Israel is preparing its ground offensive on Rafah. The Israeli army has “submitted to the War Cabinet a plan for the evacuation of the population from the combat zones in the Gaza Strip, as well as the plan for future operations,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a brief press statement on Monday, February 26, without publication to provide information. The announcement comes ahead of an expected Israeli offensive in Rafah, a city in the southern Palestinian territory where, according to the United Nations, nearly 1.5 million Palestinians, the vast majority displaced, are crowded together in extremely precarious conditions. Follow our live stream.
Rafah, the “last bastion” of Hamas. According to Benjamin Netanyahu, the city of Rafah, secured by Egypt's closed border, is the “last bastion” of the Islamist movement Hamas. An offensive would only be “delayed” if a ceasefire that was currently being negotiated came about, he said on Sunday on the US broadcaster CBS. By launching this operation, Israel will be “a few weeks” away from a “total victory” over Hamas, he said.
Ongoing talks about a new ceasefire. Representatives of Egypt, Qatar and the USA as well as Israel and Hamas resumed negotiations in Doha on Sunday. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday that a recent meeting in Paris between representatives of Israel, the United States, Egypt and Qatar “found common ground” on the “contours” of a possible agreement related to the release of hostages and “a temporary ceasefire” had been found.
Air strikes continue in the southern Gaza Strip. There were more bombings in Rafah on Sunday and fighting raged in the destroyed town of Khan Younes, a few kilometers further north. Since the start of the war, sparked by an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip has suffered a major humanitarian disaster and 2.2 million people, the vast majority of the population, are facing “mass starvation.” threatened. , according to the UN.