'Risk we can’t afford to take': Israel’s Olmert warns against invasion of Rafah
Ehud Olmert, the former head of the Israeli regime, has warned against a planned invasion of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, citing potential international fury.
“The patience of the international community has reached a point from where I don’t think they’ll be able to absorb it,” Olmert was quoted by Bloomberg as saying in an interview.
Olmert headed the regime between 2006 and 2009.
He also expressed concern that a ground attack on Rafah “may shatter the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.”
Olmert said prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu should stop the war and focus on a plan that will enable the military to leave Gaza and international forces to go in as peacekeepers.
International alarm over such an invasion has intensified in recent days. Netanyahu has threatened that the regime will “do it anyway.”
Rafah, the town along the Egyptian border, which was once deemed a “safe zone” by the Israeli military, has now become the last refuge for over half of Gaza’s entire population of more than 2.3 million, who have fled their homes in other parts of the territory.
Egypt has already threatened to suspend its peace treaty with Israel if the regime sends its troops to Rafah. It said any ground invasion could force the closure of the besieged territory’s main aid supply route.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also warned on Monday that such an invasion would “put the final nail in the coffin” of aid operations in Gaza.
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