Netanyahu says Israeli troops will enter Rafah despite ‘international pressure’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israeli forces would launch a planned ground offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza, raising concerns about mass civilian casualties.

“No amount of international pressure can prevent us from achieving all the goals of the war: destroy Hamas, free all our hostages and ensure that Gaza is no longer a threat to Israel,” Netanyahu said in a video released during a cabinet meeting. Threat.” Office.

“To this end, we will also launch operations in Rafah.”

His comments come as Doha is expected to resume talks to achieve a truce in Gaza. Israel has been conducting operations against Hamas militants in Gaza for more than five months.

Netanyahu’s office said Israeli cabinet members would discuss the negotiating team’s “mission” later on Sunday.

He will also meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is expected to reiterate his warning about Rafa’s ground offensive.

Most of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have sought refuge in the southern city from Israel’s relentless bombing.

US President Joe Biden, who has supported Israel during the war, said invading Rafah would be a “red line” unless a credible civilian protection plan was put in place.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the United Nations World Health Organization, called on Israel on Friday “in the name of humanity” not to launch attacks.

Netanyahu’s office said on Friday he had approved the military’s plan for an operation in Rafah but gave no timetable.

Elections will ‘paralyze’ Israel

Rafah is the last major population center in the Gaza Strip that has not been hit by ground attacks in the war, which was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7.

The attack killed about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli data.

On October 7, Hamas seized about 250 Israeli and foreign hostages. Israel believes that about 130 of them remain in Gaza, and 32 of them are suspected to be dead.

According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled region, Israeli military operations have killed at least 31,645 people in Gaza, mostly women and children.

Netanyahu on Sunday also criticized “those in the international community who are trying to prevent the war by making “false accusations” against Israel and its troops.”

Israel faces ongoing criticism over civilian casualties in Gaza and severe aid shortfalls, fueling fears of famine.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for new elections in Israel on Thursday, sparking an angry boycott from Netanyahu’s Likud party, which said Israel was “not a banana republic.”

Netanyahu said on Sunday that new elections would “stop the war and paralyze the country for at least six months.”

“If we stop the war before all goals are achieved, that means Israel has lost the war and we will not allow that to happen.”

In his first public response to Schumer, Netanyahu called the lawmaker’s comments “completely inappropriate” and insisted that most Israelis support the war.

“If Senator Schumer opposes these policies, he is not against me; he is against the people of Israel,” Netanyahu told CNN on Sunday.

Meanwhile, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby warned there were “concerns” about Israel’s looming Operation Rafah.

“We will not and cannot support an operation in Rafah that does not have an enforceable, verifiable, achievable plan to care for the 150 people trying to seek asylum in Rafah,” Kirby told Fox News on Sunday. Thousands of people.”

Kirby added that the Biden administration would “certainly welcome” the opportunity to study the Rafah plan before acting.

“We haven’t seen it yet.”