Palestinian groups have strongly rejected any foreign party controlling the Rafah border of the Gaza Strip, following reports that an American security company will be in charge of the crossing.
The Times of Israel, citing Haaretz, said on Tuesday that the plan “is to transfer control of the key crossing to a private American security firm” after the Israeli military “concludes the offensive.”
“It says negotiations are ongoing with the unnamed company, which employs former elite US soldiers and is an expert on securing strategic sites in Africa and the Middle East. Israel and the US will help the firm if needed,” the paper added.
The report further said that US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller was asked about the report in a press briefing, to which he replied: “I’m not aware of that at all.”
Call to Egypt, Islamic Countries
In a statement on Wednesday, the Palestinian Follow-up Committee for National and Islamic Forces said it “will not accept from any party the imposition of any form of guardianship on the Rafah crossing or others, and considers this a form of occupation.”
Any “plan of this type,” the statement added, “will be dealt with as we deal with the occupation.”
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“We call on the Arab League and Islamic countries, especially the brothers in the Arab Republic of Egypt, given their weight on the international and regional levels, to reject any plans and attempts that affect Palestinian-Egyptian sovereignty over the Rafah crossing,” the Committee said.
It emphasized: “We urge all parties to reject any form of cooperation with such plans, as the management of internal affairs is a purely Palestinian matter that is agreed upon nationally through the mechanisms agreed upon.”
Truce Deal Rejected
Israel’s war cabinet decided to push ahead with an operation in Rafah, despite the announcement by the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas on Monday of its acceptance of a Qatari-Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.
According to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, 35 people were killed, and 129 others were injured, in the southern city of Rafah during the past 24 hours.
Roughly 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, with many having been displaced from other areas destroyed by Israel in its ongoing military assault on the besieged enclave.
Speaking from Rafah on Tuesday, UNRWA’s Communications Officer, Louise Wateridge, said “For us here in Rafah there’s just a lot of fear. Everywhere you look, there’s fear. Nobody has a clear path where to go. There is no advice on where to go. There is no safety to be led to.”
According to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, 35 people were killed, and 129 others were injured, in the southern city of Rafah during the past 24 hours.
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Staggering Death Toll
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 34,844 Palestinians have been killed, and 78,404 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
Rafah Under Attack – Scores of Civilians Killed, Resistance Fights Back
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
“American firm” means Academi, formerly known as Blackwater, the American private military contractor Erik Prince.
Does this mean that the Invincible IOF/IDF can’t occupy Gaza or does “Israeli” economy can’t afford it? Can the US tax payer?
We need Russia to train and help the Resistance as they did to flush out Western occupiers in Africa.