Israel threatens to continue its offensive in Gaza during Ramadan
Israel continues to increase pressure on Rafah, in the south of Gaza, and is still preparing an offensive in this city which already hosts nearly a million and a half Palestinian refugees.
Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, during an Israeli bombardment on February 19, 2024. AFP - SAID KHATIB
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Israel is preparing to launch a ground offensive on the town of Rafah, south of the Palestinian enclave, if the hostages are not released by Ramadan, that is to say around March 10. Military operations which could take place for another six to eight weeks, said four Israeli military officials.
“
The world must know and Hamas leaders must know. If by Ramadan, our hostages are not at home, the fighting will continue everywhere, including in the Rafah region
,” Benny Gantz, a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet, warned on Sunday. “
Hamas has a choice. They can surrender, free the hostages and the civilians of Gaza will thus be able to celebrate the festival of Ramadan
”, the Muslim month of fasting.
The planned ground assault on Rafah is intended to significantly damage Hamas' remaining capabilities. “
Rafah is the last bastion of Hamas and there are battalions left there that Israel must dismantle to achieve its
objectives
in this war
,” explained Avi Melamed, a former head of Israeli intelligence services.
For its part, Hamas says it is ready for a long war in Rafah. According to a Hamas official based in Qatar, the Palestinian Islamist group estimates it has lost 6,000 fighters since the start of the conflict, or half of the 12,000 fighters Israel claims to have killed. “
Netanyahu’s options are difficult and so are ours. It may occupy Gaza, but Hamas is still standing and fighting. It did not achieve its goal of killing Hamas leaders or annihilating Hamas
.”
Also read: Palestinians trapped in Gaza: flee at all costs, “but to go where?”
What fate for civilian refugees in Rafah?
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant indicated that “
extraordinary measures
” would be taken to protect civilians in Rafah, without specifying which ones. More than a million Palestinian civilians are in fact refugees in the south of the Gaza Strip, raising fears of a humanitarian catastrophe in this border town with Egypt.
According to an Israeli security source and an international aid official, residents could be subject to identity checks to ensure they are not Hamas fighters before being transported. be sent north. Another Israeli source said Israel could also build a floating jetty north of Rafah to allow international aid to arrive by sea.
The Hamas Ministry of Health announced a new toll: 29,000 people have died in the Gaza Strip since the start of Israeli retaliation after the Hamas attack on October 7. 69,000 people were also injured.
Two Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon
Two large-scale Israeli strikes simultaneously targeted the town of Ghaziyeh on Monday, near Saida, the main city in southern Lebanon, reported the National News Agency (ANI, official) and an AFP photographer. ANI indicated that “
Israeli warplanes carried out several strikes in Ghaziyeh
”, located around thirty kilometers from the border with Israel. One of the strikes targeted a car, according to the agency, which adds that ambulances went to the scene, without further details. An AFP photographer reported that at least two explosions rang out within seconds of each other in Ghaziyeh. One of the raids targeted a warehouse located near the coastal highway and above which a thick cloud of smoke was escaping. Videos circulating on social media showed clouds of black smoke hovering over two different locations.
Since the unprecedented attack by Palestinian Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, Lebanese Hezbollah has exchanged deadly fire with the Israeli army on the Israeli-Lebanese border. The Shiite party says it is targeting Israeli military positions in support of the Islamist movement Hamas, after the war launched by Israel against its ally in Gaza. The Israeli army responds with aerial and artillery bombardments which it says target the party's "
infrastructure
" and the movements of fighters near the border.
(With agencies)
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