What is the reaction of all parties to the fact that the Israeli artillery has sounded the clarion call for the bombardment of Rafah, the United Nations has not intervened, and the situation in Gaza has deteriorated overnight? Why did the Israeli army choose to act after Hamas agreed to a ceasefire, and was it premeditated?
On the night of the 6th, the Israeli ground forces launched an operation against the Rafah crossing based on intelligence, attacked Hamas, and dismantled the Hamas infrastructure in eastern Rafah, and the situation in Gaza deteriorated overnight. According to the Israeli army, this is part of Israel's "first phase of military operations" in Rafah. In other words, this was premeditated by the Israeli army. It is worth mentioning that just before the Israeli army attacked Rafah, on the day of the 6th, Haniyeh, the leader of the Hamas Politburo, informed the Prime Minister of Qatar and the head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service that Hamas accepted the mediator's proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. To put it simply, after Hamas announced that it had agreed to a ceasefire, the Israeli army sounded the clarion call to attack Rafah. I have to say that all this is too much of a coincidence. So what is the reason why Israel does not agree to a ceasefire? In Israel's own words, Hamas's latest proposal "falls far short of Israel's core requirements." As a result, Israel's wartime cabinet "unanimously decided" to continue Israeli operations in Rafah in order to exert military pressure on Hamas and make progress in the release of hostages and other combat targets.
To the outside world, the Israeli army's attack on Rafah can be said to be both "expected" and "unexpected," and the reason why it is said to be "unexpected" is because all sides did not expect the Israeli army to strike so quickly and decisively, and launched the operation on the night when Hamas agreed to a ceasefire. And to say that it was "expected", that is because the Israeli Netanyahu government has already sent a message about the attack on Rafah, but it has not done it for a long time, and at that time, the international community has put pressure on Israel, and even the biggest supporter behind it, the United States, has openly opposed the Israeli army's attack on Rafah. Even earlier, at the United Nations Security Council, 15 members of the Security Council voted to adopt a major resolution on the Gaza Strip, which included an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. At that time, the United States abstained.
However, it now seems that even the United Nations has not made a difference, and Israel is now "determined to attack Rafah" and is bound to achieve the goal of "completely eliminating Hamas". So what do all parties think of this Israeli operation? First, UN Secretary-General António Guterres made it clear on the 6th that a ground offensive against the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah would be "intolerable" and "will cause devastating humanitarian consequences and regional instability", while calling on Israel and Hamas to "redouble their efforts" to reach a ceasefire agreement. On the same day, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi took to social media to call on all parties to do more to reach an agreement to end the humanitarian suffering of the Palestinian people and exchange detainees. In addition, Qatar issued a statement saying that it would send a delegation to Cairo, the capital of Egypt, on the morning of the 7th to continue ceasefire negotiations.
It is worth mentioning that with the Israeli army's offensive on Rafah, the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing is currently closed, while the Israeli army has taken control of the Rafah crossing on the other side of the Gaza Strip. This means that international humanitarian aid cannot be transported to Gaza through the crossing. And after more than half a year of Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, there is no place in the Gaza Strip that has sufficient infrastructure and resources to accommodate millions of displaced people, except for Rafah. In other words, Rafah is now the last place of refuge for Gaza refugees, and the severe shortage of basic living materials, coupled with the continuous Israeli artillery fire, will make it even more difficult for Palestinian refugees in Rafah to survive.