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| Netanyahu appears determined to press on with ground offensive on Rafah | Netanyahu appears determined to press on with ground offensive on Rafah |
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| Israeli PM brushes aside warnings that assault on Gaza’s southernmost town would be a ‘human catastrophe’ | Israeli PM brushes aside warnings that assault on Gaza’s southernmost town would be a ‘human catastrophe’ |
| Benjamin Netanyahu appears determined to push ahead with a ground offensive against Gaza’s southernmost town of Rafah but has claimed Israel will provide “safe passage” to the 1.3 million displaced Palestinians sheltering there. | Benjamin Netanyahu appears determined to push ahead with a ground offensive against Gaza’s southernmost town of Rafah but has claimed Israel will provide “safe passage” to the 1.3 million displaced Palestinians sheltering there. |
| Despite mounting warnings from aid agencies and the international community that an assault on Rafah would be a “catastrophe”, Netanyahu has reiterated his intention to extend Israel’s military operation against Hamas – which stated that a new advance into Rafah would “blow up” ongoing negotiations to return hostages in return for a ceasefire. “We’re going to do it,” Israel’s prime minister told ABC News in an interview that will air on Sunday. “We’re going to get the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions in Rafah, which is the last bastion, but we’re going to do it.”“We’re going to do it while providing safe passage for the civilian population so they can leave,” he said.As Israeli forces have expanded ground operations steadily southwards in their war against Hamas over the past four months, Rafah has become the last refuge for more than half of the strip’s population of 2.3 million. It remains unclear where the large number of people pressed up against the border with Egypt in overcrowded makeshift tent camps can go. When asked, Netanyahu said Israel was “working out a detailed plan”. | |
| He added: “We’re not cavalier about this. This is part of our war effort to get civilians out of harm’s way. It’s part of Hamas’s effort to keep them in harm’s way.”The prime minister has not provided details or a timeline on a ground invasion in Rafah, which Israel previously designated a safe zone.The southern city has become the last major population centre in Gaza that troops have yet to enter, even as it is bombarded by air strikes almost daily. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it killed two “senior Hamas operatives” in a strike on Rafah on Saturday.Israel’s war in Gaza, now in its fifth month, was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on 7 October in which 1,200 people were killed and a further 250 abducted as bargaining chips.A total of 28,176 Palestinians have been killed and 67,784 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said on Sunday. It added that 112 Palestinians were killed and 173 injured in the past 24 hours.Netanyahu’s announcement on Friday that he had instructed the IDF and defence ministry to draw up plans for troops to enter Rafah and evacuate civilians sparked international concern.The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, posted on X on Saturday: “An offensive by the Israeli army on Rafah would be a human catastrophe. The people in Gaza cannot disappear into thin air.”The Egyptian foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, said any ground offensive would have “disastrous consequences”, while Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry warned of “very serious repercussions of storming and targeting” Rafah and called for an urgent meeting of the UN security council.The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, said he was “deeply concerned” about the prospective offensive, adding: “The priority must be an immediate pause in the fighting to get aid in and hostages out.” | He added: “We’re not cavalier about this. This is part of our war effort to get civilians out of harm’s way. It’s part of Hamas’s effort to keep them in harm’s way.”The prime minister has not provided details or a timeline on a ground invasion in Rafah, which Israel previously designated a safe zone.The southern city has become the last major population centre in Gaza that troops have yet to enter, even as it is bombarded by air strikes almost daily. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it killed two “senior Hamas operatives” in a strike on Rafah on Saturday.Israel’s war in Gaza, now in its fifth month, was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on 7 October in which 1,200 people were killed and a further 250 abducted as bargaining chips.A total of 28,176 Palestinians have been killed and 67,784 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said on Sunday. It added that 112 Palestinians were killed and 173 injured in the past 24 hours.Netanyahu’s announcement on Friday that he had instructed the IDF and defence ministry to draw up plans for troops to enter Rafah and evacuate civilians sparked international concern.The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, posted on X on Saturday: “An offensive by the Israeli army on Rafah would be a human catastrophe. The people in Gaza cannot disappear into thin air.”The Egyptian foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, said any ground offensive would have “disastrous consequences”, while Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry warned of “very serious repercussions of storming and targeting” Rafah and called for an urgent meeting of the UN security council.The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, said he was “deeply concerned” about the prospective offensive, adding: “The priority must be an immediate pause in the fighting to get aid in and hostages out.” |
| Israel’s plans for Rafah have also drawn unusually fierce criticism from the US, the Jewish state’s most important ally, after days of increasing friction between Netanyahu and the Biden administration. But Netanyahu pushed back against the concerns in the ABC interview, saying: “Those who say that under no circumstances should we enter Rafah are basically saying: ‘Lose the war. Keep Hamas there.’”To the north in Gaza City, Israel’s military claimed that its troops uncovered a Hamas tunnel under the evacuated headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner general, said the agency had not operated from the compound since 12 October when staff evacuated it under instruction from Israeli forces.The agency is already facing accusations that a dozen staff members were involved in the 7 October attacks.Although the war retains strong public support in Israel, protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night to demand the release of the hostages, Netanyahu step down and fresh elections be called.Some of families of the remaining 130 or so hostages also stepped out and accused the government of abandoning their loved ones. | Israel’s plans for Rafah have also drawn unusually fierce criticism from the US, the Jewish state’s most important ally, after days of increasing friction between Netanyahu and the Biden administration. But Netanyahu pushed back against the concerns in the ABC interview, saying: “Those who say that under no circumstances should we enter Rafah are basically saying: ‘Lose the war. Keep Hamas there.’”To the north in Gaza City, Israel’s military claimed that its troops uncovered a Hamas tunnel under the evacuated headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner general, said the agency had not operated from the compound since 12 October when staff evacuated it under instruction from Israeli forces.The agency is already facing accusations that a dozen staff members were involved in the 7 October attacks.Although the war retains strong public support in Israel, protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night to demand the release of the hostages, Netanyahu step down and fresh elections be called.Some of families of the remaining 130 or so hostages also stepped out and accused the government of abandoning their loved ones. |
| A senior Hamas leader warned on Sunday that any Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would “blow up” hostage exchange negotiations, the Hamas-run Aqsa Television channel reported, according to Reuters. | A senior Hamas leader warned on Sunday that any Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would “blow up” hostage exchange negotiations, the Hamas-run Aqsa Television channel reported, according to Reuters. |
| “Any attack by the occupation army on the city of Rafah would undermine the exchange negotiations,” a Hamas leader added to Agence France-Presse. | |
| The militant group’s armed-wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, also claimed that Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip over the past 96 hours had killed two Israeli hostages. | |
| “Their conditions are becoming more dangerous in light of the inability to provide them with appropriate treatment. [Israel] bears full responsibility for the lives of those injured in light of their continued bombing,” the group said in a statement on Telegram. |