Hamas Says Any Israeli Ground Offensive in Rafah Will ‘Blow Up’ Hostage Exchange Talks

Any Israeli ground offensive in the Rafah, bordering Egypt where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have been crammed will “blow up” the hostage exchange negotiations, Hamas warned on Sunday. In a statement published on Hamas-run Aqsa television channel, a senior Hamas leader warned of escalating the hostilities if Israel led its assault in Rafah.

Office of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Sunday that he has ordered the IDF to develop a plan to evacuate Rafah. In these areas, he said, there are four Hamas battalion stronghold. Rafah is situated on the border with Egypt where 280,000 people are living in the makeshift tents, becoming the last refuge for the displaced population of 2.3 million from Gaza. Aid agencies warned that they have nowhere to go as they fled south during the assaults on Gaza’s cities in north, which are now battered and in ruins should they have to return.

‘We warn of the serious repercussions’: Oman 

Egypt on Sunday threatened to suspend its peace treaty with Israel if Israeli troops launched attack on Rafah. Egyptian authorities say that it could end the territory’s main aid supply route, as per the Associated Press. Oman also expressed opposition to Israel’s planned offensive in Rafah.

“We warn of the serious repercussions of the continuation of the occupation in its indiscriminate aggression in the Gaza Strip and its plans to storm Rafah,” the Omani foreign ministry said in a statement. “We appeal to the international community to take concrete measures to dissuade Israel from its arrogance and push it to cease fire and open the crossings,” it added.

Meanwhile, Israel on Sunday said that its forces have discovered a tunnel network hundreds of metres long and running partly under the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine’s (UNRWA) Gaza headquarters.