Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today assured German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is visiting Jerusalem, that Israel will not launch a military operation in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, as long as the population is trapped there.
Launching the operation in Rafah "is not something we will do if the population remains in that place. In fact, we will do the opposite," Netanyahu said as the international community fears the possibility of an attack on the city, home to about 1,5 million Palestinians.
Netanyahu said he would not accept a peace that would make Israel "weak" compared to its neighbors in the Middle East.
The Israeli Prime Minister said this as a possible truce is currently being negotiated in the Gaza Strip, after more than five months of war.
"If we are offered an agreement, a path to peace that makes Israel weak and unable to defend itself... it will set back peace," he told reporters after meeting with Scholz.
The German chancellor, for his part, called for an "agreement on the hostages and a permanent ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip and added that he understands "the families of the hostages who say that the time has come for an agreement to save the captives."
In the attacks on the south of Israel on October 7, Palestinian extremists led by Hamas killed about 1.200 people and kidnapped and took about 250 hostages to the Gaza Strip.
After that, a war broke out in which more than 31.000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza to date. Another 130 hostages are believed to be held in Gaza, but not all are known to be alive.
(BETA)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said today, after a conversation with Jordanian King Abdullah in Aqaba, that a large number of civilian victims, as a result of a possible Israeli attack on the town of Rafah in Gaza, will make it very difficult to achieve regional peace.
He announced that it will be one of the main topics in the conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, later today as part of Scholz's visit to the region.
The hastily arranged talks were preceded by Netanyahu's approval of the Rafah offensive plan on Friday, according to Israeli media.
Soltz assessed that a long-term ceasefire should now be ensured, the agencies reported.
"That would allow us to prevent such a ground offensive from happening," the German chancellor said.
When asked if he was ready to put pressure on Netanyahu to stop the attack, Scholz replied that it is very clear that everything must be done so that the situation does not become worse than it is.
"Israel has every right to defend itself. At the same time, it cannot be that those in Gaza who fled to Rafah are under direct threat from every military action and operation that is undertaken there," said Soltz.
The Israeli army plans to enter Rafah to supposedly eliminate the last stronghold of Hamas.
Israel believes some hostages and Hamas leaders are in Rafah. In February, Israeli special forces freed two Israeli hostages from an apartment in that city.
More than half of Gaza's residents fled to Rafah during the war sparked by Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7.
The ensuing offensive on Gaza displaced most of its 2,3 million inhabitants, killed thousands of civilians, and resulted in shortages of food, water and medicine.
Scholz did not directly answer the question of whether Germany would respond to a large-scale offensive in Rafah, for example by restricting German arms exports to Israel.
Germany is one of Israel's most loyal allies, along with the US, and constantly supports that country's right to defend itself and emphasizes Germany's duty to stand by it, as a sign of atonement for the Nazi Holocaust in the last century, in which six million Jews were killed.
(Beta)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned today that international pressure will not prevent Israel from launching an offensive on Rafah, a city in the extreme south of the Gaza Strip, where, according to the UN, almost 1,5 million Palestinians have fled the conflict.
"No international pressure will prevent us from achieving all the goals of the war against the Palestinian organization Hamas. We will act in Rafah, it will take several weeks, but it will happen," Netanyahu said at the beginning of the session of the Government of Israel.
Netanyahu criticized those "in the international community who are trying to stop the war now, before all goals are achieved."
Netanyahu's statement is an allusion to last week's call for elections in Israel, by US Senator Chuck Schumer, and the growing criticism of the White House on the way the war in Gaza is being conducted, according to Israeli media.
The Prime Minister of Israel assessed that those who want to stop the war are using false accusations against the Israeli army, the government and the prime minister, and are trying to win elections in the middle of the war.
Referring to Israel's "friends in the international community," Netanyahu asked if they have short memories.
"Have you so quickly forgotten October 7, the most horrific massacre committed against Jews since the Holocaust? Are you so quick to deny Israel the right to defend itself against the monster Hamas? Have you lost your moral conscience so quickly," Netanyahu asked.
He called for international pressure to be focused on Hamas and Iran, instead of Israel.
In addition, he reiterated the goals of the war, the elimination of Hamas, the release of all Israeli hostages and that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.
Netanyahu also promised that the Israeli army would operate in Rafah "cautiously".
"Those who say that the operation in Rafah will not continue are the same ones who said that we will not enter Gaza, that we will not operate in the hospital in Shifa, that we will not operate in Khan Younis and that we will not renew the fight after the one-week ceasefire in November," he concluded. is Netanyahu.
(BETA)
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said today that Israel is committed to returning home all hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Galant, speaking at a memorial service at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem for fallen Israeli soldiers whose final resting place is unknown, said that dedication is true in the battles now and will be true in all of Israel's wars.
"In addition to the 112 live hostages returned under the agreement and in operational activities, the Israeli Army (IDF) and Shin Bet (Israeli Security Service) personnel also returned eleven killed hostages to be buried in Israel," the defense minister said.
He added that the defense establishment under his leadership is obliged to "use every possibility, including the current one, to return the hostages to their families," Israeli media reported.
Another 130 hostages are believed to be held in Gaza, but not all are known to be alive.
The families of the hostages protested last night in Tel Aviv as well as near the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
Addressing the crowd, the government of Israel was publicly appealed to reach an agreement on a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of the hostages as soon as possible, so that everyone who has been in captivity for 162 days can return home.
It is expected that the Israeli delegation will soon travel to Qatar for the continuation of the ceasefire negotiations.
(BETA)
The Health Ministry of Hamas announced today a new balance - 31.645 people killed in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist organization.
Among the victims, 92 were killed in the past 24 hours, the announcement added, and the total number of wounded since October 7, when the war began, reached 73.676, France Press reported.
The ministry in Gaza does not distinguish between civilians and fighters, but it was previously reported that the majority of those killed were women and children.
Israel said the Israeli military killed at least 13.000 Hamas members in Gaza, with around 1.000 more killed in southern Israeli territory on the first day of the war. Then Palestinian extremists led by Hamas killed around 1.200 people and took 250 hostages.
(Beta)
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