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Israel's Defense Minister has announced that the planned military offensive in Rafah will begin soon.
© Tsafrir Abayov/AP/dpa
Israel wants to destroy the last Hamas battalions in Rafah.
Warn allies.
Will there be more targeted strikes instead of the feared large-scale invasion?
The news at a glance:
Tel Aviv/Gaza - According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli army will advance into the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip despite international warnings.
According to his office, Netanyahu told soldiers: “There is international pressure to prevent us from entering Rafah and completing the work.” He has been rejecting this pressure for months and will continue to do so.
“We will advance to Rafah,” Netanyahu said.
“We will complete the destruction of the Hamas battalions.” The aim is to restore security and achieve a “total victory for the Israeli people and the State of Israel.”
USA tries to dissuade Israel from offensive
According to information from the news magazine "Politico", the USA, as Israel's most important ally, is pressing for the Jewish state to refrain from a feared major invasion of the city that borders Egypt.
An estimated 1.5 million people are currently seeking protection from war in a very small space.
Senior US officials have told their Israeli counterparts that US President Joe Biden's administration would support Israel carrying out targeted strikes against Hamas there, as long as a full-scale invasion is avoided, Politico reported.
Meanwhile, Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Galant indicated an imminent start to the planned military offensive in Rafah during a visit to troops in Gaza.
“There is no safe haven for terrorists in Gaza,” he said, according to an Israeli government statement.
Blinken calls for the protection of civilians
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken once again appealed to Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in the sealed-off coastal strip and to ensure the protection of the civilian population.
US President Biden has already made it clear that this must be a priority, said Blinken in Washington.
This should not be a secondary consideration.
“Where there is a will, there is a way,” Blinken said.
The USA tried by all means to increase humanitarian aid.
Nevertheless, the “most effective way” is a ceasefire.
“There is a very good proposal on the table right now.
The question is whether Hamas will accept this proposal,” Blinken said.
There is intensive exchange with the other mediating states Qatar and Egypt to see how a deal could be reached.
Israel plans “humanitarian islands” for Rafah civilians
Meanwhile, Israel's armed forces said, according to the Times of Israel newspaper, that a large number of people in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, would be moved to "humanitarian islands" in the center of the sealed-off coastal area ahead of a military operation.
Army spokesman Daniel Hagari was quoted as saying that their relocation to designated areas will take place in coordination with international actors.
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He did not say when the evacuation would take place or when the offensive on the city would begin.
“Even those who think we are delaying will soon see that we will reach every region,” said Defense Secretary Galant.
Although he did not mention Rafah by name, the Times of Israel interpreted his statement as a reference to the planned offensive.
Galant may have been referring to reports that allies have urged Israel to postpone an invasion of Rafah, the New York Times wrote.
Israel wants to destroy the last four remaining Hamas battalions in Gaza in Rafah.
Report: US prefers targeted strikes against Hamas
However, according to Politico, the US wants to avoid Israel's armed forces reducing the city to rubble and killing many of the civilians.
A large-scale campaign is unacceptable for Biden.
The US President spoke of a “red line” in this context at the weekend.
He calls for a credible concept to protect civilians.
Senior US officials have signaled to Israel that they could support a plan that is more comparable to targeted counterterrorism operations, Politico wrote.
Biden had warned that another 30,000 Palestinians should not be allowed to die as a consequence of the action against Hamas.
This angered Netanyahu.
Fighting in the Gaza Strip continues
Even more than five months after the start of the Gaza war, attacks from the Gaza Strip on Israeli border towns continue.
The Israeli army said on Thursday that a mortar shell had been fired the previous day from the central section of the coastal strip in the direction of Kibbutz Nachal Oz, which is close to the border.
The projectile was fired within the Gaza Strip.
There were rocket alarms in several border towns on Wednesday.
“Within minutes, the terrorists responsible for the attempted attack were hit and eliminated by an Israeli fighter jet,” the statement continued.
Several armed Palestinians were killed in further incidents in the Gaza Strip.
The army also continued its operations in the south of the Gaza Strip.
In Khan Yunis, troops found and destroyed rocket launchers in the Hamad district.
Two terrorists were killed there by a fighter jet.
Israel's army: Hamas commander targeted killed in Rafah
Israel's army says it killed a key Hamas commander in a targeted attack in Rafah.
Based on intelligence information, a fighter jet "precisely attacked and eliminated the terrorist in Hamas' operational unit in the Rafah area," the military said in a statement.
According to the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, the attack hit the aid organization's food and relief distribution center.
At least one UNRWA employee was killed and 22 others were injured.
According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, a total of five people were killed in the attack.
An Israeli army spokesman said they were investigating the reports.
The war was triggered by a massacre in which terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups murdered around 1,200 people and kidnapped 250 in Israel on October 7th.
In response, Israel's military began its attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 31,000 people, according to the health authority there.
The number makes no distinction between civilians and fighters and cannot be independently verified.
The German Air Force also wants to drop relief supplies
The German Air Force is scheduled to use transport aircraft to drop urgently needed relief supplies into the Gaza Strip this week.
“The people of Gaza lack basic necessities.
We would like to do our part to ensure that they have access to food and medicine,” said Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) after agreeing in principle to such an operation.
Bundeswehr transport aircraft stationed in France are to be used for this purpose.
The first plane took off for the Gaza relief mission.
After a stopover in Toulouse, we were supposed to go to Jordan to load the relief supplies onto the plane.
dpa