Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: MATEUSZ WLODARCZYK / NURPHOTO / NURPHOTO VIA AFP 7:37 p.m., February 7, 2024

Believing that victory over Hamas was "a matter of months", Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, declared on Wednesday that he had ordered the army to "prepare" an offensive on Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. The city today accommodates the majority of the territory's population. 

The Israeli Prime Minister said on Wednesday that he had ordered the army to "prepare" an offensive on Rafah, the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip, estimating that victory over Hamas was "a matter of months". In a television speech, Benjamin Netanyahu also estimated that complying with the demands of the Palestinian terrorist movement would only "lead to another massacre", while the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken has been in Israel since Tuesday evening to discuss a truce agreement.

An offensive on Rafah has been feared for several days while the city, located on the border with Egypt, today hosts the majority of the population of the Palestinian territory, pushed towards the south by the fighting which has raged since October . More than 1.3 million displaced people, five times the city's original population, are crowded there in desperate conditions, according to the UN.

“Victory is within reach”

"Our heroic soldiers are currently fighting in Khan Yunis, the main stronghold of Hamas. We have ordered the Israeli Defense Forces to prepare an operation in Rafah as well as in two (refugee) camps, the last remaining strongholds of Hamas," explained the head of government. “Victory is within reach. It cannot be counted in years or decades, it is a matter of months,” he assured, four months to the day after the Hamas attack on Israel which started the war.

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"Continued military pressure is an essential condition for the release of the hostages. Capitulating to the delusional demands of Hamas (...) will not only not lead to the release of the hostages, but will result in another massacre, and a disaster for the State of Israel that none of its citizens are prepared to accept.” These declarations come as the United States, Qatar and Egypt increase efforts to push the belligerents to lay down their arms to allow the release of Israeli hostages still detained and Palestinian prisoners as well as the delivery of aid more significant humanitarian action in the besieged Palestinian territory.