Israeli minister promises to ‘deepen’ Rafah offensive if captive deal fails
Israel will continue its operation in Rafah until Hamas fighters in the area are destroyed or the group hands over one of the Israeli captives it still holds, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says.
Gallant visited troops in the Rafah area and said Israel is willing to make “compromises” to bring home captives.
“If that option is removed, we will go on and deepen the operation. This will happen all over the Strip – in the south, in the centre and in the north. Hamas only understands force, so we will intensify our action, and the military pressure will result in us crushing the Hamas organisation,” the Times of Israel quoted him as saying.
Israeli captive dies of wounds from Israeli attack: Hamas
Hamas says the captive died of injuries sustained in an air strike a month ago. Abu Ubaida, a spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, identified the deceased as Judy Feinstein, 70, saying she and another captive sustained serious injuries in an Israeli attack on a site where they were held.
Hamas is believed to be holding more than 130 captives taken from southern Israel during its October 7 attacks.
Plumes of smoke cloud Rafah’s skies
The Israeli army has been heavily shelling areas of the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city since the early hours of the morning.
In this social media video, smoke can be seen in the skies of the al-Jnaina neighbourhood east of the city.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6q7fMKtcmv
Report: Biden administration delaying bomb shipments to Israel
The US media outlet Politico reports the Biden administration, which has enabled Israel’s war in Gaza through massive weapons and funding transfers, is delaying the shipment of two kinds of precision bombs to try to pressure Israel.
The story, which cites an anonymous US official and six others familiar with the issue, was published as Israeli officials pledged to move forward with an assault on Rafah, an area of Gaza where it had previously told hundreds of thousands of displaced people to relocate for their own safety.
International organisations and foreign governments, including the US, have warned against an attack on the tightly packed area, saying that it would be a humanitarian catastrophe. The Biden administration, however, has given no indication that it will cut off weapons supplies if the assault moves forward.
Biden rallies support for Israel in speech on anti-Semitism
US President Joe Biden has used a speech on anti-Semitism to rally support for Israel, reiterating his “ironclad” support even as Israel’s ground war on Gaza threatens to expand into Rafah, where humanitarian officials say an assault would be a catastrophe for civilians.
The speech also comes as the Biden administration faces demonstrations against the war on university campuses across the country, which he has previously distanced himself from and accused of leaning into anti-Semitic rhetoric. Jewish and Arab communities have both reported upticks in discrimination since the beginning of the war.
“Not 75 years later, but just seven and a half months later [after an assault by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7], and people are already forgetting, they’re already forgetting, that Hamas unleashed this terror that it was Hamas that brutalised Israelis, that it was Hamas that took and continues to hold hostages,” Biden said. “I have not forgotten, nor have you. And we will not forget.”
Yet you conveniently forget the thousands and thousands of Palestinian hostages Israel has taken, kidnapped in nightly raids, placed under administrative detention, torturing and starving them in packed jails without access to legal representation nor medical care, not allowed visits. Which has been going on for over 50 years. https://www.militarycourtwatch.org/page.php?id=iz63ezSbG7a11412A1qkQJHcUuf
You are a bigoted racist and need to be brought before the ICC for enabling and complicity in genocide.
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