Mirna Fahmy – Diplomatic Inside

The deferred Rafah military operation has tantalised many political, fateful, and consequential concerns for the Gazan people and other involved parties.

After two months at tenterhooks for the anticipated military operation by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) on the Palestinian Rafah to evict the remaining Hamas shelters in the tunnels, the IDF torched its ambush on Monday, May 6, 2024, in East Rafah.

In the early morning of that day, the IDF has called on the Palestinian civilian population through published warnings that they usually spread to notify the citizens about their next move, to temporarily evacuate from the eastern neighbourhoods of the Rafah area to the expanded humanitarian zone.

Explaining further on their social media accounts, the IDF has been expanding the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, which includes field hospitals, tents, and large quantities of food, water, medicine, and other supplies. In cooperation with some international organisations and other countries, the IDF also allows the expansion of the humanitarian aid that is brought into the Strip.

To acclaim a total victory of the seven-months prolonged war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ascertains to destroy the Islamic group’s military capabilities, ensuring there are no weaponizing epicentres in Gaza and releasing all the hostages of the October 7 attack.

“A massive ground attack in Rafah would lead to an epic humanitarian disaster and pull the plug on our efforts to support people as famine looms,” United Nations (UN) President Antonio Guterres said during a visit to Nairobi, adding that the situation in the southern Gaza city was “on a knife’s edge.”.

Israel says Rafah is Hamas’ last major stronghold in the Gaza Strip, after operations elsewhere dismantled 18 out of the militant group’s 24 battalions, according to the military. But even in northern Gaza, the first target of the offensive, Hamas has regrouped in some areas and continued to launch attacks.

It adds that Hamas has four battalions in Rafah and that it must send ground forces to topple them. Some senior militants could also be hiding in the city.

Since Rafah’s operation lasted less than 24 hours, the IDF has announced the killing of 20 militants and the discovery of three tunnels.

On-and-go ceasefires deal and Rafah operation deferred: 

Before the start of the Ramadan holy month, the IDF has announced several times that they will deploy their ground troops during this month. However, the operation was deferred in regards to interluding agreements to satisfy both Israel and Hamas, ending the Palestinian human crisis. At the very last minute of the Rafah pragmatic operation on May 6, Hamas leaders announced that they agreed to a ceasefire deal that had been under negotiation for weeks in the presence of mediating countries such as Egypt, Qatar, and the United States (US) in Cairo. The deal comprises a three-stage agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza and the exchange of detainees.

First stage: Ceasefire for 42 days. Hamas would release 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinians from Israeli prisons. Israel partially withdraws its forces from Gaza and allows the Palestinians freedom of movement from the south of the Strip to its north.

Second stage: Another 42-day period includes an agreement to restore “sustainable calm” in Gaza, a phrase that an official familiar with the talks said Hamas and Israel agreed to in order not to discuss a “permanent ceasefire.” Complete withdrawal of most Israeli forces from Gaza. Hamas shall release members of the Israeli reserve forces and some soldiers in exchange for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners.

Third stage: completing the exchange of bodies and beginning reconstruction according to a plan supervised by Qatar, Egypt, and the UN. Ending the complete siege on the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians were so happy about this deal that they went out in Rafah streets to celebrate, meaning that they were no longer forced to evacuate their lives.

Israel rejected this agreement, claiming it was a “watering down” of its terms especially when Hamas agreed at the very late moment. A leaked statement from the Israeli side has circulated on social media, showing a more hidden statement than what has been publicly disseminated.

Hamas will not object to the normalisation of relations between the Arab countries and the State of Israel and pledge to release all prisoners and detainees and stop the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip since October 7 in exchange for implementing agreed-upon items. Granting security guarantees to the leaders of the Hamas movement and pledging not to prosecute them legally. Financial compensation to the movement’s leaders should be lubricated, removing their names from the sanction’s lists. Opening a safe transit line for all Hamas leaders and their families to leave for Turkey with the guarantee of a third country. Returning confiscated funds and assets belonging to the Hamas movement and its leaders in a number of countries.

