Israel-Hamas war: Netanyahu reveals ‘intense phase of fighting’ is about to end
While the ‘intense fighting’ in Rafah in Gaza will soon end, Israel’s PM says that doesn’t mean the war itself is over.
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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that “intense” fighting against Hamas militants in the southern Gaza city of Rafah is nearly over, more than eight months into the devastating war.
“The intense phase of the fighting against Hamas is about to end,” Netanyahu told Israel’s Channel 14 network, without providing a clear timeline.
“It doesn’t mean that the war is about to end, but the war in its intense phase is about to end in Rafah.”
Israeli officials have described Rafah as the last Hamas stronghold in the Gaza Strip, and in early May troops entered the southern city, on the besieged territory’s border with Egypt, despite global alarm over the fate of Palestinian civilians sheltering there.
The military seized the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, a key conduit for desperately needed aid into Gaza that has remained shut since then.
Netanyahu’s interview, his first with Israeli media since the war began with Hamas’s October 7 attack, was broadcast as his defence minister arrived in Washington for talks on the Gaza war and surging cross-border tensions with Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.
On the ground in Gaza City, in the north of the Palestinian territory, Israeli bombardment continued on Sunday with medics and the civil defence agency in the Hamas-ruled territory reporting deadly strikes.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement has traded daily cross-border fire with Israel’s army, heightening fears of all-out war particularly over the past two weeks.
Netanyahu said that “after the end of the intense phase” in the Gaza Strip, Israel would “redeploy some forces to the north... primarily for defensive purposes”.
Netanyahu, who has faced growing pressure from Israeli demonstrators demanding a deal to free hostages still held in Gaza, said he would not agree to any deal that includes a permanent ceasefire, one of Hamas’s key demands in stalled mediation efforts for a truce.
“The goal is to return the kidnapped and uproot the Hamas regime in Gaza,” he said.
When asked about post-war scenarios for Gaza, Netanyahu said it was “clear” that Israel would maintain “military control in the foreseeable future”.
“We also want to create a civilian administration, if possible with local Palestinians” and regional backing “to manage humanitarian supply and later on civilian affairs in the Strip”, Netanyahu added.
Similar proposals Netanyahu had presented to his ministers in February were swiftly rejected by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, and prompted US warnings against the “Israeli reoccupation of Gaza”.
Two members of Netanyahu’s war cabinet, former military chiefs Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, left the government earlier this month over the lack of post-war plans.
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INJURED PALESTINIAN STRAPPED TO ARMY VEHICLE
Israeli troops tied a wounded Palestinian to a military vehicle during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, the army said, admitting that soldiers had violated operational procedures.
Footage of the incident, which occurred on Saturday, has gone viral and shows a man strapped horizontally to the bonnet of a military jeep as it passes through a narrow alley.
Medics identified the Palestinian as Mujahid Raed Abbadi, 24, who told AFP he lives in the Jenin refugee camp.
The military said a Palestinian man was wounded during a “counterterrorism operation” to arrest wanted suspects in the area of Wadi Burqin, between the town of Burqin and Jenin.
During an exchange of fire between troops and militants in Burqin’s Jabriyat neighbourhood, a Palestinian was wounded and apprehended, the military said in a statement.
The statement referred to him as a “suspect”, but did not specify any accusations against Abbadi, who medics told AFP was being treated at Jenin’s Ibn Sina hospital, and not in Israeli custody.
The military said: “In violation of orders and standard operating procedures, the suspect was taken by the forces while tied on top of a vehicle.”
He was later transferred to the Palestinian Red Crescent for treatment, it said.
“The conduct of the forces in the video of the incident does not conform to the values of the IDF (military),” the statement said.
“The incident will be investigated and dealt with accordingly.”
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, suggested the troops were using Abbadi to shield themselves from gunfire.
“#HumanShielding in action”, Albanese wrote on social media platform X, sharing footage of the incident
At the hospital, Abbadi said he was hit and wounded as he stepped out of his uncle’s house in Jabriyat.
“I tried to withdraw and get inside the house, but they started shooting”, hitting him in the hand, Abbadi told AFP in his hospital bed.
He said he fell to the ground in an area behind the military jeep and was hit once more, with a bullet penetrating his leg.
According to Abbadi, rescuers or medics were unable to reach him for more than two hours as he lay on the ground.
“I started crawling” trying to escape as fighting continued around him, he said, before the Israeli troops noticed him.
“When they (the soldiers) arrived they stomped on my head and hit my face, my injured leg and hand,” Abbadi recalled.
“They were laughing and playing while they hit me.”
The soldiers lifted him and threw him on the ground before tying him to the bonnet of the jeep, he said.
Bahaa Abu Hammad, the doctor treating Abbadi at Ibn Sina hospital, told AFP that “he has burns on his back from neck to lower back” from being tied to the military jeep in the scorching summer heat.
ISRAEL’S DEFENCE MINISTER HEADED TO WASHINGTON
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant is heading to Washington for “critical” talks on the Gaza war and surging cross-border tensions with Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced hope for speedy progress on unfreezing US arms and ammunition deliveries from Israel’s top ally which he said had dropped off sharply in recent months.
US President Joe Biden has been at odds with Israel’s veteran right-wing leader over Gaza’s surging civilian death toll, but US officials have said they were not aware of what Netanyahu was referring to on the arms issue.
The Israeli premier on Sunday told his cabinet that “about four months ago, there was a dramatic drop in the supply of armaments arriving from the US to Israel. We got all sorts of explanations, but … the basic situation didn’t change.”
However, he voiced hope the issue would be cleared up.
