On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise trip to visit Israeli troops in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah and said Israel must maintain control of the Gaza-Egypt border, known as the Philadelphi Corridor.
Netanyahu has previously said that any deal with Hamas must allow Israel to maintain control of the border, including the Rafah crossing, which has been cut off to aid deliveries since Israel took control of it on May 7. The prime minister’s demand has complicated talks not only with Hamas but also with Egypt, which opposes indefinite Israeli control of the border.
According to Netanyahu’s office, he said in Rafah that the Israeli troops there understand “that our holding the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah Crossing are vital for the future.”
He added that the military pressure the soldiers were applying “to the throat of Hamas” was helping advance a hostage deal. But Netanyahu has been working to sabotage a potential agreement, something that’s been widely acknowledged by Israeli officials. Mossad Director David Barnea, the official in charge of negotiations, said Wednesday that Netanyahu’s demands were preventing a deal.
Netanyahu also discussed his upcoming trip to Washington. “Next week I am leaving for the US to address both houses of Congress. I am going to present the justice of Israel’s cause,” he said.
For months leading up to Israel’s invasion of Rafah, the Biden administration was warning against doing so without a clear plan for the over 1 million civilians who were sheltering there. Israel went ahead with the attack without accounting for the civilians, and the US still supported it, claiming it was a “limited” assault.
But Israeli forces killed many civilians and left Rafah in ruin. Civilians who fled the city have been scattered throughout southern and central Gaza. Many ended in so-called “safe zones” that Israel continues to bomb, including the al-Mawasi camp on the coast.
That which is not given but is taken away can always be retaken and given to the appropriate owners and I suggest keeping that in mind..
You'll notice he's wearing body armor.
Why the hell Hamas passed up he chance to take him out is beyond me. Given their pervasive surveillance of all of Gaza – amply demonstrated in Hamas operations videos – they must have known he was there. OTOH, if he just popped in and popped back out, they may not have had time to prepare an operation.
A quick photo op. Next week,when he shows up in D.C.,someone should make a citizens arrest.
Likely insanely overload of IDF fighters in every Nook and Crany – suspect the Resistance Soldiers were busy in the target rich environment.
how many IDF were wounded or killed just so the Likud could stage this photo-op ? Israelis deserve better
Hopefully a lot of IDF were killed.
Only the war criminals
Was that picture geolocated?
Killing Hamas operatives is the excuse they use for their slaughter of the Palestinians!!! They CLAIM that they are: "Doing every thing they can to protect innocent life". But Dropping bombs despite their denials is the surest way to maximize the slaughter of every day women & children towards their stated goal of erasing the children that they openly said around the beginning of their bombing campaign of everything on the ground in Palestine. Chris Hedges was the first to say Israel is committing suicide by this genocide!!!! Just like The Nazis did to their third Reich.
Thomas Crooks nicked Trump's ear with a shot. Nutty Yahoo has butchered, in COLD BLOOD, almost 40,000 Gazans because of actions that he and his warmongering "leaders" aided and abetted! At this point, even though I've voted for Trump twice, I will vote for someone else (besides a Democrat) if Trump doesn't pull the veil from America's eyes regarding the criminal state of Israel!
Trump, the conman, is part of the criminal leadership of the Western powers. He is as insidious as all the rest of them, which includes the European NATO/EU members, traitors of their people.
Where are the real leaders with integrity and real devotion to their nations. Orban is one and he needs real support.
The ruling establishment wants war, it is good business and they know no bounds killing to get their loot.
The PEOPLE WANT PEACE.
Spot on Lysistrata!
The main purpose of this trip was to boost IDF morals as they have been loosing it because of the prolong fighting…! You can tell from thier faces…!
LOL. That NetinYahoo would risk going to the Gaza front indicates how much pressure is building up against him in Tel Aviv and from Israeli protests on the streets. He'd rather be in Gaza than in Tel Aviv.
Second, even if Hamas could reach him with all of that security, it's a calculated risk of whether killing him would indeed hasten a permanent ceasefire –which is what the Palestinian resistance has consistently called for all along– or cause the genocidal maniacs to gain the upper hand and prolong the slaughter in Gaza. Both ways Israel loses in the end. Unlike here where the attempted assassination of President Trump (I say President Trump because he was obviously president and will be again) was absorbed without complete chaos, a bullet to Netinyahoo's head by an Israeli will cause chaos but may end the slaughter in Gaza.
Third, Y'all be happy to know that "Netin" as in Netanyahu means rotten in Arabic. Its funny watching Arabic media where the rotten (netin) part of his name is mentioned with an ever so slight pause to emphasize the rotten.
How Germanesque of Israel!
OCCUPATION, ring a bell, Israel?!