Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, claims that only the United States could prevent Israel from invading Gaza’s border city of Rafah.
He also warns that the attack, which he anticipates happening in a few days, may compel a large portion of the Palestinian populace to escape the enclave.
“We demand that the United States of America request that Israel cease its Rafah offensive. At a special World Economic Forum conference on Sunday in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, Abbas stated that the United States is the only nation capable of stopping Israel from perpetrating this atrocity.
Israel increased its air strikes on Rafah last week. Israel has been threatening for weeks to unleash an all-out attack on the city, claiming its objective is to eliminate Hamas’s surviving battalions there.
Western nations, particularly Israel’s closest friend, the US, have begged Israel to refrain from striking the southern city, which is home to over a million Palestinians who have fled Israel’s seven-month-long assault on a large portion of the remainder of Gaza and borders Egypt.
Abbas claimed that the Palestinian populace will be forced to leave Gaza by even a “small strike” on Rafah.
Then, he said, “the biggest catastrophe in the history of the Palestinian people would occur.”
In addition to reiterating his opposition to Palestinians being forced into Jordan and Egypt, Abbas expressed fear that after Israel concludes its operations in Gaza, it will try to drive the Palestinian population out of the occupied West Bank.
