Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned yesterday that international pressure will not prevent Israel from launching an offensive in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where there are almost 1.5 million Palestinians, according to the UN.
“No international pressure will prevent us from achieving all the objectives of our war” against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting of his government, according to a statement released by his office.
“We will act in Rafah, it will take a few weeks, but it will happen”, added the Israeli prime minister.
Netanyahu made these statements on the day he receives German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, before convening the security cabinet to determine the position of the Israeli delegation that will soon visit Qatar for discussions on a possible six-week truce and a hostage exchange. by Palestinian prisoners.
On Friday, following the announcement of Netanyahu’s approval of the army’s “action plans” for an offensive in Rafah, the German Foreign Ministry insisted that such an offensive had “no justification”.
“More than a million people have taken refuge in this region (Rafah) and have nowhere to go. A ceasefire is necessary now”, added German diplomats.
A possible offensive in Rafah, where Netanyahu intends to eliminate “the last Hamas battalions”, is feared by the international community, when the death toll has already exceeded 31,500 people in the Gaza Strip, according to Hamas authorities.
Washington has been warning for several weeks about the risk to the civilian population of Rafah and the White House demanded, on Friday, to verify Israel’s “plans” for this offensive.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) urged Israel, on Saturday, to renounce this attack “in the name of humanity”.
The war in the Gaza Strip was triggered after the Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians, and more than 240 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.