“In light of what I have heard in the last day, I hope and believe that this issue will be resolved in the near future,” he said
Israeli forces again bombed Gaza on Sunday, a day after tens of thousands staged a protest rally in Tel Aviv against the government and to demand the return of hostages being held by Hamas.
Tensions have also flared on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon whose Iran-backed Hezbollah movement has traded daily cross-border fire with the army, heightening fears of all-out war.
Gallant said he would “discuss developments in Gaza and Lebanon”, vowing that “we are prepared for any action that may be required in Gaza, Lebanon and in additional areas”.
He stressed that “our ties with the United States are more important than ever. Our meetings with US officials are critical to this war.”
FEARS CONFLICT WILL SPREAD ACROSS NEW BORDER
“Heavy calibre projectiles” have been raining down on Gaza, killing 22 people and wounding 45 more near the Red Cross office, which is surrounded by people living in tents.
The barrage came as the Israeli army intensified strikes on the besieged Palestinian territory, where a nearby hospital also reports at least 30 more deaths.
Exchanges of fire across the Lebanese border between Israel and the powerful Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah have also escalated, raising fears of a wider war.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said cross-border hostilities must not turn Lebanon into “another Gaza”, warning of the risk of triggering a catastrophe “beyond imagination”.
Hezbollah said none of Israel would be spared in a full-blown conflict, while Israeli military leaders say they have approved plans for a Lebanon offensive.
Israel tanks pushed deeper into western Rafah in south Gaza on Friday firing shells at the tents, with one armoured vehicle blown up by a Hamas-planted improvised explosive device.
In the latest border unrest, Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel in retaliation for an air strike in south Lebanon that Israel said killed a Hezbollah operative.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s group and Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily fire since Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the Gaza war.
Nasrallah said “no place” in Israel would “be spared our rockets” if war began.
CYPRUS UNDER THREAT
The chief of the Iran-backed group also threatened the nearby island nation of Cyprus if it opened its airports or bases to Israel “to target Lebanon”.
European Union member Cyprus is home to two British military bases including an air base, but they are in sovereign British territory and not controlled by the Cypriot government.
On Thursday the Cypriot government spokesman dismissed as “totally groundless” any suggestion of possible involvement in a conflict related to Lebanon.
“Cyprus is not involved, nor will it become involved, in any military conflicts,” Konstantinos Letymbiotis told state radio.
Warplanes from the British air base in Cyprus have, along with US forces, carried out reprisal strikes against Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels who have for months been attacking shipping in adjacent waterways.
TWO HEZBOLLAH FIGHTERS KILLED
The Iran-backed group also announced the death of two of its fighters.
Lebanon’s official National News agency reported Israeli strikes on several areas in south Lebanon on Wednesday morning, including on the border village of Khiam, where an AFP photographer saw a large cloud of smoke.
The US military said its forces destroyed two Huthi sites in Yemen. The October Hamas attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
The militants also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza.
DEATH TOLL EXCEEDS 37,400
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 37,431 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.
The latest toll on Thursday included at least 35 deaths over the previous day, the ministry said.
The Huthis and Hezbollah both say they are acting in response to Israel’s actions in Gaza.
On Tuesday, Israel’s military announced that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved and validated”.
The same day, Hezbollah published a video showing drone footage purportedly taken by the movement over northern Israel, including parts of Haifa’s city and port.
US envoy Amos Hochstein has called for “urgent” de-escalation. The cross-border violence has killed at least 479 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters, as well as 93 civilians.
‘TOTAL WAR’
The Israeli army’s announcement that its plans for an offensive in Lebanon had been approved, along with a warning from Foreign Minister Israel Katz of Hezbollah’s destruction in a “total war”, came as US envoy Amos Hochstein visited the region to push for de-escalation.
Mr Hochstein returned to Israel on Tuesday evening for more talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a series of meetings in Lebanon, according to an Israeli official.
Former Israeli security officials were split on the significance of the approval, with one telling AFP there would be an operation in Lebanon “within a few weeks” while another said the government was “more interested in a ceasefire”.
The cross-border violence has killed at least 478 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including 93 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israeli authorities say at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed in the country’s north.
Syrian state media said an Israeli strike on military sites in the country’s south killed an army officer on Wednesday. Israel has not commented on the report.
WAR RAGES ON IN RAFAH
Israeli air strikes and clashes between troops and Palestinian militants continue in Rafah.
Witnesses and the civil defence agency in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip reported an Israeli bombardment in western Rafah, where medics said drone strikes and shelling killed at least seven people.
And medics at the European hospital in Khan Yunis told AFP 10 bodies were brought to the facility after an Israeli air strike killed a group of people on Salah al-Din road, east of Rafah city, as they waited for aid trucks to arrive.
Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian armed group that has fought alongside Hamas, said its militants were battling troops amid Israeli shelling of western Rafah.
The war has spilled across the region, drawing in a number of Iran-backed groups saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
‘DRASTIC DETERIORATION’ IN AID
More than eight months of war have led to dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza and repeated UN warnings of famine.
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that in recent weeks there had been “an improvement” in aid reaching northern Gaza “but a drastic deterioration in the south”.
A UN report issued on Wednesday detailed six “indiscriminate and disproportionate” Israeli strikes that killed at least 218 people in the first two months of the war.
In a message on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, US President Joe Biden called for the implementation of a ceasefire plan he outlined last month.
US envoy Amos Hochstein said the plan would ultimately lead to “the end of the conflict in Gaza”, which would in turn quell fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
But US, Qatari and Egyptian mediation efforts have stalled for months since a one-week truce in November.
– with AFP
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