As Israel prepared to launch its ground assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Saturday, FRANCE 24 spoke to John Lyndon, executive director of the Alliance for Middle East Peace. “It’s really hard to fully fathom how an operation like this can be feasible, considering that we have 1.4 million people from across the Gaza Strip now concentrated in such a small parcel of land in Rafah and the dire humanitarian conditions that they are already living in 127 days into this war,” said Lyndon. “So I share the alarm that you’ve been discussing from different world leaders, from different humanitarian organisations.” Furthermore, “it’s safe to assume that those that still remain alive [Israeli hostages held by Hamas] are probably in Rafah. And any ground invasion that goes in, and I know this from speaking to families of hostages as recently as this week, it radically increases the likelihood that those remaining surviving hostages will lose their lives,” said Lyndon.
Ground assault on Rafah: ‘It’s hard to fathom how an operation like this can be feasible’
