Gaza War: Israel's attack on Rafah will derail hostage talks, warns Hamas

A senior Hamas leader was quoted on Sunday by the Hamas-run Aqsa Television station as saying that any Israeli ground offensive in Rafah on the Gaza border will “blow up” the hostage swap negotiations.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that it has given the military the task of creating a strategy to remove four alleged Hamas battalions from Rafah and destroy them.

As truce negotiations proved unproductive, Netanyahu last week declared that Israeli soldiers will continue fighting until “total victory.” The majority of the displaced have taken refuge in Rafah, which is near the Egyptian border.

Before earlier attacks on Gaza’s cities, the Israeli military had urged citizens to evacuate south; however, at this point, there is nowhere obvious to go, and relief organizations have warned that many people may perish.

According to Israeli counts, the fighting in Gaza started on October 7 when Hamas terrorists broke through border defenses to attack Israeli cities. Approximately 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 250 were taken hostage and returned to Gaza.

More than 28,000 Palestinians, primarily civilians, have been killed as a result of Israel’s heavy shelling and ground offensive in retaliation, according to medical authorities in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.