Europe 1 with AFP // Credits: Abir SULTAN / POOL / AFP 5:21 p.m., February 11, 2024
Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed this Sunday that the Israeli army would provide “safe passage” before the planned assault on the town of Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, during an interview with an American channel. More than a million Palestinians have taken refuge there and the international community is concerned about their protection.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed that the Israeli army would provide "safe passage" before the planned assault on the town of Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, during an interview with an American channel broadcast on Sunday. The population of this town in the far south of the coastal territory, near the Egyptian border, has increased more than fivefold in recent weeks, with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the war. More than 1.3 million Palestinians have taken refuge there and the international community is concerned about their protection while Mr. Netanyahu has ordered the army to prepare an offensive on Rafah.
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Gaza: Benjamin Netanyahu orders the Israeli army to “prepare” an offensive on Rafah
"Victory is within reach. We are going to do it. We are going to take the last terrorist battalions of Hamas and Rafah, which is the last bastion," Netanyahu said on ABC News. “We will do it (...) while ensuring safe passage for the civilian population so that they can leave” the scene, he added. “We are developing a detailed plan to achieve this,” he added, “we are not approaching this casually.” He mentioned areas north of Rafah that have been cleared and could be used as safe zones for civilians, he said.
Hamas is warned "against a catastrophe and a massacre which could result in tens of thousands" of deaths. EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell said an offensive on Rafah "would lead to an indescribable humanitarian catastrophe."
Assessment and battalions
The United States, Israel's main ally, said it did not support a ground offensive in Rafah, warning that if not properly planned, such an operation could result in "a disaster." US President Joe Biden raised his voice against Israel on Thursday, deeming its “response” to the October 7 attack “excessive”. Benjamin Netanyahu responded to critics worrying about the fate of civilians in the event of an offensive on Rafah: "those who say that we absolutely must not enter Rafah are in reality telling us that we must lose the war , and leave Hamas there.
Speaking further on the toll of the war (more than 28,000 Palestinians were killed, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza), the Israeli Prime Minister said he had to be "cautious with Hamas statistics". “We have killed and injured more than 20,000 Hamas terrorists, including around 12,000 fighters,” he said, without explaining the distinction made between “terrorists” and “fighters”. “And we are doing everything possible to minimize civilian casualties,” he added.
“The ratio is less than 1 to 1”
"We have reduced the number of civilian casualties compared to that of terrorists, (we have reduced) the ratio to less than 1:1, which is considerably lower than in any other similar theater of war," he said. he rocks. Mr. Netanyahu also claimed that Israel had "disabled 18 of their 24 terrorist battalions." When asked by a journalist how he knew that Hamas had been completely eliminated, the Prime Minister replied: "you are not obliged to kill every last terrorist."
“It was not necessary to kill every last one of the Islamic State terrorists. But we made sure that ISIS was finished as a military force. Hamas must be dismantled as a military force that controls territory. It is within reach and we should not stop,” he said.