Benjamin Netanyahu says a date has been set to invade the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The prime minister of the Israeli regime made that blatant statement on Tuesday despite growing international warnings that such an invasion could lead to high civilian casualties.
In the video statement, Netanyahu reiterated his position that Israel will proceed with the ground military operation.
Rafah borders Egypt and more than 1.5 million Palestinians are now sheltering there.
“It will happen. There is a date,” Netanyahu said.
“There is no force in the world that will stop us. There are many forces that are trying to do so, but it will not help since this enemy, after what it did, will never do it again.”
Israel faces tremendous international pressure to end its genocidal war in Gaza and allow more humanitarian aid into the starving territory as dire shortages push its population on the brink of famine.
The United Nation says Israel is blocking far more convoys carrying food aid within Gaza, than convoys carrying other kinds of aid.
Netanyahu is also being pushed to agree a captive-prisoner swap and ceasefire deal by many Israeli protesters as well as it key Western allies, including the US. His popularity has plummeted after six months of savagery in Gaza.
The United States continues to publicly oppose Israel’s invasion of Rafah.
Following Netanyahu’s announcement, US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller said Washington has not been fully briefed on any new Rafah developments.
“We have made clear to Israel that we think a full-scale military invasion of Rafah would have an enormously harmful effect on those civilians and that it would ultimately hurt Israel’s security,” Miller said.
Meanwhile, the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and France wrote a joint op-ed that called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, as demanded by a United Nations Security Council resolution passed in late March.
“We warn against the dangerous consequences of an Israeli offensive on Rafah, where more than 1.5 million Palestinian civilians have sought refuge. Such an offensive will only bring more deaths and suffering, heighten the risks and consequences of mass forcible displacement of the people of Gaza and threaten regional escalation,” said the leaders.
Rafah invasion can blow up truce talks
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas was presented with a new proposal in ceasefire talks at the end of the weekend in Cairo.
The resistance group confirmed in a statement that it is reviewing the proposal, but said Israel “has not responded to any of the demands of our people and our resistance.”
Senior Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zahry said Netanyahu’s remarks “raise questions about the purpose of resuming negotiations.”
“The success of any negotiations depends on ending the aggression,” said Zahry, adding that the group’s “demands are clear: an end to aggression against our people.”
