Daily Sabah (Turkey)

Tel Aviv ignores int’l outcry, sets Rafah assault deadline

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ignored a growing internatio­nal outcry to threaten an invasion of southern Gaza’s Rafah by March if Hamas did not return the remaining Israeli captives.

The planned offensive, which now looks even more likely, will coincide with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan when the faithful observe daylong fasting.

With prospects for truce talks dimmed, the U.S. and other government­s, as well as the United Nations, have issued increasing­ly urgent appeals to spare Rafah, where over a million Palestinia­ns have sought shelter from Israel’s war.

The Israeli government says the city on the Egypt border is the last remaining stronghold in Gaza of the Palestinia­n resistance group Hamas.

But it is also where three-quarters of the displaced Palestinia­n population has fled, taking shelter in sprawling tent encampment­s without access to adequate food, water or medicine.

“The world must know, and Hamas leaders must know – if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue everywhere, including the Rafah area,” Benny Gantz, a retired military chief of staff, told a conference of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday.

‘TOTAL VICTORY’

“Hamas has a choice. They can surrender, release the hostages and the civilians of Gaza can celebrate the feast of Ramadan,” added Gantz, a member of the three-person war Cabinet.

Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, is expected to begin around March 10.

Gantz said the offensive will be carried out in coordinati­on with American and Egyptian partners to “minimize the civilian casualties as much as possible.”

But where Palestinia­ns can go after four months of war have flattened vast swathes of the Strip remains unclear.

For weeks, internatio­nal mediators have sought to broker a truce-for-hostages deal that would pause fighting for six weeks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has played down the possibilit­y of an impending breakthrou­gh, calling Hamas’ demands “delusional.”

Even if a deal is struck, he insists the campaign to eliminate Hamas from Gaza will not be completed until clearing Rafah.

“Deal or no deal, we have to finish the job to get total victory,” he said at the Jerusalem conference Sunday.

‘CRYING FROM HUNGER’

Earlier Sunday morning, dozens of Israelis blocked Gaza-bound aid trucks from entering through the Nitzana crossing with Egypt, AFP reporters and

the Palestinia­n Red Crescent Society said.

Gazans say they are going so hungry they are grinding animal feed into flour.

“My children are starving, they wake up crying from hunger. Where do I get food for them?” a northern Gazan woman told AFP.

The U.N. agency for Palestinia­n refugees said nearly three in four people are drinking contaminat­ed water.

“The speed of deteriorat­ion in Gaza is unpreceden­ted,” it said.

After a weeklong siege, the largest hospital still functional in Gaza is no

longer operationa­l, according to the World Health Organizati­on (WHO).

At least 20 of the 200 patients still at the Nasser Hospital urgently require relocation to other facilities, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu­s said, adding that his organizati­on “was not permitted to enter” the site.

Seven patients, including a child, have died there since Friday due to power cuts, and “70 medical staff including intensive care doctors” have been arrested, according to the Gazan Health Ministry.

 ?? ?? Displaced Palestinia­n children stand near a tent in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Palestine, Feb. 18, 2024.
Displaced Palestinia­n children stand near a tent in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Palestine, Feb. 18, 2024.

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