Israel To Attack Rafah Unless Hostages Freed Next Month

Israel has said it will begin an assault on Rafah if Hamas does not release the remaining hostages it holds in Gaza by the beginning of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan expected to be on 10 March. The threatened assault comes as the EU warned that such an offensive would create a humanitarian disaster.

- CHRIS STEVENSON

Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, said: “The world must know, and Hamas leaders must know: if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue everywhere, to include the Rafah area.”

Israel’s military said it yesterday struck Khan Younis, where it has focused its war on Hamas in recent weeks. An assault on Rafah – the last refuge for Palestinians in Gaza – would mean pushing further south. Health officials in Hamas-run Gaza say that more than 29,000 people have been killed by an Israeli aerial bombardment, ground operations and a blockade that was started in response to a bloody Hamas attack inside Israel that killed around 1,200 people and saw 250 more taken hostage.

Up to 1.5 million of Gaza's population of 2.3m are now sheltering in Rafah, a city on the southern edge of the enclave. Many have fled other areas of Gaza as Israeli forces have moved south. “An attack on Rafah would be absolutely catastrophic ... it would be unconscionable,” Ireland’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said before a meeting with foreign ministers from the 27 EU member states in Brussels.

After the talks ended, the bloc’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said 26 of the EU’s 27 countries agreed to a statement warning against any attack on Rafah and calling for “an immediate humanitarian pause that would lead to a sustainable ceasefire, to the unconditional release of hostages, and to the provision of humanitarian assistance”.

Mr Borrell did not name the country that did not agree to the text but diplomats told Reuters that Hungary blocked a similar statement a few days ago.