FLASH
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A member of Israel's war cabinet has said the country will launch a ground offensive in Rafah, the last place of relative safety in Gaza, if Hamas does not release the remaining Israeli hostages by the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which it's in three weeks.
" The world needs to know, and the leaders of Hamas need to know - if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, fighting will continue everywhere, including the Rafah area ," said Benny Gantz, a chief of staff of the Defense Forces. of Israel in retirement at the conference of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday.
As Israeli forces have steadily expanded ground operations southward in their fight against Hamas over the past four months, Rafah has become the last refuge for more than half of the strip's population of 2.3 million.
Widespread destruction and ongoing fighting across the territory, two-thirds of which is already under Israeli evacuation orders, means it is unclear how civilians are expected to escape the long-awaited offensive.
In Gaza on Monday, the Israeli military claimed victory in the long-running battle for the central town of Khan Younis and nearby refugee camps, making a ground assault on Rafah more likely. Seven patients died at Khan Younis' Nasser hospital after power cuts caused by a days-long Israeli raid on the premises and 20 others urgently needed referral, the World Health Organization said.
Airstrikes and ground fighting over the past day killed more than 100 people, mostly women and children, bringing the death toll to more than 29,000, the Hamas-run territory's health ministry said. About 85% of the population has been displaced from their homes and one in four are hungry, according to the UN.
The war, now in its fifth month, was sparked by a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 last year, in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.
Gantz's threat that Israel will not slow or stop its operation in Gaza comes as negotiations aimed at a ceasefire and a prisoner and hostage exchange stall. A major offensive in Rafah, which world leaders fear could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe, during Ramadan could also serve as a trigger for further violence across Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories and the wider region. Iran-backed militias in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon have already been drawn into the conflict./ TheGuardian
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