Netanyahu vows to press ahead with Rafah offensive

CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel will press ahead with an offensive against Hamas in Rafah, the last refuge for displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza, after allowing civilians to vacate the area, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

Netanyahu, who is under growing international pressure to hold off on the planned assault, gave no indication as to when the offensive might take place or where the hundreds of thousands of people now crammed into Rafah might go.

Netanyahu’s comments came a day after talks in Cairo on a possible ceasefire and the handover of hostages held by Hamas ended inconclusively, stoking fears among the displaced Palestinians that Israel would soon storm Rafah, which abuts Egypt.

“We will fight until complete victory and this includes a powerful action in Rafah as well, after we allow the civilian population to leave the battle zones,” Netanyahu said on his Telegram account.

Earlier, Netanyahu’s office said

Hamas had presented no new offer for a hostage deal in the Cairo talks and that Israel would not accept the militant group’s “ludicrous demands.”

“A change in Hamas’ positions will make it possible to move forward in the negotiations,” it said.

Relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas said they would barricade the Israeli defense headquarters on Wednesday in protest at what they said was a scandalous decision by Israel not to send negotiators to the next session of the Cairo talks.

The move “amounts to a death sentence” for the 134 hostages in Hamas’ tunnels, the group said, in a sign of growing domestic dissent in Israel after four months of the Gaza war.