Egypt, European leaders reject Netanyahu’s insistence on Rafah operation

Egypt, along with European leaders, opposed Israeli plans for a military operation against Hamas in Rafah on Sunday, as the security cabinet met to set a redline for a hostage deal, before the expected departure of Mossad Chief David Barnea for Doha for negotiations.

“We are also very concerned about the risks a full-scale offensive in Rafah would have on the most vulnerable civilian population. This needs to be avoided at all costs,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday.

The war has already created a humanitarian disaster in Gaza, von der Leyen told reporters, after signing a strategic partnership agreement with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

“Gaza is facing famine and we cannot accept this,” she said.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo added, “The current situation in Gaza is unacceptable, too many civilian lives have been lost.”

Israel had a responsibility to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid, and the population of Gaza deserves to live in peace, he said.

The European leaders lauded Egyptian efforts to broker a deal for the release of the remaining 134 hostages, together with Doha, even as pundits have speculated that diplomatic attacks on Israel for its handling of the Gaza war make it more difficult to achieve such a deal.

Pressure to hold back on Rafah operation

Israel has used the potential of a Rafah operation as one of its pressure levers to push Hamas to make a deal, which in its first phase would also include a six-week pause to the war.

If a deal were struck, Israel would hold off its Rafah operation, but has said that it must be allowed to enter the area near the enclave’s southern border with Egypt.

Pressure not to execute that operation comes amid growing calls on Israel to pursue a permanent ceasefire that would end the war.

At issue in particular is concern for the humanitarian crisis, including in Rafah, where over 1.3 million Palestinians are located, many of whom fled there to avoid bombing in the north.

On Friday, the war cabinet approved the Rafah operation, as well as a plan to protect civilians and ensure their evacuation from the area.

In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated the obvious to his government at its weekly meeting that “it is no secret that the international pressure is increasing.”

He issued similar statements in a media blitz he did with CNN and Fox News on Sunday.

Israel can’t afford to cave to those dictates, he told his government, noting that the Rafah operation was necessary to destroy the remaining Hamas battalions in that southern area of the Strip by Egypt.

“This is the only way to eliminate Hamas’s murderous brigades, and it is the only way to use the military pressure necessary to free all of our hostages,” Netanyahu stated.

Failure to do so, he said, would simply mean losing the war.

Netanyahu stressed that evacuating civilians was an essential part of the plan.

“Let it be clear: If we stop the war now before all of its goals are achieved, this means that Israel will have lost the war, and this we will not allow. Therefore, we cannot, and will not, succumb to this pressure.

“On the contrary, this simple truth only strengthens our determination to continue rejecting the pressure and fighting to the end – to total victory.

“No international pressure will stop us from realizing all of the goals of the war: Eliminating Hamas, freeing all of our hostages, and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel,” he stated.

Netanyahu chastised the international community, arguing that they had forgotten that it was the Hamas-led attack on October 7 that sparked the war, one in which over 1,200 people were killed and 253 people were taken hostage.

“Are your memories that short? Have you so quickly forgotten October 7, the most horrific massacre of Jews since the Holocaust?

“Are you so quick to deny Israel the right to defend itself against Hamas monsters? Have you so quickly lost your moral consciences?” he stated.

“Instead of pressuring Israel, which is fighting a war, the justice of which is unparalleled, against an enemy of unparalleled brutality, apply your pressure to Hamas and its patron – Iran. It is they who constitute a danger to the region and the entire world,” he said.

Reuters and Maariv contributed to this report.