The IDF presented to the War Cabinet its plan to both evacuate Palestinian civilians from Rafah and to militarily destroy some of the last Hamas battalions in the area of Gaza near the Egyptian border.
In addition, the cabinet approved a plan late Sunday night to provide “humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip in a manner that will prevent the looting that has occurred in the northern Strip and other areas,” according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Earlier in the day Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with CBS’s "Face the Nation" about the importance of a Rafah operation in ensuring an IDF victory over Hamas.
“We’re not going to give it up,” Netanyahu said.
“Once we begin the Rafah operation, the intense phase of the fighting is weeks away from completion, not months, weeks away from completion,” Netanyahu said, as he indicated that the Israel-Hamas war could be wrapped up this spring.
“We’ve already destroyed 18 of the 24 Hamas terrorist battalions, and four of them are concentrated in Rafah. We can’t leave the last Hamas stronghold without taking care of it, obviously, we have to do it,” Netanyahu said as he defended the pending operation which has drawn worldwide condemnation even before it has begun.
Concern is high for the fate of over 1.3 million Palestinians in that area, many of whom fled there to escape IDF bombing in the north of Gaza.
Hostage deal will delay, not stop, Rafah operation
Netanyahu spoke as Israel has expressed cautious optimism about the possibility of a deal for the release of the remaining 134 hostages out of the 253 Hamas seized during its massacre in southern Israel on October 7, which sparked the Gaza war.
Those involved in the negotiations for a deal have used the pending Rafah military operation as a pressure lever to sway Hamas to make a deal before the Ramadan holiday, which begins on March 10.
Netanyahu confirmed to CBS that a deal would delay the operation. “If we have a deal, it’ll be delayed somewhat. But it’ll happen,” Netanyahu said. He stressed, however, that “If we don’t have a deal, we’ll do it anyway. It has to be done. Because total victory is our goal, and total victory is within reach. Not months away, weeks away once we begin the operation.”
He spoke with the US network after CIA Director William Burns held a meeting in Paris on Friday night, that included high-level officials from Israel and the two countries mediating the deal: Egypt and Qatar.
Those participating in the meeting included Mossad chief David Barnea, Shin Bet director Ronen Bar, Hostage Affairs Coordinator Nitzan Alon, the head of IDF Strategic Affairs Division Oren Sefer, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed al-Thani and Egyptian Intelligence chief Major General Abbas Kamel.
A lower-level Israeli delegation is expected to head to Qatar this week to continue the talks. Egyptian security sources said there would be more talks this week in Doha, with mediators shuttling between Hamas and Israeli delegates, and a follow-up round in Cairo. There was no immediate confirmation of that from Israel, Hamas, or Qatar.
Hamas has in the past insisted that a deal could only occur if Israel agreed to a permanent ceasefire and to withdraw the IDF from Gaza. Israel has rejected both demands.
It’s widely understood that any deal would involve a pause to the war and the release of Palestinian security prisoners, including terrorists with “blood on their hands.”
Reports have circulated throughout about details of the deal, for which the two sides have yet to agree. According to Kan News, Israel has asked for a list of those hostages who are still alive as a trust-building measure to help the sides reach an agreement. Channel 12 reported that Netanyahu wants those terrorists responsible for killing Israelis, who would be freed during the deal, to be exiled to Qatar, which is already home to the top Hamas leaders abroad. According to Channel 12, the Israeli delegation to the Doha talks has a limited mandate.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party) told the 21st Jerusalem Conference that he was opposed to “making a deal with the devil.” He had supported the previous deal in November that saw the exchange of a female hostage or a child, for three Palestinian security prisoners that were either female or minors. Smotrich noted that Israel had been asked to pay a higher price for this second deal when due to its military success in Gaza, it should be looking at lower terms.
“I am against a deal where the keys [demands] are larger, the truce is longer. It makes no sense,” Smotrich stated.
In his interview with CBS, Netanyahu said that Israel wants to free the captives and has “already brought half of them back” and was working with the US for the release of the rest.
“I can’t tell you if we’ll have” a deal, Netanyahu stated, as he blamed Hamas for the protracted talks.
“If Hamas goes down from its delusional claims and … can bring them down to earth, then we’ll have the progress that we all want. “
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed to CNN that Israel, Egypt, and Qatar had come to an understanding in Paris about the “basic contours of a hostage deal for a temporary ceasefire.”
There will now “be indirect discussions by Qatar and Egypt with Hamas because ultimately they will have to agree to release the hostages. That work is underway. And we hope that in the coming days, we can drive to a point where there is a firm and final agreement.”
With respect to the Rafah operation, Sullivan stressed to NBC’s "Meet the Press" the importance of the war cabinet’s passage of a viable plan for the evacuation of Palestinian civilians, noting that this was the only way to secure US support.
“We’ve been clear that we do not believe that a major military operation should proceed in Rafah unless there is a clear and executable plan to protect those civilians, to get them to safety and to feed, clothe and house them. And we have not seen a plan like that,” Sullivan said.
Netanyahu told CBS that Israel had already done more than any other nation would to preserve civilian life during its military operation to destroy Hamas. He spoke as Israel has defended itself against charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice due to the high fatality count in Gaza.
Hamas has asserted that close to 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, of whom Israel has claimed that some 11,00 combatants have been killed.
The war itself was sparked by the Hamas-led October 7 massacre in which over 1,200 people were killed in Israel.
Netanyahu said, “This war has been forced upon us by a cynical enemy that not only targets our civilians, has raped, beheaded, burnt babies alive, killed children in front of their parents and parents in front of their children. This enemy not only targets civilians but hides behind civilians.”
If America had suffered a similar attack, Netanyahu stated, “You’d be doing a hell of a lot more” by way of a military response.
“Israel has gone to extraordinary lengths, calling up people, civilians, Palestinians in Gaza, telling them leave your home, sending pamphlets, we have done that effort, Hamas tries to keep them at gunpoint, we’ll clear them out of harm’s way, we’ll complete the job and achieve total victory, which is necessary to give a secure future for Israel, a better future for Gaza, a better future for the Middle East, and a setback for the Iran terror axis.
“That’s in all our interests. It’s in America’s interest too,” Netanyahu concluded.