TEHRAN (Iran News) –A military operation in Rafah, southern Gaza, will take “several weeks”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, adding he will push ahead with an offensive that has sparked international alarm and outrage.
“I reiterate: We will operate in Rafah. This will take several weeks, and it will happen,” Netanyahu said at the beginning of a government meeting.
“To our friends in the international community, I say: Are your memories that short? Have you so quickly forgotten October 7, the most horrific massacre of Jews since the Holocaust?”
Netanyahu added “the operational plans for action in Rafah, including advancing the steps to evacuate the civilian population from the combat zones”, have been approved.
“This is an essential stage ahead of the military action.”
Netanyahu went on to say that in the international community, “there are those who are trying to stop the war” by “hurling false accusations at the IDF, the Government of Israel and the Prime Minister of Israel”.
“They are doing so by means of an effort to bring about elections now, at the height of the war. They are doing this because they know that elections now will halt the war and paralyze the country for at least six months,” he continued.
The World Health Organization head, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has stressed he is “gravely concerned” about an offensive in Rafah, where 1.4 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced Sunday ninety-two people have been killed in Gaza over the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll since October 7 to 31,645 Palestinians.
A total of 130 people were injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added, bringing the number of injured to 73,676.
Many of the victims remain trapped under rubble and on the roads, with ambulance and civil defense crews unable to reach them, according to the ministry.
- source : IFP
