JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed that giving up attacking Rafah, in southern Gaza, would mean “losing the war” against the Hamas terrorist group, with which the latest contacts in view of a truce “have not been very promising,” according to Qatar, one of the mediators.
Rafah, in the extreme south of Gaza, is the last large population center in the narrow territory that Israeli troops have not entered after the deadly Hamas attack on Israel in which almost 1,200 Israelis were killed, the vast majority civilians.
Nearly 1.4 million Palestinians took refuge in the town, fleeing Israeli bombings in the rest of the territory.
Faced with a possible offensive in Rafah, the three mediators in the conflict, the United States, Qatar and Egypt, intensified efforts this week to achieve a ceasefire.
Release of hostages in the hands of terrorists
But Netanyahu insists that the army will enter the town, even if an agreement is reached with the Islamist movement to free the hostages captured on October 7 in Israel.
“Even if we achieve it, we will enter Rafah,” he said in a press conference broadcast on television.
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani, who met with both sides in the conflict this week, warned that efforts for a truce were hampered by the insistence of “many countries” that a ceasefire must include more releases. of hostages.
“The patterns of the last few days have not been very promising,” he admitted during the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
Hamas threatens to walk out of negotiations
The war broke out on October 7, after Hamas infiltrated southern Israel, leaving 1,160 dead, mostly civilians, women, the elderly and children.
Islamist terrorists also captured 250 people, 105 of whom were exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners in a week-long truce in late November. Israel claims that 130 people remain kidnapped by Hamas and that 30 of them died in captivity.
In response to the attack, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has already left 28,858 dead, according to the Health Ministry of the Hamas government, which has ruled the enclave since 2007.
The conflict has devastated much of this territory and forced 1.7 million people, almost 80% of the population, to leave their homes, according to the UN, an organization accused of supporting terrorists.
Hamas threatened to walk out of the talks unless more humanitarian aid enters the territory’s north, where NGOs have warned of the possible risk of famine.
“You cannot negotiate while hunger ravages the Palestinian people,” said a source from the terrorist group, who asked not to be identified as he is not authorized to speak on the subject.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh reiterated the group’s demands that include a ceasefire, the withdrawal of the Israeli army, lifting the blockade and guaranteeing safe shelter for the displaced. However, the terrorist group opposes returning the kidnapped people.
Trapped patients
Netanyahu also rejects the initiatives of some Western governments for the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, without waiting for a negotiated peace agreement between both parties.
“After the terrible massacre of October 7, there can be no greater reward for terrorism than that and that will prevent any future peace agreement,” he said.
Thousands of Israelis protested in Tel Aviv on Saturday, accusing their government of abandoning the hostages.
The government has “blood on its hands,” some of the protesters shouted, insisting on the importance of negotiations.
Israel announced the arrest of 100 people suspected of being involved in “terrorist” activities during a military operation at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, one of the main hospitals in Gaza.
Fighting nearby caused power outages that stopped generators.
The Israeli army entered the hospital on Thursday alleging that it received “credible information” that hostages captured by Hamas in the October 7 attack were being held at the center and that there could be bodies of some kidnapped people who died in captivity there.
Israel accuses Hamas of operating from hospitals, something denied by the Palestinian movement, considered a “terrorist” organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union. However, Israel has released videos showing that tunnels are located beneath hospitals and that several captives have been taken to hospitals.
Source: With information from AFP
