CAIRO/JERUSALEM, March 18 — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would keep on with the military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, where aid agencies say famine is looming, while ceasefire talks were set to resume.
Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting that Israel would push into Rafah, the last relatively safe place in the tiny, crowded Gaza enclave after more than five months of war, despite international pressure for Israel to avoid civilian casualties.
“We will operate in Rafah. This will take several weeks, and it will happen,” he said, without clarifying if he meant the assault would last for weeks or would begin in weeks.
Netanyahu later said after meeting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Jerusalem that Israel would not leave civilians trapped in Rafah when its forces begin their assault.
Israel‘s allies have piled pressure on Netanyahu not to attack Rafah, where more than a million displaced people from other parts of the devastated enclave have sought shelter, without a plan to protect civilians.
In Washington, at a St Patrick’s Day event at the White House with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, US President Joe Biden stressed the need to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza and get a ceasefire deal that brings Hamas-led hostages home. Biden said a move towards a two-state solution was “the only path for lasting peace and security.”
Varadkar said the people of Gaza desperately needed food, medicine and shelter. “Most especially, they need the bombs to stop. This has to stop on both sides, the hostages brought home, and humanitarian relief allowed in,” he said.
Varadkar said Israel must reverse its “precipitous” decision to authorise a land incursion into Rafah.
Netanyahu had hit out at his allies, saying: “Are your memories that short? Have you so quickly forgotten October 7, the most horrific massacre of Jews since the Holocaust? Are you so quick to deny Israel the right to defend itself against the Hamas monsters?”.
Speaking to Fox News, Netanyahu said a Palestinian state would be “the greatest reward for terrorism in history”.
— Reuters
