Gaza death toll surpasses 28,000 as Israel intensifies its attacks on Rafah

Death toll of Israeli war on Gaza surpasses 28,000: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered his military to prepare for evacuating Rafah ahead of a ground assault. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned against any Israeli military invasion of Gaza’s southern Rafah city. “Any Israeli incursion in Rafah means massacres, means destruction” One Gaza resident who fled with his family to Rafah said.

Summary

• Gaza’s health ministry says 117 Palestinians have been killed and 152 wound during the past 24 hours.
• As Israel intensifies its attacks on Rafah, people are now escaping to the central part of the Gaza Strip about 20km (eight miles) away.
• “Iran FM Hossein Amirabdollahian has told a press conference in Beirut, that Iran has never sought war in the region.
• “Iran and Lebanon confirm that war is not the solution, and that we absolutely never sought to expand it,” Amirabdollahian , however threatened that any widespread attack by Israel on Lebanon would be Israeli PM Netanyahu’s “last day”.
• A Palestinian doctor risks her life to save a wounded man  in front of the gate of Nasser Medical Complex in the city of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip.
• A senior Hamas official survived an Israeli assassination attempt in Lebanon, a Palestinian security source told the AFP news agency, with rescuers reporting two civilians killed in the attack south of Beirut.
• US diplomacy , US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the Middle East this week for the fifth time since October 7. There were hopes he could seal a truce for Gaza. But by the end of his trip Israel stepped up attacks on Palestinians in southern Gaza, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised no end to the war without “victory”.
• Witnesses reported the Israeli military intensified air raids with fears rising among Palestinians of an imminent ground invasion and resulting horror.
• “Any Israeli incursion in Rafah means massacres, means destruction. People are filling every inch of the city and we have nowhere to go,” said Rezik Salah, 35, who fled his Gaza City home with his wife and two children for Rafah early in the war.
• Palestinians ‘cannot disappear into thin air’, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said and warned against any Israeli military invasion of Gaza’s southern Rafah city.

Die Not in #Rafah ist schon jetzt unfassbar. 1,3 Mio. Menschen suchen dort auf engsten Raum Schutz vor den Kämpfen. Eine Offensive der israelischen Armee auf Rafah wäre eine humanitäre Katastrophe mit Ansage. Die Menschen in #Gaza können sich nicht in Luft auflösen. 1/2

— Außenministerin Annalena Baerbock (@ABaerbock) February 10, 2024

Al Jazeera /Ya Libnan