Recent attacks in Rafah are showing Israeli practices to Western public opinion and making the Zionist state even more isolated internationally.

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Israel’s attacks against the Gaza Strip are increasingly violent and disproportionate. In recent days, the Zionist State has launched a series of brutal strikes against the city of Rafah, in south of the Strip, close to the border with Egypt’s Sinai. The region has served as a refuge for thousands of Palestinians who have fled their homes in the northern areas of Gaza since the start of the conflict. By bombing Rafah, Tel Aviv makes it clear that there will be no security for Palestinians anywhere in Gaza.

On February 11, Israel launched a military campaign against Rafah, killing dozens and injuring hundreds of Palestinians. In the following days, some similar bombings continued to occur, generating more victims. In addition, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly promised a ground invasion on Rafah, generating fear among the local population about the consequences of such a measure.

The case is particularly complicated because, previously, the Israeli authorities had made several statements encouraging internal migration in Gaza so that Palestinians could leave the northern areas and seek refuge in Rafah. Until then, Rafah was considered one of the few cities in Gaza where ordinary life was still possible. Now, however, Israel no longer appears willing to spare the city from its violence.

As a result, one of the most serious cases of human rights violations in recent history was created: almost two million Gazeans are in Rafah without the freedom to come and go, held hostage by Israeli bombings. If Palestinian civilians migrate north, they will find cities completely annihilated and without infrastructure. If they stay in the south, they will continue to be brutally bombarded by Israeli artillery and aviation. At the same time, the blockade of water, food and energy remains in force, making life in the region almost impossible.

The attacks in Rafah came shortly after the failure of attempts to reach a ceasefire agreement. Hamas presented a revised version of the agreement proposed by Tel Aviv, establishing a three-stage ceasefire plan that was vehemently rejected by Israel. At the time, the majority opinion among experts was that Israel was in a weak position in the conflict, since the agreement proposed by the Zionist State was extremely favorable to Hamas. The fact that Hamas even so reviewed and demanded more concessions from Israel appears to have been a “redline” for the Netanyahu government, which emerged humiliated from the negotiation process. In retaliation, the ceasefire talks not only stopped but Israel decided to escalate the attacks, reaching Rafah.

In this sense, it is possible that the operation against Rafah was intended to show strength. Israel wants to improve its military image after the failure in the first months of the offensive against Palestine. After failing in its goals of freeing prisoners and eliminating Hamas, the Zionist state is trying to regain its deterrent power against regional enemies, using excessive violence against civilians to intimidate the Palestinian Resistance and force Hamas to accept a ceasefire agreement without making major demands from Tel Aviv.

However, the consequences of these attacks against civilian areas tend to be devastating for Israel in terms of public opinion. The Jewish State has already faced a situation of partial international isolation since the beginning of the aggression on Gaza – now this could get even worse. Before, Tel Aviv at least had the argument that Palestinians could migrate to Rafah to escape the consequences of the war. Now, even this is not a possibility, as Rafah has become the main target of IDF’s operations.

International pressure on the Zionist regime will inevitably increase. It is impossible to hide images of the situation in Rafah from the public. Photos and videos showing dead children are circulating on the internet, generating outrage among ordinary people in Western countries. This tends to foment protests and domestic pressure in these countries for their support to the Zionist regime to end or decrease.

Not by chance, there have already been calls for caution to Netanyahu from Western authorities. In the UK, officials called on Tel Aviv to “rethink” its actions in Rafah, considering the high risk of escalation. Obviously, these pronouncements are hypocritical, since these same Western countries militarily support Zionist aggression and collaborate with Israel’s expansionist and racist project. But even so, they are significant statements, as they show that the West fears damaging its image by continuing to support such Israeli acts.

In the end, Tel Aviv is acting so irrationally that it can no longer disguise the real nature of its military actions, which are a true project of ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Clearly, the goal is not to “eliminate Hamas.” And obviously civilian deaths are not mere “side effects”. There is a real intention of collective extermination against the Palestinian people, with the “anti-Hamas operation” being a mere excuse. The killing of civilians in Rafah has made this clear. And, in this way, all countries that continue to support Israel will be complicit in a true genocide.