Israel to attack Rafah in event of ceasefire, says Netanyahu

ISRAEL will attack the city of Rafah in southern Gaza regardless of whether or not a ceasefire and hostage release deal is reached, Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday.

According to a statement from his office, the Israeli prime minister said: “The idea that we will stop the war before achieving all its objectives is out of the question.”

It came after reports that Israel would only invade Rafah if Hamas refused to accept a ceasefire deal. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has approved final plans for a military manoeuvre in Rafah, the only large city in Gaza largely unaffected by fighting, and has made arrangements for the evacuation of civilians from there, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported yesterday. Mr Netanyahu, who was hosting Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, in Tel Aviv yesterday morning, was scheduled to meet last night with Itamar Ben-gvir, his national security minister, who is staunchly opposed to a ceasefire.

On Monday, top Western officials including Mr Blinken and Lord Cameron urged Hamas to accept an “extraordinarily generous” deal on the table.

A Hamas delegation has already left Cairo where the mediated talks are being held and is expected to return today with a written response to the proposal.

Senior US officials previously complained that Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, appeared to be the only stumbling block to the deal.

Israel has reportedly moderated its demand of getting 40 vulnerable hostages released in the first phase of the deal to 33, whereas Hamas insists it does not have more than 20 hostages who would be female, underage, injured or elderly.

The deal would also allow displaced Palestinians to return to what is left of their homes in the badly damaged north of Gaza.

Israel has reportedly agreed for Egyptian officials, not IDF soldiers, to conduct security checks for those wishing to go back north.

Mr Blinken was set to meet with Israeli leadership later yesterday in a bid to reaffirm Israel’s agreement to the hostage deal and dissuade it from invading Rafah, something that Washington staunchly opposes.

‘The idea that we will stop the war before achieving all of its objectives is out of the question’