Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with sending Israeli troops into Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, rejecting deep international concerns over the risks to more than a million Palestinians who have sought shelter there.
This from theguardian.com.
Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting:
On the diplomatic front, until now we have succeeded in allowing our forces to fight in an unprecedented manner for five full months. However, it is no secret that the international pressure is increasing.
Those who say that the action in Rafah will not occur are those who also said that we would not enter Gaza, or act in Shifa or in Khan Younis, and that we would not resume the fighting after the pause [in hostilities in November].
The prime minister said no amount of international pressure would stop Israel from realizing all of its war aims.
Israeli military officials say Rafah is Hamas’s last stronghold in Gaza, claiming thousands of militants as well as senior leaders are based there.They say leaving Rafah untouched would allow Hamas to retain control of parts of Gaza, exploit tunnels to Egypt and quickly rebuild its forces in the future.
However, Rafah is now home to more than 1 million people displaced from elsewhere in Gaza by the Israeli offensive launched after the attacks into Israel in October, in which Hamas killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seized approximately 250 hostages.
Speaking late on Sunday after a meeting with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, Netanyahu said:
[C]ivilians would not be left trapped in the city during an assault.
At a joint news conference in Jerusalem, Scholz stressed that comprehensive humanitarian aid for Gaza was essential and urgent.
We cannot stand by and watch Palestinians risk starvation.
The World Health Organization director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, urged Israel:
[I]n the name of humanity [not to go ahead with an assault, warning that] this humanitarian catastrophe must not be allowed to worsen.
On Sunday an Israeli delegation travelled to Qatar to resume indirect talks for a ceasefire in Gaza and hostage release deal. Negotiations have been continuing intermittently for months.
The Israeli delegation is led by David Barnea, the director of the Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence service, which is being seen by some observers as a sign that the Israelis are prepared to do a deal and that Netanyahu’s bellicose rhetoric may be aimed in part at increasing pressure on Hamas.
Somewhere between 500 and 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including some serving long sentences for multiple murders of Israelis, would be exchanged for about 40 female, sick or elderly hostages.
Netanyahu has faced domestic pressure over the failure to free remaining captives held in Gaza. Protesters rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday carrying banners urging a “hostage deal now.”
Netanyahu has portrayed criticism from overseas as an attack on Israel, though it has been principally directed at the veteran politician himself and his coalition government, the most rightwing Israel has ever had.
Netanyahu told CNN on Sunday that a speech by Chuck Schumer in which the U.S. Senate majority leader called for new elections in Israel was “totally inappropriate.”
Netanyahu continued:
It’s inappropriate to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there.
Further:
To our friends in the international community, I say: is your memory so short?
So quickly you forgot about October 7, the worst massacre committed against Jews since the Holocaust?
So quickly you are ready to deny Israel the right to defend itself against the monsters of Hamas?
And:
No international pressure will stop us from realizing all of the goals of the war: eliminating Hamas, freeing all of our hostages, and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel.
