The Israeli Prime Minister said on Wednesday February 7 that he had ordered the army to “prepare” an offensive on Rafah, the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip, estimating that victory over Hamas was “a matter of months”. , during a speech broadcast on Israeli television.
An offensive on Rafah has been feared for several days while the city, located on the border with Egypt, today hosts the majority of the population of the Palestinian territory, pushed towards the south by the fighting which has been raging since October . More than 1.3 million displaced people, five times the city's original population, are crowded there in desperate conditions, according to the UN.
“Our heroic soldiers are currently fighting in Khan Yunis, the main Hamas stronghold. We ordered the Israeli Defense Forces to prepare an operation in Rafah as well as in two [refugee] camps, the last remaining strongholds of Hamas,” the head of government said. “Victory is within reach. It’s not measured in years or decades, it’s a matter of months,” he then assured, four months to the day after the Hamas attack in Israel which sparked the war.
While the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken is currently in Israel to discuss a new truce agreement between the two parties, Benjamin Netanyahu also declared that he refused to comply with the demands of the Palestinian Islamist movement, because that would not do according to him that “lead to another massacre.” “Continued military pressure is an essential condition for the release of the hostages. Giving in to the delusional demands of Hamas (…) will not only not lead to the release of the hostages, but will result in another massacre, and a disaster for the State of Israel that none of its citizens are prepared to accept. he said.
These declarations come as the United States, Qatar and Egypt increase efforts to push the belligerents to lay down their arms to allow the release of Israeli hostages still detained and Palestinian prisoners as well as the delivery of aid. more significant humanitarian action in the besieged Palestinian territory.
