Tuesday, February 13, 2024

On Our "Virtual Route 66" This Week

 


We present the following  as we look forward to the continued privilege to serve :    



Israel continued to launch airstrikes in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah on Monday, while preparing for a ground assault in the face of growing international objections.
 

  • The Israel Defense Forces appear poised to launch an all-out assault on Rafah, where about half of Gaza’s population is now sheltering after months of bombardment in the North, following a brutal commando rescue operation that killed 74 people there. As a result of the operation, Israel freed two Israeli-Argentine hostages on Monday, the first of the October 7 hostages being held by Hamas released through military action, as opposed to a prisoner swap. 
     

  • In four months of the conflict, much of Gaza has been flattened, and 28,340 Palestinians have been killed there, according to Gaza health officials. Almost 68,000 people are wounded, those officials say, and many more are believed to be buried under the rubble. The Israeli military says 31 of the hostages have died over the course of that period. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that the rescue of the two hostages (out of the 100 estimated to remain in Hamas captivity) demonstrates that military pressure should continue, and rebuffed international alarm at the plans for a ground assault on Rafah.
     

  • Israel reportedly proposed the creation of sprawling tent cities in Gaza as part of its evacuation plan, to be funded by the United States and its partners in the Arab Gulf ahead of the invasion. The proposal was sent to Egypt in recent days, just as the Biden administration was warning Israel against proceeding into Rafah, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing Egyptian officials. Cairo has reportedly said that it would suspend the 1979 peace treaty with Israel if Palestinians crossed the border from Rafah to flee an Israeli offensive. Netanyahu declined to comment on the proposal.

The U.S., UN and International Criminal Court are all raising warnings about the looming invasion of Rafah, and urging Israel to exercise greater restraint. 
 


Shortly after speaking with President Biden, King Abdullah II of Jordan—home to a large population of Palestinian refugees and their descendants—again called for an immediate ceasefire. “We cannot afford an Israeli attack on Rafah,” he said. “It is certain to produce another humanitarian catastrophe.”