London, February 16 (RHC)-- One of the UK’s top rabbis has lent his voice to the growing opposition to Israel’s planned assault on Rafah.

Jonathan Wittenberg, who leads the UK’s Masorti movement, said he cannot remain silent about the potential consequences of Israel’s actions.

“Over a million Palestinian civilians, many already in flight from the north of Gaza, are now trapped with nowhere to go.  In countless references, Judaism has, throughout its history, stressed our duty to refugees and the helpless.  How can we be unmoved by their grief and unbearable suffering?” Wittenberg said in a statement released earlier this week.

Wittenberg said that an offensive in Rafah is unlikely to secure the release of Hamas’s captives.

“I write out of dread at the future hatred this is likely to engender, and out of fear that these actions may haunt us, and the good name of Israel and the Jewish people, for generations,” he said.