Israel-Hamas war: Netanyahu sets 'date' for Rafah offensive

Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, a spokesman for Israel's military, told DW that the IDF is continuing its mission to dismantle and destroy Hamas as a governing authority in the Gaza Strip. 

"We do know that in the Gaza Strip there are still at least six operational battalions of Hamas," he said, adding that four of them operate in the Rafah area and two in more central Gaza. 

"If we are going to be successful at dismantling Hamas, we're going to have to go to Rafah," the spokesman stressed.

According to Lerner, a different type of operation would be required in Rafah, including both precision airstrikes and ground operations based on intelligence and operational flexibility. 

He said the Israeli military is getting closer every day to dismantling Hamas. "That is the goal number one alongside with goal number two of bringing home the hostages," the spokesman said. 

He also added that there is no quick fix to the reality. "We're going to take our time until we reach our goals," Lerner said.

On Monday, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the US continues to oppose a full-scale invasion of Rafah.

Miller spoke with reporters after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a "date" had been set for an Israeli military operation in the southern Gazan city.

Since February, the US has warned an invasion of Rafah would unleash a humanitarian disaster. More than 1 million displaced people are sheltering in the city.

"We have made clear to Israel that we think a full-scale military invasion of Rafah would have an enormously harmful effect on those civilians and that it would ultimately hurt Israel's security," Miller said. 

The White House has said it has not seen signs a major ground operation is imminent in Rafah. 

"It's not just a question of Israel presenting a plan to us. We have made clear to them that we think that there is a better way to achieve what is a legitimate goal, which is to degrade and dismantle and defeat the Hamas battalions that still remain in Rafah," Miller said.

US President Joe Biden has previously said invading Rafah would be crossing a "red line." 

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that there was a date set for an Israeli military offensive into the southern city of Rafah.

"Today I received a detailed report on the talks in Cairo, we are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas," Netanyahu said in a video message in Hebrew posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. 

Netanyahu reiterated that victory over Hamas militants "requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen - there is a date." He did not mention any timeline. 

Israel's plans for a Rafah invasion have been met with strong opposition from international allies due to the spiraling humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

More than 1 million Palestinians are currently sheltering in Rafah from fighting elsewhere in the sealed-off Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu has been hinting at an invasion of Rafah since at least February, including setting a deadline for the start of Ramadan on March 10, which came and went. 

The latest announcement comes just a day after the Israeli military said it had withdrawn most of its ground troops from the southern Gaza strip, leaving just one brigade in the city of Khan Younis.

The Speaker of Israel's Knesset, Amir Ohana, has thanked Germany for its support of Israel in the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.

Ohana, who was in Berlin on Monday, said that the German people had reaffirmed the will to keep their promise of "never again," referring to the slogan used in Germany when recalling the murder of millions of Jews at the hands of the Nazi regime.

Bärbel Bas — president of the lower house of parliament, or Bundestag — said that Israel could rely on Germany as a partner.

"Today it is clear that never again is now," she told a joint press conference.

Bas also expressed hope that all those involved in the ongoing conflict would "give a two-state solution a chance, to allow the region to find a joint future, with a permanent peace."

Germany has firmly supported Israel's right to self-defense. However, as the humanitarian situation in Gaza becomes more dire, Germany has called for an "immediate humanitarian cease-fire" to allow hostages to be freed and more aid to get to those in need.

The White House on Monday said the responsibility for deciding on a cease-fire in Gaza lay with Hamas. This comes after negotiators presented a proposal to the Islamist Palestinian militant group.

"At the end of the weekend, a proposal was submitted to Hamas. And now it's going to be up to Hamas to come through," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on a call.

CIA Director William Burns was in Cairo over the weekend for the talks aimed at securing the release of hostages.

Kirby said the US was taking the discussions very seriously and was hoping to secure a hostage release deal as soon as possible, considering it would also lead to a cease-fire of around six weeks.

Kirby said more than 300 aid trucks entered Gaza on Sunday and that the White House would continue to push Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave.

Around 1,200 people were killed during the Hamas-led October 7 terror attacks, during which around 250 people were taken hostage.

The commander of an EU naval mission to provide safe passage to commercial vessels in the Red Sea has said more vessels are needed to defend against possible attacks by Houthi rebels based in Yemen.

Just four warships, including Germany's navy frigate Hessen, have been deployed on the mission. 

