By Chris Hughes
Israel has delivered a deadly ultimatum to Hamas - hand over the hostages by Ramadan or face an attack on the last remaining so-called Gazah safe haven of Rafah.
It means all 130 hostages taken on October 7 have to be freed within three weeks or Rafah and its one million plus Palestinian refugees will face a ground assault. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to explain where Rafah’s Palestinians should evacuate in advance of the possible assault in three weeks.
It came as the Palestinian death toll rose to more than 29,000 and over 69,000 wounded, marking another bloody milestone in the conflict. The US is working with mediators Egypt and Qatar to try to broker another cease-fire and hostage release agreement, even though peace talks have faltered.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 107 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of fatalities to 29,092 since the start of the war. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage.
More than 100 captives were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Militants still hold around 130, a fourth of them believed to be dead. Israel responded by launching one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history on the Hamas-ruled enclave.
The military says 236 of its soldiers have been killed. War has driven 80% of the Palestinians in Gaza from their homes and has left a quarter of the population starving, according to U.N. officials.
On Sunday, Benny Gantz, a retired general and a member of Netanyahu’s three-man War Cabinet, warned the offensive will expand to Rafah if the hostages are not freed. The deadline is the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is expected to begin around March 10.
Ramadan is often a time of heightened tensions in the region, including in the West Bank and Israel’s border with Lebanon. Israel has said it is developing plans to evacuate civilians from Rafah, but it is unclear where they would go in the devastated territory.
Egypt has sealed the border and warned that any mass influx of Palestinians could threaten its decades-old peace treaty with Israel. Netanyahu has rejected Hamas demands of hostage releases in exchange for an end to the war as “delusional.”
He has angered peace brokers in Qatar by pressuring them on hostage releases. At the weekend he said: “Qatar can press Hamas as no one else can. They host Hamas leaders, Hamas is dependent on them financially. I urge you to press Qatar to press Hamas because we want our hostages released.”