Israel and Hamas at war, day 135 | An offensive against Rafah if the hostages are not released before Ramadan, warns Israel

Israeli Minister Benny Gantz, a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet, warned on Sunday that Israel would launch an offensive against the town of Rafah if Israeli hostages held in Gaza were not released by Ramadan.

“The world must know and Hamas leaders must know: if by Ramadan, the hostages are not at home, the fighting will continue everywhere, including in the Rafah region,” said the former head of Hamas. the Israeli army.

“To those who say the price is too high, I say clearly: Hamas has a choice. They can surrender, free the hostages and the civilians of Gaza will thus be able to celebrate the holiday of Ramadan,” he added in a speech to the Conference of Presidents of the Main American Jewish Organizations, meeting in Jerusalem.

Ramadan, the holy month of Muslims, begins around March 10.

Despite calls from part of the international community, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is determined to launch an offensive against the city of Rafah, backed by Egypt’s closed border, where 1.4 million people are crowded together. . Most of the displaced people live there in very harsh conditions.

Benny Gantz affirmed that an offensive would be carried out, in a coordinated manner and within the framework of a dialogue with the Americans and Egyptians, “by facilitating the evacuation of civilians” to minimize “as much as possible” the number of victims in their ranks. .

New strikes on Gaza

The Israeli army carried out new deadly strikes on the Gaza Strip on Sunday, with prospects for a truce with the Palestinian movement Hamas fading more than four months after the start of the war.

The United States, Israel’s main ally, threatened to block a new draft resolution at the UN Security Council demanding “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” as Israeli bombings left 28,985 dead the vast majority of civilians in the Palestinian territory since October 7, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.

That day, commandos of the Palestinian Islamist movement infiltrated from Gaza carried out an attack of unprecedented violence against Israel, during which more than 1,160 people were killed, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count carried out in from official Israeli data.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel subjugated the 362 km territory in response² where 2.4 million Palestinians are crowded, to a deluge of fire before launching a ground offensive on October 27 which allowed its soldiers to advance from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip. In addition to the heavy human toll, the destruction is colossal and the humanitarian crisis is catastrophic according to the UN.

Despite pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains determined to continue the war against Hamas, which he classifies as terrorist, like the United States and the European Union.

Next target: the city of Rafah, backed by Egypt’s closed border, which is home to 1.4 million people, most of the displaced living in very harsh conditions.

“Anyone who wants to stop us from carrying out an operation in Rafah is effectively telling us to lose the war. I am not going to give in to that,” he said on Saturday, before reaffirming on Sunday that he was aiming for “total victory” against Hamas.

” Horror movie ”

In the last 24 hours, Rafah and the town of Khan Yunis, located in the south of the Gaza Strip and a few kilometers apart, as well as other areas of Palestinian territory have been the target of Israeli bombardments which left 127 dead, the Hamas Ministry of Health said on Sunday.

Supported by the air force, Israeli soldiers have for weeks concentrated their ground operations in Khan Younes, hometown of Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahia Sinouar, alleged mastermind of the October 7 attack.

At the Nasser hospital in Khan Younès, seven patients, including a child, have died since Friday due to power cuts, and “70 members of medical staff including intensive care doctors” have been arrested, according to the Ministry of Health. Hamas Health.

Soldiers entered the hospital on Thursday based on intelligence that hostages were being held there and arrested around 100 people.

They found “boxes of medicine [envoyés par Israël] with the names of Israeli hostages. The medicine boxes were closed,” the army said.

A doctor at the hospital, Ahmad Moghrabi, said he fled with his family, patients and medical staff after the Israeli assault.

“With my family, we walked 10 km in the night and the cold. There is nothing left for Khan Younes. Nothing. It feels like a horror movie. There are no more streets, no more buildings, just dead bodies everywhere,” he said.

New veto?

Faced with this devastating war which has displaced 1.7 million inhabitants, Algeria requested a vote on Tuesday on a draft Security Council resolution. The text calls for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, “refuses the forced displacement of the Palestinian civilian population” and calls for the release of all hostages.

During the October 7 attack, around 250 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. According to Israel, 130 hostages are still being held there, 30 of whom are believed to have died. At the end of November, a one-week truce allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

The United States has threatened to veto the Algerian text, saying a vote could “go against” negotiations involving Egyptian, American and Qatari mediators for a truce and a release of hostages.

However, Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdelrahmane al-Thani said on Saturday that the talks were “not very promising”.

But Mr. Netanyahu on Sunday urged “Qatar to put pressure on Hamas, because we want our hostages to be released.”

War of words

In a scathing attack on Israel, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared that “what is happening in Gaza is not a war, it is a genocide”, comparing the Israeli offensive to the extermination of Jews by the Nazis.

The Brazilian president “dishonored the memory of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis […] He should be ashamed,” retorted Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr. Lula also reiterated his call for a settlement of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of two states, Israeli and Palestinian, as advocated by much of the international community.

But the Netanyahu government estimated that “recognition of a Palestinian state after the massacre of October 7 would constitute an immense reward for terrorism”.

As humanitarian aid trickles into the besieged Gaza Strip, Israeli protesters have blocked aid trucks from Egypt en route to Rafah from passing through the Nizzana crossing point in southern Gaza. Israel, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.