Without a glimpse of a ceasefire, Netanyahu advances on Rafah “with or without an agreement” | middle East

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he plans to move forward on Rafah, “with or without an agreement for a ceasefire”. The statements appeared, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretzin a meeting with representatives of the families of the hostages and victims of the October 7th attack carried out by Hamas.

“The idea that we will stop the war before achieving all its objectives is out of the question. We will enter Rafah and eliminate the Hamas battalions with or without an agreement, to achieve total victory,” Netanyahu promised.

The statements come at a time when negotiations for a ceasefire seemed to be progressing in a positive direction, with Hamas representatives analyzing the most recent proposal from the State of Israel, with mediation from Egypt, and which envisages a truce of 40 days.

A city located close to the border with the mediating country, Rafah welcomed more than a million people displaced by military attacks on the northern part of the region, at the opposite end of the Gaza Strip. If the ceasefire does not materialize this week and promises of a military invasion are fulfilled, a humanitarian catastrophe is feared.

Analyst, journalist, commentator and former Palestinian Authority spokesperson Nour Odeh told the pan-Arab station Al-Jazeera that Netanyahu “squashed all these talks for a ceasefire” with the reaffirmation of the plan to attack Rafah. “This is what the families of the hostages feared. This is what the negotiators feared,” she added. “There was cautious optimism until this morning and then the prime minister announced that he would order an invasion of Rafah. In essence, trampling on all these ceasefire talks,” she lamented.

Speaking to Reuters, an anonymous Israeli representative stated that there would be no further opportunities to postpone an invasion of the area. “As far as Israel is concerned, this is the last opportunity to prevent an invasion of Rafah”, he revealed, adding that the Israeli military forces had already started “mobilizing troops for this operation”.

British Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Andrew Mitchell, said in the British Parliament that it was “difficult” to understand how an invasion of Rafah could comply with international standards. “Given the number of civilians sheltering in Rafah, it is not easy to see how an offensive of this type could comply with international humanitarian law in the current circumstances,” he said.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had already said last week that humanitarian aid in Gaza was “imperative” and that a military invasion was “not the right way” to defeat Hamas. Also on Monday, at a meeting in Saudi Arabia, Blinken reinforced the US position on this possibility: “In the absence of a plan that guarantees that civilians will not be harmed, we cannot support a major military operation.” Fronteiras, in the report published on Monday, had also asked to avoid a military invasion, which would be “a catastrophe for the population and a stain on our collective humanity”.

Text edited by Ivo Neto