The intensive phase of the Israeli military operation against the radical Islamist Hamas in the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip will soon end, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The intense phase of fighting against Hamas is nearing an end,” Netanyahu told Israeli broadcaster Channel 14 on Sunday. But this does not mean “that the war will soon be over.”
Israel has located the last remaining Hamas battalions in the Gaza Strip in Rafah on the border with Egypt and has been taking action against targets in the city for weeks, despite international criticism.
However, an end to the phase of heavy fighting in the Gaza Strip will enable Israel to move more parts of its armed forces to the northern border with Lebanon. There, Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia have recently been engaged in frequent violent clashes.
“After the intensive phase is over, we will have the opportunity to move part of the forces north. And that is what we will do,” Netanyahu said.
On Saturday, Israeli soldiers are said to have tied an injured Palestinian to the hood of a military vehicle during an “anti-terror operation” in the West Bank. The wounded man was arrested near the Palestinian city of Jenin in “violation of orders and applicable rules,” the Israeli army said on Sunday. The incident will be “investigated and handled accordingly.”
Video footage of the incident had previously been circulated on the Internet. It showed a man strapped across the hood of a military jeep as it drove down a narrow street. “The behavior of the armed forces in the video does not correspond to the values of the IDF (Israeli army),” the army stressed. During the operation, there were exchanges of fire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters.
It remained unclear what the 24-year-old man was accused of. He was later taken to a hospital in Jenin for treatment, doctors there confirmed. At the hospital, the Palestinian said he had been shot in the hand and leg as he left a relative’s house. He then lay behind an Israeli military vehicle for more than two hours without rescue workers or paramedics being able to reach him.
Later, Israeli soldiers noticed him and tied him to the hood of the jeep. A doctor treating him said the 24-year-old suffered burns all over his back from the heat of the hood.
Jenin is considered a stronghold of militant Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Israeli security forces regularly carry out raids there and in the refugee settlement of the same name.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu said in the interview that he would not enter into an agreement that would end the war in the Gaza Strip. However, he was open to a “partial agreement” that would include the return of Israeli hostages from the Gaza Strip. “The goal is to bring back those abducted and to uproot the Hamas regime in Gaza,” said the Israeli head of government.
When asked about a post-war order in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu said in the TV interview that Israel would “exercise military control” there “in the foreseeable future.”
“We also want to create a civil administration, if possible with local Palestinians and perhaps with external support from countries in the region, to manage humanitarian supplies and later civil affairs in the Gaza Strip,” the Israeli prime minister added.
US officials have expressed doubts about Israel’s goal of completely destroying Hamas. Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari also expressed similar doubts on Wednesday, describing Hamas as an “ideology” that cannot be “eliminated.”