IDF Has Not Submitted Plans For Evacuating Rafah Residents To The Israeli Government

The Israeli military in the Gaza Strip. (Source: Israel Defense Forces)

JAKARTA - The Israeli military has not yet submitted its plans to the government regarding the evacuation of Rafah residents, an Israeli spokesman for Defense Forces (IDF) said Tuesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday ordered the IDF to plan a "resident evacuation" from Rafah, ahead of a ground attack on the city located south of Gaza.

"The government has instructed the IDF to plan to achieve our goal, our war destination, in the Rafah region," IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told CNN Tuesday, as quoted February 13. "The plan you are asking for of course has not yet been submitted to the government," he continued.

Lerner further said the military aims to make plans to evacuate civilians "out of danger", as well as to distinguish civilians from Hamas militants.

More than half of Gaza's population, which is estimated to reach 2.3 million people, is believed to be in Rafah, the majority of whom are refugees from other koats in the trapped Palestinian enclave, crammed into emergency tents.

"This (evacuation) can be done. We believe in our ability to distinguish and separate," he said, admitting that this was "not without a challenge."

Israel is known to face growing international pressure over the potential impact of the ground invasion of Rafah on civilians.

On Tuesday, Lerner expressed concern, equating his "alternative by surrendering to Hamas and sacrificing 134 people. That's not an option from an Israeli point of view," he said.

"We have to send the hostages home, we need to send them home now. We can do it, we have done it in the past. We have proven many times that we can evacuate a lot of people out of there," he said.