{"id":256615,"date":"2024-03-11T12:01:39","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T12:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=256615"},"modified":"2024-03-07T06:25:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T06:25:31","slug":"the-horrors-a-rafah-invasion-would-bring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/03\/the-horrors-a-rafah-invasion-would-bring\/","title":{"rendered":"The Horrors a Rafah Invasion Would Bring"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rafah, 2003. (helga tawil souri, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

An Israeli invasion of Rafah will not alter the battlefield in favor of the Israeli army, but it will be horrific for the displaced Palestinians. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

5 Mar 2024<\/em> – The Palestinian city of Rafah is not just older than Israel, it is as old as civilization itself.<\/p>\n

It has existed for thousands of years. The Canaanites referred<\/a> to it as Rafia, and Rafia has been almost always there, guarding the southern frontiers of Palestine<\/a>, ancient and modern.<\/p>\n

As the gateway between two continents and two worlds, Rafah has been at the forefront of many wars and foreign invasions, from ancient Egyptians to the Romans, to Napoleon and his eventually vanquished army.<\/p>\n

Now, it is Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s turn. The Israeli prime minister has made Rafah the jewel of his crown of shame, the battle that would determine the fate of his genocidal war in Gaza \u2014 in fact the very future of his country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who want to prevent us from operating in Rafah are essentially telling us: \u2018Lose the war,\u2019\u201d he said<\/a> at a press conference on Feb. 17.<\/p>\n

Currently, there are anywhere between 1.3 to 1.5 million people<\/a> in Rafah, an area that, before the war started, had a population of merely 200,000 people.<\/p>\n

Even before the start of this genocidal war, Rafah was still considered crowded. We can only imagine what the situation is right now, where hundreds of thousands of people are scattered in muddy refugee camps, subsisting in makeshift tents that are unable to withstand the elements of a harsh winter.<\/p>\n

The mayor of Rafah says<\/a> that only 10 percent of the needed food and water is reaching the population in the camps, where the people are suffering from extreme hunger, if not outright starvation.<\/p>\n

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Despite the destruction of mosques in Gaza by Israeli airstrikes, Palestinians continue to hold their Friday prayer beside the ruins of a mosque in Rafah, southern Gaza. pic.twitter.com\/SKyWZ1bCv6<\/a><\/p>\n

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) March 1, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n