{"id":2689,"date":"2024-03-17T22:06:45","date_gmt":"2024-03-17T22:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/17\/israel-hamas-war-benjamin-netanyahu-vows-to-push-ahead-with-assault-on-rafah-despite-international-criticism\/"},"modified":"2024-03-17T22:06:45","modified_gmt":"2024-03-17T22:06:45","slug":"israel-hamas-war-benjamin-netanyahu-vows-to-push-ahead-with-assault-on-rafah-despite-international-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/17\/israel-hamas-war-benjamin-netanyahu-vows-to-push-ahead-with-assault-on-rafah-despite-international-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel-Hamas war: Benjamin Netanyahu vows to push ahead with assault on Rafah, despite international criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Israel-Hamas<\/div>


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A defiant Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with a long-expected assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, despite international criticism.<\/p>\n

The Israeli prime minister was speaking on Sunday following a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as he reiterated his promise to “eliminate the remaining terrorist battalions in Rafah”.<\/p>\n

But he also said this promise “goes hand in hand with enabling the civilian population to leave”, although he gave no details as to where they could go.<\/p>\n

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\n Image:<\/span>
\n Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Pic: Reuters
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“It’s not something we will do while keeping the population locked in place,” he said of the planned assault.<\/p>\n

“In fact, we’ll do the very opposite – we will enable them to leave because our consideration for reducing and minimising civilian casualties has guided us and will continue to guide us in future.”<\/p>\n

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza was launched in the wake of Hamas’s 7 October attack<\/a><\/strong>, when the militant group killed 1,200 people and abducted more than 250, some of whom are still hostages.<\/p>\n

As the conflict approaches the end of its sixth month and with little progress in ceasefire talks<\/a><\/strong>, the number of Palestinians killed has passed 31,000, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, although those figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Children\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Children waiting for food in Rafah, in southern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Israel’s offensive has driven most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes, more than one million of them sheltering in Rafah.<\/p>\n

A quarter of the population is starving, according to the UN, with aid organisations struggling to get food through due to Israeli restrictions and security concerns.<\/p>\n

In desperation, a small group of countries has resorted to dropping aid from the air and deliveries have finally been going by sea – but neither of these makes up for the capacity that should be brought in by road.<\/p>\n

Read more:
America pressed on Rafah operation<\/a><\/strong>
Dozens killed as they waited for aid, Gaza health ministry says<\/a>
Analysis – the West has lost patience over Gaza aid<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Commenting on the possibility of an offensive on Rafah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sissi said it would have “grave repercussions on the whole region”.<\/p>\n

And Mr Scholz, after his Sunday meeting with Mr Netanyahu, warned: “The more desperate the situation of people in Gaza becomes, the more this begs the question: No matter how important the goal, can it justify such terribly high costs, or are there other ways to achieve your goal?”<\/p>\n

Even some in the US, Israel’s staunchest ally, have been losing patience with Mr Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

US Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in America and a strong Israel supporter, said Israel should hold a new election<\/a><\/strong>, saying Mr Netanyahu had “lost his way”.<\/p>\n

The Israeli PM said the comments were “wholly inappropriate”, adding that his country was “not a banana republic”, but US President Joe Biden described Mr Schumer’s words as a “good speech”.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

On Sunday, Mr Netanyahu insisted: “Hamas has to be eliminated.<\/p>\n

“We cannot have a future for Gaza, a future for peace, a future for Israel, if Hamas – a terrorist organisation committed to our genocide – remains in tact.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A defiant Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with a long-expected assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, despite international criticism. The Israeli prime minister was speaking on Sunday following a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as he reiterated his promise to “eliminate the remaining terrorist battalions in Rafah”. But he also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/03\/768x432\/skynews-netanyahu-israel_6493512.jpg?20240317175341","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[203,4760,4757,4762,27,3246,4758,4759,4761,3961,3102],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2691,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689\/revisions\/2691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}