Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel will enter Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where more than a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, “with or without an agreement” to free the hostages. remaining.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel will enter Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where more than a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, “with or without an agreement” to free the hostages. remaining.
Leo Correa/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel will invade Rafah “with or without an agreement” to release the remaining hostages held in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday.
“The idea that we will halt the war before achieving all our objectives is impossible. We will enter Rafah and destroy the Hamas battalions there – with or without an agreement – to achieve comprehensive victory,” Netanyahu said. said, followed with a statement released by his office.
More than a million displaced Palestinians have fled to Rafah, a city located along the Gaza Strip’s southern border with Egypt. For months, the Israeli military has vowed to launch an offensive there against what it says are Hamas operatives and infrastructure there.
Concerned about the high civilian death toll and the worsening of the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, aid groups and international leaders, including United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, have called for called on Israel to scale back the plan or cancel the attack altogether. MMore than 34,000 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s military offensive since October 7, health officials in Gaza said.
Meanwhile, Egyptian-brokered talks on a potential ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have raised hopes for the release of some or all remaining hostages in exchange for a series of ceasefires. shoot and release Palestinians detained by Israel. (On October 7, Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped about 240 others, more than 100 of whom were released in a seven-day ceasefire in November .)
Netanyahu, whose position as prime minister depends on a political alliance with ministers even to his right, now faces increasing pressure from all sides over his ability to reach a deal. .
“A military strike on Rafah would be an intolerable escalation, killing thousands more civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee,” U.N. Secretary-General Guterres said on Tuesday. ”. “I call on everyone who has influence over Israel to do everything in their power to prevent it.”
On Sunday, Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet, said on social networking site X that agreeing to a deal would be a “humiliating surrender” and an “immediate existential threat” to the state of Israel.
“If you decide to raise the white flag,” Smotrich warned, speaking directly to Netanyahu, “your government will have no right to exist.”
Hardliner Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, made a similar threat on Tuesday. “I warned the prime minister, if God forbid Israel does not enter Rafah, if God forbid we end the war, if God forbid there will be a reckless deal,” he said in a video statement. “I think the Prime Minister understands very well what it will mean if these things don’t happen.”
If right-wing parties withdraw support for Netanyahu, the prime minister will be forced to form a new coalition to maintain power. (Opposition leader Yair Lapid has before offered to serve as a political lifeline for Netanyahu to reach a hostage release agreement.)
Protesters in Tel Aviv called on Netanyahu to agree to a deal with Hamas to free the remaining 133 hostages held in Gaza, of whom dozens are believed to have died.
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Amir Levy/Getty Images
Protesters in Tel Aviv called on Netanyahu to agree to a deal with Hamas to free the remaining 133 hostages held in Gaza, of whom dozens are believed to have died.
Amir Levy/Getty Images
In Israel, perhaps no voice is stronger than the voices of the families of hostages still held in Gaza. According to the Israeli government, of those kidnapped on October 7, 133 remain in captivity, dozens of whom are presumed dead.
Hamas released two hostage videos in the past week, giving itself leverage to increase pressure in the negotiations. In the videos, three of the remaining hostages – two of whom are American citizens – are seen alive.
The videos sparked outrage in Israel. Protests calling for new elections drew large crowds in Tel Aviv on Saturday.
At a news conference Monday, the families of the two hostages called on Netanyahu and the rest of his war cabinet to reach an agreement.
“If our government and Hamas cannot reach an agreement now, it is a very, very big step backwards,” Lee said. And no one can accept that – not Israel, not Hamas, not Gaza, not the Middle East, not the world.” Siegel, 72, brother of Keith Siegel, an Israeli-American man kidnapped from kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7 along with his wife, Aviva, who was released in the November ceasefire.
When Aviva was released, the family had hoped Keith, now 64, would be released soon after. Instead, the negotiations failed and Israel continued its military campaign. Keith has now been a hostage for more than 200 days.
Other family members had harsher words for right-wing ministers, who have threatened to stop supporting the government if Netanyahu rejects a hostage release deal.
“I recommend that Smotrich take off his kippah and stop saying he is Jewish, because those are not values,” said Dani Miran, whose son Omri appeared in a video this week. of the Judaism in which I was raised.”
Additionally, in an English-language video statement released Tuesday, Netanyahu criticized reports that the International Criminal Court is preparing to issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials on charges related to the war against Hamas.
“This would be an outrage of historic proportions,” Netanyahu said, evoking the origins of the international criminal court system immediately after World War II and the Holocaust.
Issuing an arrest warrant would be “pouring jet fuel on the fires of anti-Semitism that are already raging on America’s campuses and across capitals around the world,” he said. .
Reporting was contributed by Itay Stern in Tel Aviv.
