“We call on the United States of America to ask Israel not to carry on the Rafah attack. America is the only country able to prevent Israel from committing this crime,” Abbas said at a special meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
He further stated that the Israeli offensive, which is expected to take place in the coming days, could prompt an evacuation in the region, pushing people out of the besieged Palestinian enclave, saying that this could be the “biggest catastrophe in the Palestinian people’s history”.
“What will happen in the coming few days is what Israel will do with attacking Rafah because all the Palestinians from Gaza are gathered there,” Abbas said.
Further reiterating that he rejects the displacement of Palestinians into Jordan and Egypt, he expressed his concern over Israel completing its operation in Gaza stating that this would push the Palestinians to move out of the West Bank and take shelter in Jordan.
“The third point is that we will not accept by any case the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank outside their homeland, and they must stay in their country, we must not repeat the Nakba of 1948 and of 1967,” the Palestinian president said.
Israel which ramped up the airstrikes on Rafah last week, for weeks threatened to launch an offensive in the Gaza strip with an aim to destroy Hamas’ remaining battalions.
Countries including Israel’s closest ally the US have called on Tel Aviv not to attack the southern city, which connects the Egyptian border and is providing shelter to over a million Palestinians who fled the Israeli assault.
K.Klogictech 