FM: We’ll coordinate with Egypt on Rafah and displaced Gazans; no plans to push them out
At Munich Security Conference, Katz says Israel ‘will have to deal with Rafah because we can’t just leave Hamas there’; calls UNRWA ‘the problem, not the solution’
MUNICH, Germany — Israel will coordinate with Egypt on displaced Gaza Palestinians and will find a way to not harm Egypt’s interests, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Friday.
Speaking on Israel’s highly contentious plans for a military offensive in the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city of Rafah, Katz, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, said “Israel will have to deal with Rafah because we can’t just leave Hamas there.”
Rafah is the last Hamas stronghold in the enclave, but it is also where 1.4 million displaced Palestinians have fled to seek shelter from fighting elsewhere.
Multiple countries have warned Israel against an offensive there which they say could have a terrible civilian death toll. Israel has said it will draw up a plan for civilians to evacuate before it enters.
When asked where displaced Gazans now in Rafah would go, Katz suggested Gaza’s second city Khan Younis, but said that Israel would work with Egypt to ensure Cairo’s interests were not harmed. “We will coordinate with Egypt,” he said.
Egypt has repeatedly raised the alarm over the possibility that Israel’s Gaza offensive could displace Palestinians into Sinai — something Cairo says would be completely unacceptable. The warnings have been echoed by other Arab states.
The United States has repeatedly said it would oppose any displacement of Palestinians out of Gaza.
Katz said Israel has “no intention to deport any Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip,” adding that Israel did not want to rule Gaza after it ends its war against Hamas, which has been governing the territory.
Katz, who brought along with him several family members of hostages held in Gaza, said returning the hostages was his ministry’s top goal.
He argued that continuing military pressure on Hamas was “the most important thing” to ensure the hostages’ return.
Speaking in Israel Friday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also said Israel will not be evacuating Palestinian civilians from Rafah to Egypt.
“The State of Israel has no intention of evacuating Palestinian civilians to Egypt. We respect and value our peace agreement with Egypt, which is a cornerstone of stability in the region as well as an important partner,” Gallant said in a briefing with foreign press.
He said the IDF and defense establishment were “thoroughly planning future operations in Rafah, which is a significant Hamas stronghold.”
“There were 24 [Hamas] battalions in Gaza, we have dismantled 18 of them. Now, Rafah is the next Hamas center of gravity,” Gallant said.
He said that “the IDF takes extraordinary measures to avoid civilian casualties, and is operating in accordance with international law.”
In a statement Friday, National Unity party chair and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said, “There will not be a ceasefire of even one day until the hostages are returned.”
“The fighting will continue until our goals are achieved. It can continue even in the month of Ramadan. Either the hostages will be returned, or we will extend the fighting to Rafah.”
Netanyahu announced last week that he had ordered the Israeli military to present the government’s war cabinet with a plan to both evacuate the city’s civilian population and destroy Hamas’s remaining battalions in the area.
Israel believes it cannot effectively weaken Hamas without taking Rafah, which sits on Gaza’s border with Egypt. At least some of the 134 hostages remaining in Gaza are thought to be in the city.
On Monday, special forces rescued two Israeli hostages from captivity in an apartment in Rafah, amid a bombardment that killed dozens, according to Hamas health authorities in Gaza. Israel said many of the dead were terror operatives.
Katz, turning to the Palestinian relief and welfare agency UNRWA, under fire after Israel said 12 employees took part in the October 7 attacks on Israel, said “there is no place for UNRWA in Gaza,” calling it “the problem, not the solution.”
He said Israel has further evidence of involvement by UNRWA personnel in terror, and plans to “reveal it to the world.”
Katz said he had canceled Israeli diplomats’ planned meetings with the head of UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini and called on him to resign.
On the threat posed by Hezbollah, as it continues its daily attacks on northern Israel that have brought the sides to the brink of war, Katz warned Israel will be forced to remove the terror group from the border in southern Lebanon if efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to ease the tensions fail.
“The world must pressure Iran and Hezbollah to withdraw from South Lebanon and implement UN resolution 1701,” Katz said, referring to the resolution that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, and which stipulated that the terror organization must remove its forces kilometers away from the border.
