Rafah op would be a huge mistake
‘Too many killed’ • Israel to release over 700 terrorists in deal – report
“Any major military operation in Gaza would be a huge mistake,” US Vice President Kamala Harris told ABC News in an interview aired Sunday.
“I have studied the maps, there’s nowhere for those folks to go, and we’re looking at about a million and a half people in Rafah who are there because they were told to go there,” Harris added.
On the topic of Israeli elections, Harris told ABC that it is “on the Israeli people to make a decision about when they will have an election and who they elect.”
Harris made the comment after being asked by ABC if she agreed that US President Joe Biden’s description of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s speech, in which he called for an election in Israel to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was a “good speech.”
Then, when asked if Netanyahu was “an obstacle to peace,” Harris avoided answering the question directly, responding that the administration must “continue to enforce what we know to be and should be the priorities in terms of what is happening in Gaza.”
She also added that “we have been very clear [that] far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”
“We will go into Rafah and
we will achieve a total victory,” Netanyahu said defiantly Sunday night at a reading of the Book of Esther with Military Police soldiers.
“We destroyed Haman, we will destroy Sinwar as well,” he added.
Later in the evening, Israel signaled openness to allowing the return of Palestinians displaced from the northern Gaza Strip as part of truce talks, an apparent accommodation of a core Hamas demand.
The warring sides have
stepped up negotiations, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, on a six-week suspension of Israel’s offensive in return for the proposed release of 40 of the 130 hostages still held by the terrorist group in Gaza.
Hamas has sought to parlay any deal into an end to the fighting and withdrawal of Israeli forces. Israel has ruled this out, saying it would eventually resume efforts to dismantle the governance and military capabilities of Hamas.
Hamas also wants hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled Gaza City and surrounding areas southward during the first stage of the almost six-month-old war to be allowed back north.
Israel initially refused to do so. But that position has softened, an Israeli official briefed on the Doha talks said.
“We are now willing to discuss a return of some of the displaced,” the official told Reuters, without elaborating
on numbers. Israeli media have speculated that the offer would be limited to women and children, to bar gunmen trying to reinforce those the IDF is still battling in parts of Gaza City.
The official, who requested anonymity, said Israel has also agreed in principle to release between 700 and 800 Palestinian prisoners in return for the 40 hostages.
That appeared to meet a demand of a Hamas proposal for between 700 and 1,000 prisoners to be released.
The Israeli official cautioned, however, that any final decision would hinge on how many of the prisoners were senior militants serving long sentences for lethal attacks.