Israel to launch Rafah offensive unless hostages home by Ramadan

JERUSALEM – Israel will launch a ground offensive in the Rafah area of Gaza unless the hostages still held by Hamas are released by the Ramadan holiday in March, Israeli Minister without Portfolio Benny Gantz said on Feb 18.

Mr Gantz, a member of Israel’s war Cabinet, pledged that the military would facilitate the evacuation of Gazan civilians in coordination with the US and Egypt in order to minimise casualties.

An estimated 1 million Palestinians fleeing the fighting in Gaza have taken refuge in the Rafah area in the southern part of the territory bordering Egypt.

Ramadan, a month-long Muslim holiday, starts in mid-March.

“To those saying the price is too high – I say this very clearly: Hamas has a choice,” Mr Gantz said in a speech on Feb 18 to American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. “They can surrender, release the hostages, and this way, the residents of Gaza can celebrate the holy holiday of Ramadan.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that a ground operation in Rafah is essential for eliminating Hamas’ remaining battalions and that those calling for Israel to stay out of the area are essentially calling for Israel to lose the war.

Mr Gantz pledged to continue fighting until Israel’s goals are achieved, including removing the threat of Hamas, as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon, bringing the remaining around 130 hostages home, and replacing Hamas in Gaza completely.

Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages have stumbled in recent days, as Mr Netanyahu rejected Hamas’s demands as “delusional.”

According to recent surveys, Mr Gantz is considered by the public to be the most suitable candidate to become the next prime minister, and his National Unity party is polling far ahead of Mr Netanyahu’s Likud.

Mr Gantz also told the Jewish leaders that he opposes unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, and that following the Oct 7 attack by Hamas, such a step is not the way to regional stability and peace.

The war with Hamas began when the group infiltrated from Gaza and carried out attacks across southern Israel, leaving about 1,200 people dead and taking more than 250 hostage.

According to the Hamas-run health ministry, more than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ensuing war. It hasn’t said how many of those are combatants.

The US and EU have designated Hamas a terrorist organisation, and Israel has pledged to eliminate the group from the Gaza Strip.

The conduct of the war, which apart from the civilian causalities, has also destroyed thousands of homes and triggered shortages of food and water, has led some countries to allege that Israel is committing war crimes.

Those charges are strongly denied by Israeli authorities.

Mr Netanyahu expressed outrage on Feb 18 at remarks by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who said Israel was carrying out genocide in Gaza and compared Israel’s actions to Adolf Hitler’s policy of murdering Jews.

“Comparing Israel to the Nazi Holocaust and Hitler is crossing a red line,” Mr Netanyahu said.