Release All Hostages or We’ll Attack Rafah; Israel’s Gantz Warns

Israel’s war cabinet member Benny Gantz said this Sunday that unless Hamas frees all Israeli hostages, the Israeli military will carry out a massive ground invasion against Rafah, where 1.5 million Palestinians currently live.

This Sunday morning, Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz warned that if Hamas doesn’t release all Israeli hostages in Gaza by 10 March, the Israeli military will conduct a massive ground invasion on Rafah, a city where more than 1.5 million Palestinians have taken refuge.

Speaking in the Knesset before Israeli lawmakers, Gantz asserted that “the world must know, and Hamas leaders must know – if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue everywhere, to include the Rafah area”. Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, begins on 10 March this year. This means that there is only three weeks to go before the massive invasion on Rafah, of Gantz is serious.

Gantz also noted in his speech that Israel would act in “a coordinated manner, facilitating the evacuation of civilians in dialogue with our American and Egyptian partners to minimize civilian casualties”.

Israel’s ground occupation of Rafah, however, has already begun despite global opposition. Last week on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) entered the complex of Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, north of Rafah, saying intelligence indicated hostages taken by Hamas were being held there.

A report by The World Health Organization (WHO) a day later on Friday revealed that the Gaza hospital had ceased to function following an Israeli raid, and that it had not been allowed to enter the hospital to assess the situation. The IDF has described its operation in Nasser hospital as “precise and limited”, accusing Hamas of “cynically using hospitals for terror”.

Israel will be even tougher on Palestinians on Ramadan!

But this is only the beginning of the story and it seems Israel intends to be tougher on Palestinians in the holy month of Ramadan.

Also on Sunday, the office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that it has agreed to the request of his extremist security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, to limit Palestinian access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem during Ramadan.

“The government made a balanced decision that allows freedom of religion with necessary security limits, which have been set by professional officials,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Sunday evening, announcing the controversial decision.

The statement rejected Hebrew media reports that the prime minister has not yet reached a decision on the matter, calling them “incorrect.”

Since coming to power as Israel’s security minister, Ben Gvir has been putting pressure on Netanyahu to ban Palestinian Muslims from the occupied West Bank – as well as those with Israeli citizenship in the 1948-occupied territories – to have access to the holy site during Ramadan. Before Sunday statement, Netanyahu had only agreed to bar the latter group.

No ceasefire in sight for Gaza war!

Since October 7, more than 28,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and more than 68,000 wounded as a result of Israel’s air and ground attacks on Gaza.

And to make matters even worse, hopes for a soon-to-be-reached ceasefire between Israel and Hamas are also fading. In this regard, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said at the Munich Security Conference this Saturday that his country will continue to mediate for truce deal between Hamas and Israel, but the efforts to reach an agreement are currently looking unpromising.

“The pattern in the last few days is not really very promising but … we will always remain optimistic and will always remain pushing,” the Qatari prime minister said Saturday, adding that challenges are “expected” given the scope of the type of agreement being discussed, which would be much larger than the week-long truce and prisoner exchanges that took place last year. Al-Thani also noted that the “humanitarian part” of the negotiations have particularly been lagging.