Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel will sooner or later launch a ground offensive against the Gaza Stripwhether or not there is a truce with Hamas, ignoring warnings about the risk of a bloodbath in that town.
Netanyahu made these statements despite the fact that the United States, his main ally, asks him to avoid invading Rafah, a refuge for 1.5 million people displaced by the war, and hours before the arrival in Israel of Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, on a tour of Middle East.
“The idea that we are going to stop the war before achieving all the objectives is beyond any discussion“, said the Israeli president to families of the hostages held since October 7 by the Islamist movement Hamas, in power in Gaza.
“We will enter Rafah and eliminate Hamas battalions, with or without agreement [de tregua]to achieve total victory”he added.
Netanyahu considers it essential to invade Rafah, in the south of the Strip, to eliminate Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, and free the hostages.
Hamas must respond to an Israeli proposal for a 40-day truce, with an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
Blinken, who is on his seventh regional tour since the start of the war, said on Monday that he expected a favorable response from the Islamist group to a proposal “extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel.”
“As fast as possible”
A Hamas delegation returned to Doha after meeting on Monday in Cairo with representatives of Egypt and Qatar (which together with the United States mediate in the conflict), and will give its response to the truce proposal “as fast as possible“, a source from the Islamist movement told AFP.
“Israel will wait for that response.”until wednesday night“, before deciding whether to send a delegation to Egypt, a senior Israeli official said Tuesday.
This proposal comes after months of deadlock in indirect negotiations.
A week-long truce at the end of November allowed the exchange of a hundred hostages for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli authorities estimate 129 people remained captive in Gaza, of whom 34 have died.
In their Oct. 7 attack, Islamist commandos killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
Israel launched a retaliatory offensive against Hamas, which has already left 34,535 dead, mainly civilians, according to the territory’s Ministry of Health.
Hamas demands a permanent ceasefire, before any agreement on the release of the hostages, which Israel has always rejected.
The demands of the Islamist movement include “a retreat” of Israel from the territory, the return of the displaced and a clear timetable for the start of reconstruction, indicated one of the negotiators, Zaher Jabareen.
“We will rebuild”
The Israeli army bombed Rafah, Khan Younis, also in the south, and Gaza City, in the north, on Tuesday, according to an AFP correspondent.
According to the enclave’s Ministry of Health, at least 47 people died in the last 24 hours throughout the territory.
In Nuseirat, a displaced persons camp in the center of the Strip, residents removed debris with their hands.
“We will rebuild it, we will rebuild everything with the help of young people and children. Look at them, it’s hard to break the will of a generation like that”, promised a displaced person, Bilal Shalabi.
In Jordan, the last stage of his tour before arriving in Israel, Blinken asked to increase humanitarian aid for the enclave, under tight Israeli control and on the verge of famine, according to the UN.
The United States pressures Israel to facilitate the entry of aid, which arrives in dribs and drabs, and began construction of a floating dock off the coast of Gaza.
China, which has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, indicated on Tuesday that Hamas and its rival Fatah – which partially administers the occupied West Bank – held reconciliation talks in Beijing.
On the legal level, the highest UN court rejected a request for urgent measures presented by Nicaragua, which accuses Germany of violating the 1948 genocide convention by supplying weapons to Israel for the Gaza war.
Source: Gestion
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