Israel threatens Rafah offensive at the start of Ramadan

Israeli Minister Benny Gantz has threatened to launch the planned offensive on Rafah at the start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. “The world needs to know and the Hamas leadership needs to know: If the hostages are not home by Ramadan, the fighting will continue everywhere, including in the Rafah region,” said the former Israeli army chief, who was part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet heard, on Sunday in Jerusalem. The Islamic fasting month of Ramadan is scheduled to begin around March 10th.

“To those who say the price is too high, I say clearly: Hamas has a choice. They can surrender, release the hostages and the civilians in Gaza can celebrate Ramadan,” Gantz told representatives of the Jewish umbrella organization Organizations in the USA.

Rafah: Benjamin Netanyahu insists on military offensive

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is insisting on a military offensive in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip despite international warnings. At the conference in Jerusalem, he reiterated his goal of “finishing the work of achieving total victory” over the radical Islamic group Hamas.

Gantz stressed that an Israeli offensive in Rafah would be coordinated and carried out in consultation with the United States and Egypt to enable the evacuation of civilians and “keep civilian casualties as low as possible.” However, it remained unclear where people should go to safety.

Netanyahu said on Saturday that anyone calling on Israel to abandon the offensive was essentially demanding that his country “lose the war” against the radical Islamic Hamas. At the same time, he emphasized that the offensive would also take place in the event of an agreement with Hamas to release the Israeli hostages. Even if such an agreement is reached, “we will move into Rafah,” said the head of government.

USA demands renunciation of offensive

In Rafah on the border with Egypt, around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge from the fighting. A number of countries, including Israel’s closest ally the USA, are therefore calling for the offensive to be abandoned.

Israel has been concentrating its military operations for weeks on the city of Khan Yunis, also in the south of the Gaza Strip. On Sunday, the army said soldiers continued to operate at Nasser Hospital and nearby, where they “found additional weapons.” Across the Gaza Strip, 127 people were killed in the past 24 hours, the Hamas Ministry of Health said on Sunday.

In an effort to achieve a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, a new round of negotiations began on Tuesday in the Egyptian capital Cairo. So far, the talks brokered by the USA, Egypt and Qatar have not produced any results. The developments of the past few days are “not particularly promising,” said Qatar’s Prime Minister Al-Thani on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.

Fighters from Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the EU and the USA, entered Israel on October 7th and committed atrocities there, mainly against civilians. According to Israeli information, around 1,160 people were killed and around 250 were taken hostage to the Gaza Strip. According to Israeli information, 130 of the hostages are still in the Palestinian territory and 30 of them are said to be dead.

In response to the Hamas attack, Israel set its goal of destroying Hamas. According to Hamas figures, which cannot be independently verified, more than 28,900 people have been killed in the massive military operation in the Gaza Strip.