Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday he would "soon approve plans to evacuate the civilian population" from Rafah ahead of an expected major operation in the southern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
city.
At the same time, he acknowledged that preparations for the operation "will take some time," as Jerusalem continues its dialogue with Washington, amid intense American concerns over the potential civilian cost in the city that is both Hamas
...not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
’s last major stronghold in the Strip and the last refuge of over a million refugees from other parts of the enclave amid the war.
"While we are preparing to enter Rafah, which will take some time, we continue to operate with all our might," said Netanyahu. "We continue to operate in Khan Younis, in the central [Gaza] camps, for the elimination and capture of senior Hamas officials, as we just did in Shifa Hospital, while eliminating hundreds of terrorists."
Netanyahu made the statement two days after a phone call with US President Joe
The Big GuyBiden
...46th president of the U.S. Old, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call
brilliant... or is that an act?...
on the state of the war and plans for Rafah. During that call, Biden effectively ruled out support for a major ground offensive in Rafah, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said.
Netanyahu expressed appreciation for Biden’s support for Israel, adding that the president had asked to present US proposals to Jerusalem on humanitarian assistance and other aspects of the war.
Two senior US officials told The Times of Israel on Tuesday that the US will present alternative plans for how Israel can continue pursuing Hamas without launching a major ground operation in Rafah during an upcoming meeting with a visiting Israeli delegation in Washington.
Netanyahu has said the IDF will evacuate the civilians to areas north of Rafah before beginning the operation and declared Friday that he had approved the military’s plans for the offensive. US officials speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
to The Times of Israel in recent weeks increasingly expressed their skepticism that such a large-scale evacuation would be possible.
"The key goals Israel wants to achieve in Rafah can be done by other means," Sullivan asserted Monday.
In his Wednesday statement, Netanyahu said: "As I promised you time and time again — we are determined to achieve absolute victory, and we will achieve it."
More than 1.3 million Paleostinians are estimated to be sheltering in the Rafah area, after the IDF issued evacuation warnings from northern Gaza and other areas in the Strip amid its ground offensive against Hamas. Unable to leave the tiny Paleostinian territory, many are living in makeshift tent camps or overflowing UN-run shelters.
The ground offensive began within a month of the outbreak of the war on October 7, when thousands of Hamas gunnies invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 253 captives.
Shortly after Netanyahu’s statement, State Department front man Matthew Miller told the press that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm...will discuss the need to ensure Hamas’s defeat, "including in Rafah," confirming the top American diplomat’s planned Friday visit to Israel.
The US came out against Israel’s plan to launch a major ground invasion in Rafah this week and is instead pushing for a more limited operation in the city and other parts of Gaza targeting Hamas’s military leaders. Washington also seeks to secure the Egypt-Gaza border to prevent continued smuggling, a surge of humanitarian aid through new access points into the enclave, and the promotion of a viable Paleostinian Authority-linked alternative to Hamas rule, US officials told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.
The US aims to discuss these alternative plans with two of Netanyahu’s top aides, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, on Sunday in Washington, but the issues will ostensibly be on Blinken’s agenda when he arrives in Tel Aviv on Friday.