Venezuela condemns Israel’s plans to launch attack on Rafah

Venezuela on Monday condemned Israel’s military advance towards Rafah, a town in the far south of the besieged Gaza Strip that shelters 1.4 million displaced Palestinians.

“We warn that these cruel and inhumane actions contribute to worsening the consequences and conditions of deterioration experienced by the population in the Gaza Strip and prevent access to essential humanitarian aid for survival,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Caracas has categorically rejected Israel’s policy of displacement, genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people, demanding Tel Aviv respect international law “as a guarantee of global peace”.

It reiterated its call on the United Nations and the international community to take urgent and decisive decisions to prevent Israel from continuing its “catastrophic” policy.

It also expressed its willingness to “continue supporting the initiatives to achieve a definitive ceasefire and the international recognition of Palestine as a free and sovereign nation.”

On Sunday, flouting the provisional ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Israel launched an air campaign on Rafah, killing more than 65 Palestinians. The city had been declared a “safe zone” by occupation forces and over a million Palestinians had taken shelter there after being forced out of their homes in the northern areas of the Strip since 7 October.

The Israeli offensive has left 85 per cent of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

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