It is explained that this statement popped out after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Thani last month that Doha should expel Hamas’s leaders if the terror group continues to reject hostage deal proposals, according to a US official confirming reporting in the Washington Post.

Shredding down all sorts of deals, the Rafah operation was on the go, though it smoldered with an egregious attitude from thousands of the Israeli families of the hostages who have been protesting in Tel-Aviv for nights, urging Netanyahu to accept the deal to save as many lives as possible. The hard-headed PM and his officials deviated from this deal, emphasising that “this deal is deceiving and might lead to several further scenarios of October 7 attacks.”

Crossing lines with Egypt:

As planned, the other day, May 7, 2024, the IDF posted videos waving the Israeli flag in the Philadelphia Axis, which is also known as the Saladin Axis, Route, or Corridor. Israel annexed the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt. The crossing constitutes an extremely important outlet for the passage of aid into the Gaza Strip and the removal of war-wounded people. Humanitarian sources told Reuters that the flow of aid from the crossing had stopped. Now Israel besieges all the exits to and from Gaza.

This axis refers to a strip of land along the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip located within the buffer zone “D” under the peace agreement signed by Egypt and Israel in 1979. The peace agreement between Egypt and Israel imposes numerical and qualitative restrictions on the deployment of forces on both sides of the border carrying un-hefty weapons. Israel used to prevail in this area until it withdrew from Gaza and handed it over to the Palestinian Authority in 2005.

There are still terms that can be negotiated between the two states, Major General Muhammad Abdel Wahed, a researcher in national security and international relations, told Al-Arabiya channel. The terms can be glided based on agreements from both sides. Abdel Wahed emphasised more that Egypt used these terms in agreement with Israel in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2021 to increase the number of forces on its side of the axis to prevent the infiltration and smuggling operations of terrorists in the region.

At the strike of the operation, local newspapers reported that Egypt raised the level of military alert in the North Sinai.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on May 6, 2024, Egypt warned of the dangers of a possible Israeli military operation in the Palestinian Rafah region, southern Gaza, since this escalatory act entails grave humanitarian dangers, threatening more than one million Palestinians residing in this region.

Egypt called on Israel to exercise the utmost restraint and refrain from further escalation at this extremely sensitive time in the process of ceasefire negotiations, thus sparing the lives of Palestinian civilians who have been enduring an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe since the outbreak of the war against the Gaza Strip.

Gaza’s fate:

As the human crisis is quivering its suffocation day by day as homes, facilities, and needs are shattered, many Palestinians were either displaced or forced to flee. The Palestinian ambassador in Cairo, Diab Al-Louh, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) today that 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinians have arrived in Egypt from Gaza since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7. Those who are still strapped to the strip are always changing places based on directions from the IDF and the amenities they provide in specified parts. Gaza is razed down to desolation, and it requires 80 years to be reconstructed, according to the UN.

Its fate hasn’t been decided to get it handed to the Palestinian side after the Israeli aggression, and Netanyahu’s reluctant decisions have withered its political strength from the US inciting Biden to intercept its military aid to Israel, especially the specialised targeted rockets that home at Hamas’ tunnels and epicentres. Haaretz newspaper said on Tuesday, May 7, that the private company Amon Los Angeles Stowell will take over the management of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt after the Israeli military attack on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The newspaper stated that this shall deprive Hamas from controlling the border, no longer be able to collect taxes on trucks and goods, and no longer be able to bring in weapons and other materials banned from entering Gaza.

Another suggestion has been made by Netanyahu that the United Arab Emirates should cooperate to rule the Gaza Strip. The UAE’s Foreign Minister, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed al Nahyan, posted on his account X that the UAE will pour all the needed support to the strip and its people when a Palestinian government is formed that meets the hopes and aspirations of the brotherly Palestinian people, enjoying integrity, competence, and independence.