Israel's ex-premier says Rafah attack would be ‘risk we can’t afford to take’

JERUSALEM

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has warned the army against launching a ground attack in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Olmert told Bloomberg in an interview on Wednesday that a ground offensive in Rafah would be a “risk we can’t afford to take.”

“The patience of the international community has reached a point from where I don’t think they’ll be able to absorb it,” he added.

The Israeli army plans to launch a ground attack in Rafah, home to more than 1.4 million Palestinians seeking refuge from war, to defeat what Tel Aviv calls the remaining "Hamas battalions."

Palestinians have sought refuge in Rafah as Israel has pounded the rest of the enclave since Oct. 7. The ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed nearly 30,000 victims, injured over 70,000 more, and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities in the besieged Gaza.

Olmert, who headed the government in 2006-2009, said any ground attack on Rafah “may shatter the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.”

Egypt signed the Camp David Accords with Israel in 1979 under which Tel Aviv withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula.

Cairo is worried that any Israeli attack on Rafah would send thousands of Palestinians to seek refuge in its Sinai Peninsula.

Olmert urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the war on Gaza and focus on a plan that would enable the army to leave the Palestinian territory and allow international forces to go in as peacekeepers.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.