"Just a single transit of one of our ships between the two larger distances to the area might take about 10 days, and also to cross the high-risk area takes almost two days," Greek navy Rear Admiral Vasilios Gryparis, the commander of the mission, told reporters in Brussels.

The southern part of the Red Sea is deemed a high-risk zone.

Gryparise said the high-risk zone "has seen multiple attacks in the past months" ranging from threats and intimidation to "complex attacks" using "shore, air and sea-based assets, drones and ballistic missiles."

Launched in February, the "Aspides" mission has so far escorted 68 ships and repelled 11 attacks. The mission does not engage in military strikes against the Houthis. 

The Houthis are backed by Iran and control much of Yemen's north and west. They have been launching regular attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea since October, in what they claim is a response to Israel's military campaign in Gaza.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said that at least 33,207 people have been killed in the war in Gaza so far.

The toll included an additional 38 deaths in the last 24 hours. Another 75,933 people have been wounded thus far since the war began on October 7, after Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. 

Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by many countries including Israel and Germany.

Pope Francis met with relatives of hostages taken by Hamas militants on October 7.

The Vatican released photos of the encounter, showing the relatives of several of hostages sitting in a semicircle in front of Francis in his private library in the Apostolic Palace. Each person held a poster with a photo and the name of their loved one.

It was the second time Francis has met with relatives of hostages. In November, he met separately with relatives of Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinians living through the war in Gaza.

Francis spoke about the suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians after his meetings, which were arranged before the Israeli-Hamas hostage deal and a temporary halt in fighting was announced.

In his Easter Sunday address, Francis called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and the release of all Israeli hostages.

The Israeli military said on Monday it had destroyed Hamas rocket launch posts in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), several strikes over the last few days ultimately wiped out the sites being used by Hamas.

The IDF also said Hamas had embedded the sites in humanitarian areas in the west of the city and had used them to fire rockets into Israel over the course of the six-month war.

The news comes after the IDF announced on Sunday it had withdrawn its forces from the Palestinian city, wrapping up a key phase in its ground offensive against the Hamas militant group.

But Israeli defense officials said troops were merely regrouping as the military prepares to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, a Gaza border town that has seen its numbers swell to over a million as people flee Israeli operations that have left much of the rest of the enclave in ruins.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday he expected Israeli cooperation as Canberra looks into how the Israel Defense Forces killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom, in Gaza last week.

Australia has appointed Mark Binskin, a retired national defense chief, to look into the deadly strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy.

"We would expect that someone of Mr. Binskin's stature, frankly, will be given every cooperation from the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli government," Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"We don't find the explanations to be satisfactory to this point," Albanese added. "We need proper accountability, we need full transparency about the circumstances and I think that is what the Australian public would expect."

The Israeli military has described the strike as a tragic error.

The seven aid workers' deaths had "shaken the world," Albanese told the state broadcaster, adding it is "unacceptable" that almost 200 aid workers have died since the war began in October last year.

The International Court of Justice has opened the first day of a two-day hearing in a case that accuses Germany of enabling acts of genocide and breaches of international humanitarian law in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Nicaragua has argued that by giving Israel political, financial and military support and by defunding the United Nations aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, "Germany is facilitating the commission of genocide and, in any case has failed in its obligation to do everything possible to prevent the commission of genocide."

Nicaragua's case builds upon an earlier case brought by South Africa that accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. 

Read the full story here.

The Israel Defense Forces said Monday it had killed a commander of Hezbollah's secretive Radwan Force in southern Lebanon.

The strike against comes as regional tensions soar after suspected Israeli airplanes bombed Iran's embassy complex in Syria last week, stoking fears Israel's war in Gaza could spill over into the wider region.

Hassin is one of the most senior militants killed since Israel and Hezbollah began exchanging fire at the start of the Israel-Hamas war six months ago. The Israeli military said two other Hezbollah militants were also killed in the strike early Monday.

Hezbollah has announced Hassin's death but did not give any details on the circumstances or his role with the group, in line with how it normally announces the deaths of its members.

The Israeli military said Hassin was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanese village of Sultaniyeh. It said in a statement
that Hassin was responsible for carrying out attacks on northern Israel.

Iran provides money and weapons to Hezbollah, as well as Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups fighting Israel in Gaza.

Both Hezbollah and Hamas are designated as terror organizations by the US, Israel and Germany and other governments.

Hezbollah has said it would stop firing rockets once a cease-fire is reached in Gaza Strip, ending the Israel-Hamas war. 

rm/ab (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)