“There are enough hostages alive to justify the kind of actions we are taking.”

The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahuhe said Sunday, when asked how many of the 132 hostages Israelis abducted since October 7 are still alive, “enough to justify the kind of actions we are taking.”

Netanyahu assured this in an interview with the American network ABC, in which he confirmed the upcoming entry of armed forces into the city. Rafa, last refuge for hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, to eliminate “the remaining battalions of Hamas.” “Let’s do it. We are going to eliminate the terrorist battalions that remain in Rafahwhich is the last bastion, but we are going to do it,” the Israeli Prime Minister said.

Hamas’s Ezedin al-Qasem Brigade said this Sunday that two Israeli hostages have been killed and eight others seriously injured in the past 96 hours as a result of the Israeli army’s attacks on the Gaza Strip. He added that the situation of the injured “is becoming increasingly critical due to the inability to provide them with adequate treatment.”

According to the latest data provided by Israel, there are still 132 hostages in the Gaza Strip, of whom around 28 are believed to be dead.

Offensive on Rafah and evacuation

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a ceasefire proposal put forward by Hamas on the 7th and urged the “total victory” in Gaza.

He then announced an upcoming ground offensive against the southern city of Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians are concentrated, which Israel has boosted in recent months in its offensive that started in the north of the strip and then moved south, with the entire strip.

The president assures that The civilian population of Rafah will have to “leave” the area.. Although governments and international NGOs have warned that the Palestinians have nowhere to go and that any exit process will mean another forced displacement to nowhere.

Netanyahu has stuck to his idea and has argued that the more than 1.3 million displaced people in Rafah could return north when the offensive begins. “There are clean areas north of Rafah, many areas. But we are working on a detailed plan to do this,” he said.

In this sense, Hamas that Saturday warned that a The Israeli ground offensive in Rafahon the south side of the Strip, would cause a “global catastrophe and carnage”, he emphasized this Sunday that an attack on this city would mean torpedoing hostage-for-prisoner exchange negotiations.

International pressure

The United Nations estimates that half of Gaza’s residents are overcrowded in Rafah and surrounding areas. Likewise, it is the main entry point for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. That is why several organizations have warned of the serious humanitarian consequences that an offensive in the area would have.

Last Saturday, while countries like Spain, Germany, France, United Kingdom of Canada, as well as the EU, And NGOs Globals warned about the catastrophic tragedy that could occur in the city as the Israeli army enters, countries related to the Palestinian cause, such as Saudi Arabia, Lebanon or Jordan I asked for it urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council about this future raid. The chairman of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, for his part, has to deportation by Israel of the United Nations Organization.

The chairman of the USAJoe Biden, in a call with Netanyahu, urged Israel not to proceed with any military operation in Rafah without a prior plan to guarantee the safety of the more than 1 million displaced people seeking refuge there, according to the White House.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield has also spoken out against a possible Israeli military incursion into the Gaza city of Rafah: “We have made it absolutely clear that, as things stand in Rafah, a operation currently in the Gaza Strip “The area cannot move forward and would only dramatically worsen the humanitarian emergency we are trying to alleviate,” he said in statements to US public broadcaster NPR.

At least 112 Palestinians have been killed and another 173 injured in the past 24 hours in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, as reported this Sunday by the Gaza Health Ministry. With this new number of victims it increases to 28,176 the number of deaths in the Palestinian enclave and another 67,784 have been injured as a result of the military offensive Israel launched against the Gaza Strip following the October 7 attacks, which left nearly 1,200 dead in Israel and around 240 kidnapped, according to published reports. . Separately, more than 375 Palestinians have been killed in security force operations and settler attacks in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7.