaza and has even threatened that this action could lead to the suspension of the Cairo-Tel Aviv peace agreement.

Before this, Tel Aviv repeatedly exchanged messages with Cairo to get a green light to start ground operations in the Philadelphia axis and to replace Israeli forces with Egyptian border guards. . The Zionist regime claims that it is one of the main arteries for the transfer of equipment and people to the Gaza Strip, and Israel has no choice but to occupy this area to complete the siege of the resistance. Netanyahu has officially announced that the failure of the Israeli army to enter Rafah will mean the complete failure of the regime’s military operations in Gaza. It seems that the Israeli army is planning to invade the south of the Gaza Strip and deploy its forces in the border strip with Egypt, to bring under its control the artery for the transfer of goods and people to this strip.

Supporters of Israel against Netanyahu!

While the United States and the European Troika, along with Doha-Cairo, sought to reach the point of a ceasefire and the release of prisoners in political negotiations, the movement of the Israeli army towards Rafah and Combat action for the release of Zionist prisoners caused the suspension of negotiations by Hamas. Before the Palestinian Islamic resistance, with the conditional acceptance of the Paris proposal, it had called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, exchange of prisoners, receiving valid guarantees and finally a comprehensive road map for the reconstruction of this Palestinian region. The efforts of the Biden government to end the war in occupied Palestine and on the other side Netanyahu’s destructive actions to continue the war in Gaza have caused the American president to describe the recent movements of the Israeli army in Gaza as “excessive” and Netanyahu as a “stupid” person in the process. Introduce war management.

According to the report published in the media, it seems that Biden, like many analysts, believes that Netanyahu is seeking to erode the war process in order to remain in power. Before this, the three countries of England, Germany and France also issued diplomatic statements warning about the occurrence of a “human disaster” in Gaza. The adoption of such positions by the senior officials of Washington, London and Brussels shows the increasing international pressure to end the war in Gaza.

During the recent weeks, the foreign policy team of the Biden administration has simultaneously three cases of ceasefire in Gaza, the declaration of the existence of the Palestinian state and the normalization of Tel Aviv-Riyadh relations on its agenda. Has set. Experts on international issues believe that by ending the Gaza war, the Democrats intend to sell Hebrew-Arab peace to the public opinion in America as a great achievement of Biden in the field of foreign policy, while escaping the consequences of the continuation of the war in occupied Palestine. In this scenario, the most important obstacle facing the US government is Netanyahu’s insistence on continuing the military aggression against Gaza and his refusal to accept the framework of normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia. Now we have to wait and see if the political pressure of Washington on Tel Aviv will be able to change this regime’s opinion about stopping the war in Gaza and accepting the idea of ​​two states or not? The return of the top US and Israeli negotiators to Cairo and the outcome of the ceasefire talks can determine the answer to this key question.

Bahre Sakhan

The lack of tangible achievements in the field by the Israeli army has caused the right-wing cabinet of Netanyahu and the regime army to expand the scope of the military attack to different parts of Gaza and escalate the level of tensions. be on the northern front. Adopting such a policy is in line with Netanyahu’s plan to “stay in power”. The failure of the Israeli army to stop in the south of Gaza can be a prelude to completing the blockade of this Palestinian area, weakening the resistance groups and making Gaza uninhabitable for civilians. On this basis, it is necessary for the international community to create a united front and approve a ceasefire resolution in the Security Council with the aim of stopping Israeli military operations in Rafah. In the draft of this proposed resolution, attention should be paid to issues such as the economic embargo of the Zionist regime as a deterrent tool. The occupation of this region by Israel will not only endanger the interests of the resistance but also the interests of Arab countries and even Western governments in the region.

Mohammed Bayat; Expert on West Asian issues