Washington the only party that can stop Israel's finger pulling Rafah trigger: China Daily editorial

Palestinians in the north of the Gaza Strip were forced to flee to the south after Israel launched its military operation in response to the Hamas-led attacks on the country on Oct 7. The continuation of the brutal Israeli offensive and its evacuation orders have now pushed more than 1 million people into a small corner in the southernmost part of Gaza, where the Rafah governorate has become a "pressure cooker of despair", as Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has warned.

Despite there being nowhere left for them to go, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists a major military operation will be launched against Rafah, where the population density is now more than three times that of Tokyo. Before the war, Rafah was home to an estimated 275,000 people. The UN says that there are now more than 1.4 million people there, most of whom are taking refuge in tents and under tarpaulins or in whatever makeshift shelters they can make.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric has warned an Israeli onslaught on Rafah would be "catastrophic". The European Union has said it is "very concerned" about the planned offensive, and called on Israel not to take military action that would worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Rafah.

Even US President Joe Biden has warned an assault on Rafah would be a "mistake".

But despite all the strong opposition, Netanyahu has remained firm, insisting there is "no alternative".

"We cannot go around it; neither can we say 'we will destroy 80 percent of Hamas and leave 20 percent', because from that 20 percent, they will reorganize and take over the Strip again and — of course — constitute a new threat to Israel," Netanyahu said on Monday, saying that Israel was determined to eliminate the "remaining battalions (of Hamas) in Rafah and, of course, the 1.5 battalions in the camps in the center".

Considering the reports that Israeli troops deployed 150-mm artillery guns in fields along the border with Gaza, a few meters apart, firing every 30 seconds in late 2023, and that it dropped hundreds of 2,000-pound bombs on Gaza with a density described by a former US defense intelligence analyst as "not seen since Vietnam", as well as its heavy reliance on lower-accuracy unguided munitions, the civilian death toll, which is already in the tens of thousands, will soar even higher.

The humanitarian tragedy in Gaza will worsen once its new military operation begins because Israel, reported by Oxfam to be "deliberately" blocking aid to Gaza, will not allow more aid into it during its assault.

If there is a power in the world responsible for the situation today it is the US, which has repeatedly vetoed UN Security Council resolutions on Gaza and has been the main munitions supplier to Israel.

It was not until dissatisfaction with Israel became so evident in the US as to ignite a protest vote in Michigan with the message "No cease-fire. No vote" in late February that President Biden began to voice concerns.

Netanyahu has said that "out of respect to the president" he will wait to hear the proposals from the US about the ways to protect the civilian population in Rafah before ordering the operation to go ahead. As the primary and by far the staunchest supporter of Israel, the US is the only country that can stay its hand.

The US now has a genuine reason to assert itself. It should do so before Israel's finger pulls the Rafah trigger.