Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly rejected the recent statements by senior Israeli officials about their plans for a military operation in Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip.
In a statement on Sunday, Egypt warned of serious consequences of such actions, especially given the risk of worsening the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
This came after Israel announced its preparation for a military action in Rafah.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said that in the past 24 hours, the Israeli occupation committed 14 massacres against civilians, killing 112 and injuring 173, bringing the death toll of the Israeli aggression since October 7 to 28,176 and the injured to 67,784.
Also on Sunday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said that the Israeli occupation army attacked the main gate of Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Yunis, damaging the building and disabling the only remaining vehicle in the hospital.
The organization added that the occupation army blocked the entry of oxygen into Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Yunis for more than a week, which resulted in the death of three patients, denying that the occupation allowed medical equipment into the hospital.
The Israeli occupation army had claimed to deliver some oxygen cylinders and medical equipment to the besieged Al-Amal Hospital.
In a statement, the Red Crescent said that it got approval on Friday to provide oxygen to the hospital after great pressure. It added: “The Red Crescent ambulance brought 25 oxygen cylinders from Nasser Hospital, and the occupation asked to place them at the closest point to the hospital, claiming that it would deliver them. The next day, the occupation forces placed only 21 oxygen cylinders in front of the hospital building.”
Regarding medical equipment, the Red Crescent confirmed that during its raid on the hospital yesterday, the Israeli occupation destroyed medical devices and equipment inside the hospital, and assaulted its staff before arresting nine of them.
The Red Crescent also said that the Israeli occupation continues to prevent the entry of fuel needed to run the electricity generators in the hospital, even though the fuel stock is about to run out in two days, which threatens to stop it from working as it remains under siege for the twenty-first day in a row.
In the meantime, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club announced that the occupation arrested 12 Palestinians in the West Bank on Saturday, and said that the number of detainees in the West Bank has increased to 6,950 since October 7.
In the same context, Tamara Al-Rifai, the spokeswoman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA), said that “danger is looming” in light of the threat of the Israeli occupation forces targeting the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip, where displaced people are gathered.
Al-Rifai said that there was no other place for people to go to in the far south of the Strip, and stressed that launching an operation on Rafah would mean killing more people.
On the other hand, the UNRWA spokeswoman said that her agency has not received any evidence or proof of Israel’s accusations that some of its employees were involved in the attack by the Palestinian resistance on 7 October.
Catherine Russell, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), posted on the “X” platform, calling for the protection of about 1.3 million civilians in Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip. She noted that it has become one of the most densely populated places on Earth due to the war on Gaza.
Russell asked: “How many children will die before this nightmare in the Gaza Strip ends?” while commenting on the killing of Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old girl, in Gaza City.
Meanwhile, the Al-Aqsa TV Channel, affiliated with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), quoted a leading source in the movement, saying that any attack by the Israeli occupation army on Rafah would sabotage the negotiations to exchange prisoners and detainees. The source indicated that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of the Israeli occupation government, was trying to avoid the obligations of the exchange deal by committing genocide and a new humanitarian disaster in Rafah.
Furthermore, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the movement, said that the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip in the past 96 hours killed two Israeli prisoners and seriously injured eight others.
It said, in a brief statement, that the wounded prisoners’ conditions were worsening due to the lack of proper treatment, and held Israel fully accountable for their lives amid the ongoing bombing.
