As Israel corners Rafah, Netanyahu defies the world

The chorus of warnings is hard to ignore. International organizations, rights group advocates and even a growing number of Western leaders are all urging Israel to refrain from launching a full-scale ground offensive on Rafah, the overwhelmed city on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. Close to a million and a half displaced Palestinians are crammed in makeshift encampments there, the majority having fled other parts of Gaza already ravaged by the Israeli military campaign that followed the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas.

In a Wednesday phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, French President Emmanuel Macron said Israel risked a “humanitarian disaster of a new magnitude.” A joint statement from the leaders of Australia, Canada and New Zealand said “a military operation into Rafah would be catastrophic” and called on Israel to “listen to its friends.” The prime ministers of Spain and Ireland wrote to authorities in Brussels, suggesting Israel may be in breach of its association agreement with the European Union and demanding an “urgent review.”

U.N. officials said the likelihood of flagrant violations of international law and potential war crimes was mounting in a conflict that has already seen more than 27,000 Palestinians killed — the majority women and children — and a large chunk of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure destroyed. “The risk of commission of atrocity crimes should a full military incursion into Rafah take place, is serious, real and high,” Alice Wairimu Nderitu, U.N. special adviser on the prevention of genocide, said in a statement.