LHamas responded Monday that any agreement must “include a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal” Israeli from Gaza, conditions that Israel has always rejected. The Israeli army launched a ground offensive in Rafah, a border town with Egypt, at the beginning of May with the aim of destroying Hamas, author of a bloody attack on Israel on October 7, which sparked the war in the strip. from Gaza.
The Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, under very strong pressure from public opinion, repeated on Sunday that “the objective” was “to recover the hostages” detained in Gaza and “uproot the Hamas regime”, in place since 2007, in an interview with the Israeli channel Channel 14.
“The intense phase of the fighting against Hamas is about to end (…) This does not mean that the war is about to end, but the war in its intense phase is about to end in Rafah”, Netanyahu said.
Expansion of the conflict
The war has also caused a military escalation on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah, which has raised fears of an extension of the conflict. “After the end of the intense phase, we will be able to redeploy some forces towards the north, and we will do so, mainly for defensive purposes, but also to bring (displaced) inhabitants home”, added the Prime Minister on Sunday.
The exchanges of fire between the army and Hezbollah, a powerful Islamist movement allied with Hamas, armed and financed by Iran, led to the displacement of tens of thousands of residents of the border areas of southern Lebanon and northern Lebanon. ‘Israel. “There will be a war”, predicts Helene Abergel, a resident of Kiryat Shmona, in northern Israel, who is staying in a Tel Aviv hotel. “A war must take place to push Hezbollah away from the border”, adds this 49-year-old woman met by AFP.
While the relationship between Netanyahu and the United States is experiencing an episode of tension after Israeli criticism of delays in American arms deliveries, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant arrived in Washington for talks he described as “crucial” for the rest of the war. On Sunday, Netanyahu said that “dispute” with Washington would be “resolved in the near future”.
In the Gaza Strip, besieged by Israel, artillery fire targeted Rafah on Monday as well as the Palestinian camp of Nousseirat, in the center, and the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, in the north, where fighting broke out. been reported, according to witnesses. According to Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal, two medical professionals were killed in an airstrike on Al-Daraj hospital in Gaza City, including Hani Al-Jafarwari, the director of the ambulance service. and emergencies at the Gaza Ministry of Health. According to this ministry, at least “500 health professionals were killed directly” from the beginning of “Israeli aggression”. The army announced that it would continue its “targeted operations” in the Rafah sector and having “eliminated armed terrorists” and “dismantled tunnel entrances”.
