CAIRO: Israel faced growing international pressure on Wednesday (Feb 14) to hold off on a planned assault on the last refuge for displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza after truce talks in Cairo ended inconclusively.
Officials said Tuesday's talks were constructive and would continue, but the lack of an immediate breakthrough fuelled fears among hundreds of thousands of people crammed into Rafah that Israel would soon storm the city on the border with Egypt.
Adding to their concerns, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas, which runs Gaza, had presented no new offer for a hostage deal in the Cairo talks, and said Israel would not agree to the Palestinian group's current demands.
Tensions also rose along Israel's northern border with Lebanon on Wednesday. Israel said a woman was killed in a rocket attack from Lebanon, and four people were reported killed in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military says it wants to flush out Islamist militants from hideouts in Rafah and free hostages being held there after the Hamas rampage in Israel on Oct 7, but has given no details of a proposed plan to evacuate civilians.
"The news was disappointing, we hoped there could be a deal reached in Cairo. We are now counting down the days before Israel sends in tanks. We hope they don't but who can prevent them?" Said Jaber, a Gaza businessman who is sheltering in Rafah with his family, told Reuters via a chat app.
Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization representative for Gaza and the West Bank, said an assault on Rafah would be "an unfathomable catastrophe... and would even further expand the humanitarian disaster beyond imagination."
French President Emmanuel Macron raised similar concerns in a phone call on Wednesday with Mr Netanyahu, the president's office said, saying further forced displacements of people could also bring regional escalation.
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2024-02-14 17:52:53Z
CBMibWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vd29ybGQvcHJlc3N1cmUtbW91bnRzLWlzcmFlbC1ub3QtYXR0YWNrLXBhbGVzdGluaWFucy1sYXN0LWdhemEtcmVmdWdlLTQxMjM5MTHSAQA
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