Rafah invasion will happen with or without exchange deal: Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that an invasion of the densely-populated Rafah city will take place regardless of whether an exchange deal with the Palestinian Resistance was reached or not.

“The idea that we will stop the war before all its goals have been achieved is irrelevant. We will enter Rafah and destroy Hamas battalions there, with or without an agreement [on hostages], to achieve absolute victory,” he told families of the captives held in the Strip.

For many weeks now, Israelis have been flooding the streets of “Tel Aviv” and several other areas, demanding that Netanyahu resign over his performance in the war on Gaza, including his continued dismissal of an exchange deal.

According to Channel 13, around 45,000 people demonstrated in “Tel Aviv” last Saturday, while organizers said the number was 100,000. Protesters said that the political leadership seemed removed from the predicament of captives, noting that negotiators would frequently share photographs and anecdotes about the captives to help lawmakers be more empathetic.

Last week, Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades released a video of an Israeli it is holding captive in the Gaza Strip, in which he addressed settlers and the occupation authorities.

The video resulted in many of the captives’ families to rally outside Netanyahu’s residence in occupied al-Quds. The crowd demanded that the Israeli government ensure a deal to release captives held by the Palestinian Resistance and raised signs that read “Bring them home now”.

Israeli media reported that the protesters clashed with the police officers who arrested two and brought a water cannon to the area.

Despite these calls from Israelis, Netanyahu is insisting on “absolute victory” in Gaza, which has been criticized by top Israeli officials and experts as being out of reach, even unachievable.

Israel Ziv, the former head of operations in the General Staff of the Israeli occupation army, said on Tuesday that an invasion of Rafah serves “no strategic advantage,” warning that “Israel has no international credit” to carry out such an attack on the city bordering Egypt, sheltering almost 1.3 million, most of whom are Palestinians forcibly displaced by the Israeli war.

“If there are 100 civilian casualties, Israel will be judged legally, as if they were 1,000, or even 100,000, in terms of severity,” Ziv said.