Israeli Minister Benny Gantz, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet, warned that Israel will launch an offensive on the city of Rafah if the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are not released by Ramadan.
“The world needs to know and the leaders of Hamas need to know – if by Ramadan the hostages are not at home, fighting will continue everywhere, including in the Rafah area,” former Israeli army chief Gantz said.
He added that he is telling those who say that the price is too high that Hamas has a choice – they can surrender, release the hostages and civilians in Gaza and celebrate the Ramadan holiday.
He spoke at the Congress of Presidents of the main American Jewish organizations gathered in Jerusalem.
The holy Muslim month of Ramadan should begin around March 10.
Despite calls from part of the international community, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is determined to launch an offensive on the city of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip along the closed border with Egypt, where 1.4 million people have gathered fleeing the Israeli offensive.
Most of the displaced in that city live in extremely difficult conditions.
Benny Gantz said the offensive would be carried out in coordination and dialogue with the Americans and Egyptians, by facilitating the evacuation of civilians to minimize “as much as possible” the number of civilian casualties.
Rafah and the city of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, located a few kilometers from each other, as well as other parts of the Palestinian territory, are the targets of Israeli artillery and airstrikes that killed 127 people in the previous 24 hours, the Hamas health ministry announced yesterday, who has been in power in Gaza since 2007.
Since the start of the deadly attack carried out by Hamas on Israeli territory on October 7, Israel has vowed to destroy the Palestinian Islamist group and launched an offensive against it in Gaza.
