Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told a group of US members of Congress that \u201cvictory\u201d in Gaza and \u201cgetting\u201d Hamas\u2019 senior leadership in the enclave are just \u201ca few weeks away.\u201d <\/p>\n
Speaking to a bipartisan group from Congress on Wednesday, Netanyahu said: \u201cWe\u2019ve killed many senior leaders [of Hamas], including number four in Hamas, number three in Hamas. We\u2019ll get number two and number one. That\u2019s victory. Victory is within reach. It\u2019s a few weeks away.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hosting the congressional delegation, which the Prime Minister\u2019s Office said was organized by the pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said it was \u201cvery important to maintain bipartisan support\u201d but \u201cespecially in these trying times.\u201d <\/p>\n
Netanyahu said that Israel \u201chad no choice\u201d but to move into Rafah as the country\u2019s \u201cvery existence is on the line.\u201d <\/p>\n
The prime minister said that since the October 7 Hamas attack, Israel had enjoyed a \u201cremarkable alignment\u201d with the Biden administration but had fundamentally different views on an Israeli move into Rafah. <\/p>\n
Israel has faced criticism internationally ahead of its planned offensive on the southern Gaza city, in which more than one million people are currently sheltering. <\/p>\n
Netanyahu had earlier told the delegation that displaced Palestinians in Gaza could \u201cjust move\u201d out of Rafah and \u201cmove with their tents.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s all of the Gaza Strip north of Rafah,\u201d Netanyahu said. \u201cPeople move down, they can move up,\u201d the prime minister added. <\/p>\n
Disagreements over the impending invasion of Rafah and the worsening humanitarian disaster in Gaza have driven relations between Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden to a low. <\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Netanyahu cancelled a planned government delegation to Washington in protest of a US abstention from a UN Security Council vote, which had allowed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to pass. <\/p>\n
The resolution, proposed by the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council, demanded an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, the immediate and unconditional release of hostages and \u201cthe urgent need to expand the flow\u201d of aid into Gaza. <\/p>\n
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken all told Gallant that Israel needs to find an \u201calternative\u201d option to a major assault on Rafah, which would endanger civilians and exacerbate the suffering there. <\/p>\n
The White House said Wednesday that Netanyahu had agreed to reschedule the planned visit by the Israeli delegation to Washington to discuss the possible Rafah operation. <\/p>\n\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told a group of US members of Congress that \u201cvictory\u201d in Gaza and \u201cgetting\u201d Hamas\u2019 senior leadership in the enclave are just \u201ca few weeks away.\u201d Speaking to a bipartisan group from Congress on Wednesday, Netanyahu said: \u201cWe\u2019ve killed many senior leaders [of Hamas], including number four in Hamas, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17358,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}