2024-02-15 02:15:44
Israel will continue its offensive against Hamas in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip as soon as civilians withdraw from the fighting zone. This was stated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, quoted by world agencies.
“We will fight until complete victory, and this includes decisive action in Rafah as well, after allowing the civilian population to leave the combat zones,” the Israeli prime minister wrote on social networks, quoted by BTA.
Netanyahu, who is under growing international pressure to delay the planned operation, did not give a timeline for when the attack would begin or where the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who have flocked to Rafah would go.
He made the announcement a day after talks in Cairo on a possible ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas ended inconclusively. This raised fears among displaced Palestinians that Israel would soon storm Rafah.
Earlier Israel says it wants to evict militants from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas from their hideouts in Rafah and release the hostages held there. Israeli officials have also indicated that they are drawing up plans for the evacuation of Palestinian civilians.
More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are currently sheltered in Rafah. Many of the people are housed in tents next to the fence along the border with Egypt.
The war in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip began after militants from the Islamist group attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli figures. In response, the Israeli military launched the Gaza offensive, which according to Palestinian health authorities has killed around 28,000 Palestinians so far. There are thousands more bodies under the rubble of the destroyed buildings.