Member of the politburo of the Palestinian Islamist movement HamasGazi Hamad, told AFP on Thursday that the planned large-scale Israeli military operation in Rafaat its southern end Gaza Stripwill not allow to Israel to achieve “what he wants”.
“Even if (Israel) enters Rafah, invades, it will not achieve (…) its two main goals, which are to eliminate Hamas, or to find” the hostages taken by Palestinian militants when they attacked southern Israel on October 7, Gazi Hamad summarized during a call to him in Qatar from Gaza. The emirate is among the mediators facilitating indirect negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian movement.
Hamas warned “Egypt, Qatar”, as well as “Arab and other countries abroad” about “the danger posed by the invasion of Rafah” and that “Israel is preparing to commit more massacres”, said Mr. Hamad .
After more than six months of relentless shelling and fierce fighting on the ground, which has reduced most of the Gaza Strip — an enclave of 2.4 million residents — to rubble, Israel believes Hamas has four battalions in Rafah, over at the closed border with Egypt.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keeps saying that the invasion of Rafah is out of the blue to wipe out Hamas, which is the Israeli military’s declared goal in the war.
The conflict erupted on October 7, when Hamas’ military arm launched an unprecedented Gaza-based raid on southern parts of the Israeli territory, killing 1,170 people, most of them civilians, according to a French tally. Agency based on official Israeli data.
One million forcibly displaced
Another 250-plus people were kidnapped, of whom 129 remain hostages in the Palestinian enclave — but at least 34 of them are believed to have been killed, according to Israeli sources.
In retaliation, Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which it labels a “terrorist” organization, as do the US and the EU. The wide-ranging military operations it has launched have so far killed at least 34,305 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, according to the Palestinian Islamic Movement’s Ministry of Health.
Israel’s war cabinet met yesterday to discuss preparations for the Rafah attack, despite international calls not to go ahead, including from the US, Israel’s historically key ally.
The international community is expressing concern that there will be a massacre in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians who have been displaced, many more than once, by hostilities are crammed into makeshift camps.
“After the war”
Indirect negotiations have been deadlocked for months and it is “Israel’s fault” that is not allowing them to go forward, according to Ghazi Hamad.
“Mr. Netanyahu and his ministers say that the war must continue, that Hamas must be destroyed, that Rafah must be occupied. They clearly have no intention of negotiating,” he said.
For its part, Hamas has “clearly and explicitly presented its position to the mediators”, he continued.
“The fundamental demands that we unwaveringly express are that a clear and explicit ceasefire be declared”, that there be a “complete withdrawal” of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and that “the displaced return” to their areas, he recalled.
The latest proposals from the Israeli side do not meet these “fundamental demands”, he added.
Mr. Hamad accused Mr. Netanyahu of “evading” to “deceive public opinion in Israel” and “deceive the international community by saying that negotiations are taking place and distorting the truth that Hamas continues to put obstacles in these negotiations.” .
A few hours earlier, the representative of the Israeli government, David Menser, stated that Hamas feels “emboldened” by “certain factors in the region” and that is why it is “moving away” from the negotiations.
Ghazi Hamad also said that Hamas is working “night and day” to prepare the situation “after the war”.
“We have contacts with countries, institutions and humanitarian organizations,” he said, “we are working on the forests after the war so that a major effort can be made to rebuild the Gaza Strip.”
Source: RES-MPE
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