Former Prime Minister Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's war cabinet, said the country's Defense Forces (IDF) will begin a ground offensive in the southern Gaza Strip, including the city of Rafah, if the terrorist group Hamas does not release the hostages still in their hands until the start of Ramadan, which begins this year on March 10.
“The world must know, and Hamas leaders must know: if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, fighting will continue everywhere, including the Rafah area,” Gantz said during the Conference of Presidents of Major Hamas. American Jewish Organizations, in Jerusalem, on Sunday (18).
“We will do this in a coordinated manner, facilitating the evacuation of civilians in dialogue with our American and Egyptian partners to minimize civilian casualties,” said the former prime minister.
“For those who say the price [de uma incursão terrestre]
is very high, I say this very clearly: Hamas has a choice – it can surrender, release the hostages and the citizens of Gaza will be able to celebrate the holy holiday of Ramadan,” Gantz added.
Ramadan, which this year will be between March 10 and April 8, is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, when most Muslims fast between sunrise and sunset.
In the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, Hamas killed around 1,200 people and took another 253 hostage. Some of them were released during a truce in which Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons were released in return. Other hostages were rescued or killed. Israel estimates that Hamas still holds around 130 hostages.
Today, there are around 1.5 million people in the Rafah region, many of them displaced from other regions of the Gaza Strip since the start of the conflict.
#Israel #promises #offensive #Rafah #hostages #released #Ramadan