There’s no force in the world that will stop us
Netanyahu vows to invade Rafah
BENJAMIN Netanyahu has strengthened his threat to invade southern Gaza’s Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering.
Despite repeated US warnings against the attack the Israeli PM vowed: “We will complete the elimination of the Hamas battalions including in Rafah.
“There is no force in the world that will stop us.” Even as he spoke there were reports of a strike on Rafah, despite warnings by US President Joe Biden it will be a “mistake”.
Netanyahu says the Israeli Defence Force has set a date for the move and there are reports 40,000 refugee tents have been bought for an evacuation.
Netanyahu added there are “many forces” trying to halt the Rafah attack, adding “but it will not help because this enemy, after what is has done, will not do it again, it will cease to exist.”
The US has also demanded a credible plan to protect civilians. It is believed there are around four battalions, representing several thousand Hamas fighters, in tunnels beneath Rafah.
Israel believes Hamas militants are regrouping there ahead of the threatened attack and amid reports as many as 33,200 Palestinians have died in Gaza and 76,000 have been wounded in fighting. Two thirds of the dead are believed to be women and children.
Israel overnight brought down a suspected Houthi drone over the Red Sea in the first deployment of its “naval Iron Dome” missile defence system.
The system was fired from a Corvette warship as the drone hurtled towards the southern city of Eilat.
Israel’s new maritime missile defences are called the “C-dome” and is a naval version of the Iron Dome it has used against Hamas rockets fired from Gaza for the past decade.
Mapping experts have described the devastation left by the Israeli onslaught in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. They say over half of the city’s buildings, 55%, have been damaged or destroyed in the Israeli onslaught, sparked by the October 7 Hamas attack which killed 1,200.
The aerial study by the CUNY Graduate Centre and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University say the destruction accounts for 45,000 buildings. But that is much less than in the north of Gaza where 70% of the buildings are damaged or
destroyed.