As Negotiations involving multiple countries and high-level delegations on a Gaza ceasefire deal entered a second day in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, mediators struggled to make progress in the face of a threatened Israeli offensive on Rafah.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has vowed to press ahead with an offensive, but only after civilians are allowed to leave the “battle zones”.
READ ALSO: Osimhen Not Named In CAF Best XI
The Israeli prime minister did not say where the trapped civilians would be permitted to go, and what safeguards, if any, would be put in place to protect them. More than a million Palestinians are sheltering in the city, the Palestinian territory’s last place of relative safety.
The UN coordinator for relief operations, Martin Griffiths, warns that an offensive, in his own words, “could lead to a slaughter in Gaza”. Also, in a phone call with Prime Minister Netanyahu, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, said the Gaza death toll was “intolerable” and insisted the Israeli offensive “must cease”.
Leave feedback about this