Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday that “international pressure” would not prevent Israel from launching an offensive in Rafah, a city 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 Benjamin Netanyahu at the start of his government meeting, according to a press release sent by his services.
Benjamin Netanyahu intends to eliminate “the last battalions of Hamas”
“We will act in Rafah, it will take a few weeks and it will happen,” he added. These statements come as Benjamin 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 Benjamin 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 the humanitarian crisis is major there. 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.
Benjamin 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. There needs to be 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. 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 Israeli plan” in this sense, he stressed.
“If we stop the war now, Israel will have lost”
Benjamin Netanyahu is under increasing international pressure, notably from US President Joe Biden who on Friday welcomed the “good speech” given by the leader of 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 Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish figure in the American legislative branch, as “completely inappropriate “.
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”, denounced the Israeli Prime Minister on Sunday, quoted by his services . “If we stop the war now (…) Israel will have lost the war. We will not allow it. That is why we will not give in to these pressures,” he continued, accusing the international community of having “forgotten October 7 so quickly”.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 in Israel by the Islamist movement which resulted in the death of at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. Israelis.