Rafah bombarded as Israel plans ground assault

Al Jazeera contributor Ahmed Abdullah Mohsen has described the moments Israeli forces launched strikes on Rafah overnight.

“The screaming and wailing nearly drowned out the warplanes that covered the sky, dropping barrages in a fiery belt that crushed the bodies of the displaced in their tents. About 20 minutes of explosions lit the night like something from an artificial Hollywood film,” he said.

Mohsen said “the displaced and the injured fled en masse to the Kuwaiti Hospital, the only one open in the Shaboura area”.

“A doctor in the hospital helped a child who was taking his last breath to utter the final prayer … Ahmed Abu Al-Hinud saw his mother’s body lying on a hospital gurney. He held her body close and seemed to lose consciousness for an hour of uncontrollable terror and shock,” he said.

Mohsen said “amidst overwhelming anger and a sense of helplessness, the director of the Kuwaiti Hospital, Dr Suhaib Al-Hams, called out to the world to stop sending medicines to treat COVID, which some countries who want to give the impression they have helped Gaza have done”.

• Israel’s war on Gaza to continue until ‘total victory over Hamas’: Netanyahu to Rutte

  Meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Israeli army “will not leave the terror battalions alone in Rafah”.

  Rutte, who is visiting Israel for the third time since October 7, is also scheduled to meet war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, and Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.

  Rutte warned on X that an Israeli invasion of Rafah would have “catastrophic humanitarian consequences”, and called for an immediate ceasefire that culminates in a “lasting end” to the conflict, including a “viable Palestinian state, next to a safe Israel”.

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  UK sanctions on four illegal Israeli settlers ‘long overdue’: Palestinian ambassador

  Husam Zomlot has said the United Kingdom’s sanctioning of four Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank is a “welcome step in the right direction” nonetheless, urging the UK government to impose an arms embargo on Israel.

  “However, all settlements are illegal and all settlers should be treated accordingly. All settlement products and companies profiting from them must be sanctioned. An immediate arms embargo is a legal obligation on the UK government and is urgently needed to stop the genocide in Gaza,” he said.

  “This must be followed by sanctions on all Israeli officials and military personnel who are carrying out the genocide in Gaza and the ongoing aggression all over the occupied Palestinian territory.”

  The United States also recently announced sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

   

  Israel blacklists UN Special Rapporteur over ‘oppression’ remarks: Ministers

  The UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories has been refused a visa for months but now she will be banned from Israel, according to Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Interior Minister Moshe Arbel.

  In a joint statement, the ministers said the announcement comes following Albanese’s comment a day earlier that the October 7 attacks were a “response to Israel’s oppression”.

  “The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression,” she wrote on X, responding to a Le Monde newspaper post reporting on French President Emmanuel Macron honouring the victims of the attack.

  UNRWA reports outbreaks of Hepatitis A, alarmingly high rates of diarrhea in Rafah

  Thomas White, the Gaza chief of the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, has said UNRWA has seen alarmingly high rates of diarrhea, which can be deadly if there is not enough clean water, in addition to outbreaks of Hepatitis A.

  “These are the result of a million people jammed into a pretty small area without access to sanitation,” White said, adding that the conditions in Rafah were grim.

  “Hundreds of thousands of people are digging a hole in the sand adjacent to where they’re living, and that’s where they are defecating,” he said.

  As an Israeli invasion of Rafah becomes imminent, White said: “The reality of having a million people move in the Gaza Strip into areas that are not set up to accommodate them. Many of them will have to leave the shelters they have constructed here [Rafah] and we will have hundreds of thousands of people living in the open again.”

  Netanyahu expected to use captives release mission to ‘justify’ Rafah invasion

  The captive release operation in Rafah is hailed in Israel as a massive success, a rescue mission even though there were 67 Palestinians who were killed as a result of the diversion bombardment. …

  … After this operation, Netanyahu reiterated that the military pressure is the only way to win the war and bring back the captives.

  The Rafah mission showed once again what damage and death the Israelis are willing to inflict to try to get some of their military goals accomplished.

  Netanyahu is surely going to be using this operation to justify the ground offensive on Rafah. He will say there are captives there and the army has to go in.

  • Here’s a quick recap

    It’s just after just after 3pm (13:00 GMT) on Monday, February 12, in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.

    Here are some of the main developments today:

    • Dozens of people reported killed in Israel’s operation for the two hostages rescued in Rafah, as witnesses recount the night as “terrifying”.
    • Israeli snipers have killed seven people and wounded 14 on the premises of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza’s health ministry says.
    • Israeli security forces have arrested at least 35 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since Sunday night.
    • Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will press for the Rafah offensive to free more captives from Gaza.
    • Israel has called on UN relief agencies to help with its efforts to evacuate civilians from Gaza war zones before the Rafah operation.