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SvennoJ on 17 February 2024
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Time has run out

Netanyahu claims Israel has "realistic" plan for Rafah as he faces dire warnings about fate of civilians


Displaced Palestinians camp in Rafah, Gaza, near the border fence with Egypt, on February 16.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that his forces have a "realistic" plan for their ground operations in the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah, where he is facing growing international pressure to protect civilians.

Roughly 1.5 million Palestinians are seeking shelter in the southern Gaza city near the border with Egypt — many of them already displaced from elsewhere in the enclave. The United Nations aid chief has said an operation there could lead to "a slaughter." Palestinians in the city say they have nowhere left to go.

“Our ability to enter Rafah has been proven as realistic,” Netanyahu said in a news conference Saturday, claiming there is room for the displaced to move north, but "we have to do it in an orderly way." He said he told US President Joe Biden this week that, "Israel is going to fight until we reach total victory, and that includes also ground offensive in Rafah — of course after we let citizens there to evacuate to other safe places." “Whoever is telling us not to operate in Rafah is telling us to lose an ear,” he says.

When Biden spoke with Netanyahu Thursday, he urged him not to proceed with operations without a "credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the civilians," according to the White House.

On hostage talks: Netanyahu also echoed the remarks of his hostage coordinator, who told CNN on Saturday that Hamas' demands for a ceasefire and hostage release — such as stopping the war and releasing thousands of Palestinian prisoners — are "delusional."

Pressure at home: The prime minister's comments came as thousands took to the streets of Tel Aviv and Caesarea on Saturday, calling for the dismissal of Netanyahu and his government. The prime minister called for "unity," saying, "The last thing we need now is a new election."

 

‘Have we lost our minds?’: UN official on Rafah operation

Reacting to earlier reported comments by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that ground operations against Rafah will take place, United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese says such a move will lead to “another Nakba”.

“Rafah stands as the last line of Palestinian existence in Gaza amidst the relentless anguish faced by the people trapped therein … Have we really lost our minds??” she posted on X.

The Nakba, or “catastrophe”, refers to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the near-total destruction of Palestinian society in 1948.

Netanyahu’s goals in Gaza ‘unachievable’

Earlier, we reported in a televised statement Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said the country’s military “pressure is working” against Hamas, and the war will continue until all goals are achieved. Analyst Menachem Klien says the prime minister’s “zero-sum” policy, and his speaking in “definitive” terms, was not a realistic approach to the continuing war in Gaza.

“Absolute goals are unachievable on the battlefield, nor in politics,” he told Al Jazeera. “Anyone who has studied history knows that … and he refuses to acknowledge that this is a recipe for continuous suffering and fighting,” he noted, adding that it will not help bring back the captives or achieve a ceasefire.

Moreover, Klien said Netanyahu had “political and personal” reasons to continue the war. “That is why he speaks in absolute terms. This is not in the interest of the Israeli public,” he said.




Herzog to Blinken: Hamas must be eradicated before ‘normalisation’ deal

While at the Munich Security Conference, Blinken met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog who addressed the secretary of state’s earlier comments about “normalising” with Arab countries.

“I heard your remarks today, and I think that I find them very interesting. I think there are opportunities; they need to be studied in depth. However, first and foremost, Israel’s security must be preserved, and for this, we have to complete the work of undermining and eradicating the basic infrastructure of Hamas,” Herzog says.

There is an “extraordinary opportunity” in the near future for Israel to be integrated into the Middle East as Arab countries are willing to normalise ties with it, Blinked said earlier in the day.

Netanyahu: ‘Israel will continue denying recognition of a Palestinian state unilaterally’

Speaking in a televised address, the Israeli prime minister has again come out against a two-state solution and an independent Palestinian state. “We shall not bow down to international dictates in regards to a future deal with the Palestinians. Such a compromise should be through direct negotiations with no preconditions,” he said. “How can we give recognition to such a state after the massacre of October 7. This would be a reward for terrorism,” he continued.

While Israel cashes in the rewards for continued state terrorism

Saudi FM: Two-state solution only path for security in Middle East

At the Munich Security Conference, Prince Faisal bin Farhan said that Saudi Arabia is more focused on a truce in the Gaza war than on normalisation with Israel.

“We are focused on a ceasefire and on an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and we are focused on humanitarian access for the people of Gaza,” he told reporters.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly stated it would not open diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognised.




Hundreds outside Netanyahu’s residence call for exchange deal, elections

Demonstrators outside the Israeli prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem are calling for a captive-prisoner exchange deal and immediate elections in the country.

The rally is taking place in the wake of Netanyahu’s decision last week not to send an Israeli delegation to Cairo for further negotiations on a deal to release captives. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum called the decision a “death sentence” for the remaining captives.

Israelis in Tel Aviv protest against Netanyahu

Thousands of people are protesting against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, calling for elections to be held. In one of the largest protests since the war on Gaza began, demonstrators are blocking the road outside the defence ministry.

Moments ago during a news conference, the Israeli prime minister said that the “last thing” Israel needs now is elections.





No one else left to turn to...

PRCS chief meets Pope Francis

Younis al-Khatib, president of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, has participated in a private audience with the Roman Catholic pope, the PRCS says on X.

The organisation said that al-Khatib briefed the pope on the “catastrophic humanitarian conditions experienced by civilians in the Gaza Strip”, as well as the efforts the PRCS is making to alleviate suffering there and provide medical services.

The PRCS’s facilities, staff and ambulances in Gaza have come under constant attack by the Israeli armed during the war in Gaza. Its hospital in Khan Younis, al-Amal Hospital, has been bombarded, besieged and raided by the army.

‘Extraordinarily bloody day’ in the Gaza Strip: Al Jazeera’s corespondent

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum says that in the past few hours, Israel has pounded areas across the Gaza Strip with a series of attacks that have killed and injured dozens of Palestinians.

“Starting with Rafah, Israeli forces had tarred an agricultural land,” he said, killing several Palestinians. The attack took place in the northern part of the city in the last hour, he added.

Also in the last hour, he continued, a group of residents was targeted in Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, killing at least four.

Citing the Gaza Government Media Office, Abu Azzoum said that about 44 Palestinians have been killed in the central Gaza Strip today, with many more trapped under rubble as civil defence crews work tirelessly to recover injured. Exclusive footage obtained by Al Jazeera shows dozens of bodies of the people killed in these attacks piling up at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah.

In the north, he said, the town of Beit Hanoun has been heavily targeted by Israeli artillery shelling.

At least 30 killed by Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza, according to doctors


People mourn a child who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on February 17

At least 30 Palestinians were killed and dozens of others were injured due to Israeli airstrikes on multiple neighborhoods in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza on Saturday, doctors from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital told CNN. Video obtained by CNN from Al-Aqsa shows injured children among those being rushed in for treatment, and dead bodies wrapped in cloth on the hospital floor, including a deceased baby.

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck a series of Hamas "operational command and control centers" in central Gaza Saturday. The IDF said its jets hit Hamas targets in the Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah neighborhoods.