• UN chief decries Netanyahu’s pugnacious approach
• Israeli airstrikes continue in Gaza City, Khan Yunis

JERUSALEM: Despite strong concerns raised by its top ally, Washington, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday to launch a ground offensive on Rafah, “with or without” a truce deal being agreed.

“We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there with or without a deal,” the Israeli PM’s office quoted him as saying.

The comments come as Hamas is said to be weighing the latest plan for a proposed truce in Cairo talks with US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

However, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres responded by saying that a military assault on Rafah would be an unbearable escalation.

“All members of the Security Council, and many other governments, have clearly expressed their opposition to such an operation. I appeal for all those with influence over Israel to do everything in their power to prevent it,” he said.

Rafah has become a refuge for some 1.5 million Palestinians who have fled Israel’s bombardments that have ravaged the territory since the beginning of Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

Hamas said it was considering a plan for a 40-day ceasefire and the exchange of scores of Israeli prisoners for larger numbers of Palestinian detainees.

Hamas, whose envoys returned from Cairo talks to their base in Qatar, would “discuss the ideas and the proposal”, a source said, adding that “we are keen to respond as quickly as possible”.

The Egyptian Al-Qahera News website had earlier reported that Hamas negotiators were due to “return with a written response”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who arrived in Jordan from Saudi Arabia and was later heading to Israel for talks with Netanyahu and other officials on Wednesday, called for the redoubling of aid efforts at a “critical moment in making sure that everything that needs to be done is being done”.

Bombardment continues

Amid the diplomatic efforts, Israel kept up its bombardment that has flattened swathes of Gaza. Israel’s offensive has killed at least 34,535 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.

An AFP correspondent reported air strikes on Gaza City, Khan Yunis and Rafah, while Israel said “fighter jets struck a number of terror targets in central Gaza”.

Palestinians in Rafah mourned the latest victims as children were being pulled from the rubble.

At Al-Najjar hospital, grief-stricken relatives jostled over the dead, whose bodies were shrouded in white.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2024