ublished February 9, 2024
- READ FULL ARTICLENetanyahu made the announcement today following international criticism of Israel’s plan to invade the town
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to prepare a plan to evacuate the population of Rafah to defeat the remaining Hamas battalions.
It came hours after U.S. President Joe Biden said that he considers Israel‘s conduct in the war to be ‘over the top.’
Netanyahu made the announcement today ahead of an expected Israeli invasion of the southern Gaza town and following international criticism of Israel’s plan to invade the crowded town on Egypt‘s border.
Israel says Rafah is the last remaining Hamas stronghold and it needs to send in troops to complete its war plan against the Islamic terrorist group.
But an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians have crammed into the town after fleeing fighting elsewhere in Gaza.
Netanyahu said today that a ‘massive operation’ is needed in Rafah.
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SOURCE: www.dailymail.co.uk
RELATED: Biden calls Gaza response ‘over the top’; unclear if remarks aimed at Israel or Hamas
US president was apparently responding to question about hostage negotiations; also said ‘a lot of innocent people are dying, and it’s gotta stop’; White House does not clarify
US President Joe Biden speaks in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2024, in Washington. (AP/Evan Vucci)
Published February 9, 2024
US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that “the conduct of the response in Gaza” has been “over the top,” in unclear remarks widely understood and reported as a fierce critique of Israel, but which may have been made in reference to this week’s Hamas ceasefire proposal.
The White House did not respond to requests to elaborate on or clarify Biden’s remarks.
The president made the comments at the tail end of a White House press conference. As he was leaving the room, reporters shouted a hail of questions at him, including about “the hostage negotiations” and “Netanyahu says he’s ordered the IDF…”
The president turned back and said, “The hostage negotiations, look …” and returned to the microphone.
“I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been over the top. I think that, as you know, the president of Mexico, Sissi” — Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi is, in fact, president of Egypt — “did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in. I talked to him. I convinced him to open the gate. I talked to Bibi [Netanyahu] to open the gate on the Israeli side.”
Biden went on: “I’ve been pushing really hard, really hard, to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza. There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying, and it’s gotta stop. Number one.”
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SOURCE: www.timesofisrael.com
RELATED: Netanyahu closes the truce but Israel is willing to let the Hamas leaders flee if the hostages are freed
Published February 8, 2024
The Israeli authorities are willing to let the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas flee “into exile”, Yahya Sinwar, in exchange for the release of all hostages and the end of the control that the fighters exercise over the Gaza Strip. Anonymous sources reported this to the broadcaster “Nbc News”, adding that the prospect of an “exile”, functional to the creation of a “deradicalized” governance in the Strip, has been under discussion since last November. Initially, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government committed to killing Sinwar, who together with Mohammed Deif planned the attack launched by Hamas against Israel last October.
However, the hypothesis of an exile for Sinwar and four other leaders of the movement was later put forward, as happened 42 years ago with the escape from Beirut of Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization. A prospect that would represent “a possible alternative to liberate Gaza from Hamas”. “We are not against Sinwar escaping, as long as the hostages are freed,” a Netanyahu adviser told the broadcaster.
