I think the key thing here is that senior Israeli officials have been threatening a major new military offensive in Southern Gaza for the past few weeks. Overnight, the defense minister, Yuev Galant, said it could take place imminently, and it does seem now that they are taking a major step towards that. A statement this morning from the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces, is encouraging, in their words, encouraging residents in southeast Gaza to advance towards what they call an expanded humanitarian area to the north. That is centered around the city of Khan Unis and a coastal community called Al-Mawasi. They claim that this area contains field hospitals, tents, food, water, medicine, additional supplies. That is a claim that international aid agencies, the WFP and the like, will treat with real skepticism. I think they say the Israelis have not done enough to facilitate these humanitarian supplies, should also say that people are being asked to go to an area that has already been badly damaged, badly bombed in this war. The area around the city of Khan Unis was largely destroyed in January when the IDF laid siege to it. We're talking about a situation where people are being asked to migrate again.

I think we should probably talk about the significance of this. 1.2 million civilians crowded into the Southern section of Gaza. They're now being asked, really at the point of another mass migration back to the north, to an area that has been badly bombed. I think this is going to create an absolute storm of protest internationally. The Americans last week said that the Israelis didn't have a credible plan to support civilians. If they went ahead with this Southern Gaza incursion, an incursion into Raafa, the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken said, We can't support't support such an incursion if the Israelis go ahead with this without a plan. I think the Israelis are really pushing at the very boundaries of Western support, of international support with this.