Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday to cross President Joe Biden’s “red line,” if Hamas failed to release hostages.
In an interview, Prime Minister Netanyahu says Israel will not surrender to international pressure to stall its offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
BREAKING:
⚡ 🇮🇱Netanyahu to Politico:
We will enter Rafah, and the red line for us is not to repeat the October 7 attack
We are about to end the last part of the war, and the fighting will not take more than two months and perhaps 6 or 4 weeks
I do not see any breakthrough in… pic.twitter.com/ZxkfDFgQU6
— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) March 10, 2024
The Israeli prime minister added, “We’ll go there. We’re not going to leave them. You know, I have a red line. Do you know what the red line is? That October 7 doesn’t happen again. Never happens again.”
He added, “We are very close to victory … Once we begin military action against the remaining terror battalions in Rafah, it is only a question of weeks.”
“We’ve destroyed three-quarters of Hamas’ fighting terrorism battalions. And we’re close to finishing the last part in warfare,” the Israeli leader said. Fighting would not “take more than two months.”
“Maybe six weeks, maybe four,” he added.
The prime minister considers Rafah the last Hamas stronghold, and thus to attain complete victory Netanyahu intends to push on.
Netanyahu also slammed efforts to stop Israel from attacking Rafah.
“Whoever tells us not to act in Rafah is telling us to lose the war and that will not happen.”
This statement followed earlier news that Hamas terrorists have withdrawn their delegation from indirect ceasefire negotiations in Cairo, signaling that chances of even a short pause during the holy month of Ramadan are now highly unlikely.
For weeks now, the US, Egypt, and Qatar have attempted to arrange a six-week ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestine and the release of 40 hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians detained in Israel.
Hamas representatives confirmed that their delegation left Cairo but clarified that the talks would resume next week.
“Hamas’s delegation left Cairo this morning for consultation with the leadership of the movement, with negotiations and efforts continuing to stop the aggression, return the displaced, and bring in relief aid to our people.”
Meanwhile, addressing Biden’s “red line” concerns, Netanyahu said he was not sure what the President meant but “he was wrong on both counts.”
“[The Israeli people] also support my position that says that we should resoundingly reject the attempt to ram down our throats a Palestinian state. That is something that they agree on.”
“[Our opponents] don’t understand that the reason we don’t have peace is not because the Palestinians don’t have a state. It’s because the Jews have a state. And in fact, the Palestinians have not brought themselves to recognize and accept the Jewish state,” he added.
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