Israel PM warns of Rafah offensive 'with or without' Gaza truce deal

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday (Apr 30) to launch a ground offensive on the Gaza Strip's far-southern city of Rafah "with or without" a truce deal being agreed with Hamas.

The hawkish premier issued the warning despite strong concerns raised by top ally Washington and hours before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to arrive in Israel on his latest Middle East crisis tour.

Netanyahu, who has vowed to destroy Hamas over its Oct 7 attack, promised "total victory" and said stopping the war "before achieving all of its goals is out of the question".

"We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there with or without a deal," he told families of some of the hostages still being held in Gaza, his office said.

Netanyahu's comments came as Hamas was weighing the latest plan for a truce proposed in Cairo talks with US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators that had raised cautious hopes for an end to the fighting after nearly seven months.

The Palestinian militant group said it was considering a plan for a 40-day ceasefire and the exchange of scores of hostages for larger numbers of Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas, whose envoys returned from Cairo talks to their base in Qatar, would "discuss the ideas and the proposal", said a Hamas source, adding that "we are keen to respond as quickly as possible".

Al-Qahera News, a site linked to Egyptian intelligence services, earlier reported that Hamas negotiators were due to "return with a written response".

An Israeli official told AFP the government "will wait for answers until Wednesday night", and then "make a decision" whether to send envoys to Cairo.

NETANYAHU "FEELING THE SQUEEZE"

Washington has heightened pressure on all sides to reach a ceasefire - a message pushed by Blinken, who was on his seventh regional tour since the war broke out.

Blinken, who arrived in Jordan from Saudi Arabia and was later heading to Israel for talks with Netanyahu and other officials on Wednesday, described Israel's offer as "extraordinarily generous".

In Amman on Tuesday, Blinken called for the redoubling of aid efforts at a "critical moment in making sure that everything that needs to be done is being done".

He met with King Abdullah II, who stressed the "importance of immediate action to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip and the need to protect innocent civilians", according to a royal statement.

Washington has strongly backed its ally Israel but also pressured it to refrain from a ground invasion of Rafah, which is packed with displaced civilians.

Calev Ben-Dor, a former analyst for the Israeli foreign ministry and now deputy editor for specialised review Fathom, told AFP that Netanyahu's "Rafah comments likely have more to do with trying to keep his coalition intact, rather than operational plans in the near term".

The prime minister, whose government includes far-right politicians who have vehemently opposed the proposed truce, "is feeling the squeeze between the Biden administration ... and the moderate and more extreme components of his coalition", Ben-Dor said.

President Joe Biden, facing rising fury on US university campuses, urged the Egyptian and Qatari leaders Monday "to exert all efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas".

Biden called this "the only obstacle" to securing relief for Gaza's civilians, who the United Nations has warned are on the brink of famine.

A US-built floating pier on Gaza's coast to allow for greater aid deliveries is expected to be completed later this week, said Cyprus, the departure point for the planned "maritime corridor".

CHILDREN PULLED FROM THE RUBBLE

As diplomacy continued, Israel kept up its bombardment that has flattened swathes of Gaza.

An AFP correspondent reported air strikes on Gaza City, Khan Yunis and Rafah, while Israel said "fighter jets struck a number of terror targets in central Gaza".

Palestinians in Rafah mourned the latest victims as children were being pulled from the rubble.

At Al-Najjar Hospital, grief-stricken relatives jostled over the dead, whose bodies were shrouded in white.

"We demand the entire world call for a lasting truce," said one bereaved relative, Abu Taha.

The war started after Hamas's Oct 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,535 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Palestinian militants also took some 250 hostages on Oct 7 Israel estimates 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 believed to be dead.

POST-WAR STATEHOOD

As the Gaza war has roiled the region and its human toll has sparked international outrage, political momentum has built in the search for a post-war solution to the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

European and Arab foreign ministers met in the Saudi capital on Monday to discuss how to join forces on advancing a two-state solution.

To provide Israel with an incentive, Washington has pushed the prospect of normalised relations with Gulf kingpin Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh has demanded "irreversible" steps towards Palestinian statehood, which Netanyahu and many members of his hard-right government oppose.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he expected several European governments to announce their recognition of a Palestinian state within the next month, including Belgium, Ireland, Malta, Slovenia and Spain.

The UN's International Court of Justice on Tuesday threw out Nicaragua's request for emergency measures to stop Germany sending military supplies to Israel over alleged violations of the Genocide Convention.

In a pending ICJ procedure, South Africa accused Israel of perpetuating genocide in Gaza.

China meanwhile said that rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah had met in Beijing recently for "talks on promoting intra-Palestinian reconciliation".

Hamas seized sole control of Gaza in 2007, while Fatah maintains partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank through the Palestinian Authority.