Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday that “international pressure” would not prevent Israel from launching an offensive in Rafah, a town in the south of the Gaza Strip where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are massed, according to the UN.
“No international pressure will prevent us from achieving all the objectives of our war” against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, declared Mr. Netanyahu at the start of his government meeting, according to a press release sent by his services.
“We will act in Rafah, it will take a few weeks and it will happen,” he added.
These statements come as Mr. Netanyahu is due to receive German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday. He must also bring together the security cabinet at the end of the day to determine the position of the Israeli delegation to go to Qatar in order to negotiate a possible six-week truce in Gaza and the release of Hamas hostages in exchange for that of Palestinian prisoners.
A possible offensive in Rafah, where Mr. Netanyahu intends to eliminate “the last battalions of Hamas”, is feared by the international community while the human toll has already exceeded 31,500 deaths in the Gaza Strip according to the Hamas authorities, and that the humanitarian crisis there is major.
Washington has been warning for several weeks of the risk for the civilian population of Rafah, and the White House demanded on Friday to see Israel’s “plans” for this offensive.
Mr. Netanyahu announced on Friday that he had approved the army’s “action plans” concerning the “operational side” and “the evacuation of the population”, without further details.
After this announcement, the German Foreign Ministry insisted that such an offensive “could not be justified”. “More than a million people have taken refuge there and have nowhere to go. We need a ceasefire now,” he said.
The Prime Minister’s office announced on Sunday that the press statements initially planned after his meeting with Olaf Scholz would ultimately not take place, without giving explanations.
PHOTO RONEN ZVULUN, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
The United States “cannot support an operation in Rafah that does not include an applicable, verifiable, achievable plan, taking into account the 1.5 million people trying to find refuge in Rafah,” reaffirmed Sunday on the Fox channel. News US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby. Washington has not yet received a “credible plan” from Israel in this regard, he stressed.
“Completely inappropriate”
Benjamin Netanyahu is under increasing international pressure, notably from American President Joe Biden who on Friday welcomed the “good speech” delivered by the leader of the Democratic senators Chuck Schumer, calling for early elections in Israel.
“We are not a banana republic,” replied the Israeli prime minister in successive interviews on Sunday with CNN and Fox News, describing the call from Mr. Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish figure in the American legislative branch, as “completely moved.”
Members of the “international community” calling for elections “do so because they know that elections will stop the war and paralyze the country for at least six months,” the Israeli Prime Minister denounced on Sunday, quoted by his services. .
“If we stop the war now […] Israel will have lost the war. We will not allow it. This is why we will not give in to these pressures,” he continued, accusing the international community of having “forgotten October 7 so quickly.”
In the last 24 hours, more than 90 Palestinians, including 12 from the same family, were killed in incessant Israeli air raids which hit several areas of the Gaza Strip including Rafah, said the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. .
More than five months after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas triggered by a bloody attack by this movement, the human toll continues to rise in the Palestinian territory with 31,645 dead since October 7 according to Hamas and the threat of widespread famine according to the UN.
Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007 and which he considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union.
“What do they want from us? »
Most of the 1.7 million displaced by the war according to the UN have found refuge in Rafah, a town stuck on Egypt’s closed border and bombarded daily by the Israeli air force.
PHOTO MOHAMMED ABED, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
View of a displaced persons camp in Rafah
Before dawn, raids were intense in Deir al-Balah in the center, Gaza City in the north and Khan Younes and Rafah in the south, according to witnesses. Fighting took place between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters in several sectors.
At least 92 Palestinians were killed, the majority civilians, the Hamas health ministry said. Among them, according to him, 12 members of the Thabet family whose home was destroyed at dawn by bombs in Deir al-Balah.
Leen Thabet says through tears that her cousin was killed in the strike. ” She is dead. Only her dress remains,” said the little girl, pointing to a white dress taken out of the rubble. “What do they want from us? There are no more children in Gaza! »
The Israeli army claimed to have killed “18 terrorists” in central Gaza since Saturday.
PHOTO AMIR COHEN, REUTERS
Smoke rises over the Gaza Strip on March 17.
” Six weeks ”
Faced with the devastating war, the mediators – United States, Qatar, Egypt – are trying to achieve a new truce after that at the end of November. In vain.
The security cabinet is expected to determine on Sunday the “mandate” of the Israeli delegation which is to travel to Doha for further discussions.
Hamas said it was ready, in a new proposal, for a six-week truce, during which 42 hostages – women, children, the elderly and the sick – could be released in exchange for 20 to 50 Palestinian prisoners for each hostage released.
It also calls for “the withdrawal of the army from towns and populated areas”, the “return of the displaced” and the entry of 500 aid trucks per day into Gaza, according to one of its executives.
Israel controls the entry of land aid into Gaza, which remains very insufficient given the immense needs of the 2.4 million inhabitants, the vast majority of whom are threatened with famine according to the UN.
Departing from Cyprus, a boat from the Spanish NGO Open Arms carrying 200 tonnes of food from the organization World Central Kitchen unloaded its cargo in Gaza which must still be distributed.
A second aid boat is ready to leave, according to Cyprus.
In addition, several Arab and Western countries continue to airdrop food into Gaza.
But for the UN, aid by land remains vital.