Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the fact that there is an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Rafah, despite damning evidence proving otherwise.
In a video statement, Netanyahu said the Israeli army is engaged in combat across Gaza, including in Jabalia in the north, Zeitoun in Gaza City, and Rafah in the south.
He claimed that the Israeli army is conducting what he described as "the evacuation of civilian populations while fulfilling our commitment to their humanitarian needs.”
This statement has been contradicted by international organizations that have documented instances of forced displacement of Palestinians.
"The humanitarian disaster they spoke about did not take place, nor will it,” Netanyahu claimed.
The Israeli premier alleged that "Israel is evacuating civilians from Rafah, and almost 500,000 have left so far,” despite conflicting accounts from Palestinian residents who say they are being forcibly displaced due to Israeli airstrikes.
"Any discussions of the ‘day after’ (of the war) are meaningless until Hamas is defeated,” Netanyahu said. "Until it becomes clear that Hamas doesn’t rule Gaza militarily, no actor will be ready to accept upon himself the civil rule of Gaza out of fear for his own safety.”
The Israeli military has been striking civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, blocking humanitarian aid, as over a million Palestinians try to survive.
Israel's military incursion into Rafah, and the chokehold on key border crossings, have pushed the Palestinian enclave's hospitals to the brink of collapse.
Fighting has directly shut down some of the main medical facilities that had served half of Gaza's 2.3 million people who have been sheltering in Rafah.
The two checkpoints into southern Gaza have also been shut, blocking the arrival of basic supplies such as fuel.
Rafah's main Najjar hospital abruptly shut as the fighting came close. The Emirati maternity hospital where 85 babies per day were being born stopped receiving patients.
Closing the sole checkpoint to Egypt means patients needing emergency care can no longer be evacuated out of the Gaza Strip. Volunteer foreign medics can no longer get in, or go home.
The Israeli army launched a ground offensive on May 6 in Rafah, home to around 1.5 million displaced Palestinians, with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) estimating that around half a million people have fled the city since the start of the Israeli attack.
The Rafah crossing, a vital route for humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip, has been closed since the start of the Israeli onslaught on the city.
Israel has waged a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, which killed 1,200 people.
More than 35,230 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, mostly women and children, and over 79,140 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.
In the West Bank, nearly 500 Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured since Oct. 7, along with daily arrest campaigns by the Israeli army.
Israel is accused of "genocide” at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered Tel Aviv to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
