Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said that sending a negotiation team to Cairo was “a mistake.”
“Sending the delegation to Cairo is a mistake and falls into the manipulative trap set by Hamas together with Qatar and Egypt,” the far-right politician said on X on Tuesday.
“This is the time to press more and more on the neck of Sinwar and Hamas until they are destroyed,” Smotrich added.
“You must not give in to international pressure and you must not stop until victory and the submission of the enemy. This is our war of independence and we must win it,” he stated. “This is our independence war and we must win it.”
הוצאת המשלחת לקהיר היא טעות ונפילה למלכודת המניפולטיבית שטומן לנו חמאס יחד עם קטאר ומצרים. זו העת ללחוץ עוד ועוד על צווארו של סינוואר ושל החמאס עד להשמדתם. לדבר רק באש. אסור להיכנע ללחץ הבינלאומי ואסור לעצור עד הניצחון והכנעת האויב.
זו מלחמת העצמאות שלנו ואנחנו חייבים לנצח בה.
— בצלאל סמוטריץ’ (@bezalelsm) May 7, 2024
The Middle East Monitor (MEMO) reported that Smotrich made the statement on X after the Hebrew TV Channel 12 quoted an unnamed Israeli official as saying that it was expected that the delegation involved in the negotiations would head to Cairo within the following few hours.
The source said the team was going to the Egyptian capital to “listen and ask questions in light of the significant gaps” without further details, reported MEMO.
‘Full Occupation, Destruction’
Smotrich went on to say on X that to “win”, three “milestones” must be achieved to “restore security to residents of the south.”
He listed the following:
“1. Full occupation of the city and Rafah area.
2. Destruction of all the underground in Rafah and the surrounding area.
3. Full possession of the Philadelphia axis and the Rafah crossing.”
He then said: “Immediately after that we will continue to Deir al-Balah and will be formed in the center camps and complete the dismantling of the Hamas battalions that remained there.”
Israel’s war cabinet decided to push ahead with an operation in Rafah, despite the announcement by the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas on Monday of its acceptance of a Qatari-Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Intensified Air Strikes
Since then, Rafah has been experiencing intensified Israeli airstrikes and shelling in all its areas, including residential areas.
According to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, 35 people were killed, and 129 others were injured, in Rafah during the past 24 hours.
Roughly 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, with many having been displaced from other areas destroyed by Israel in its ongoing military assault on the besieged enclave.
Nowhere Else to Go – Rafah Refugees Call on the World to Intervene
Rising Death Toll
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 34,844 Palestinians have been killed, and 78,404 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
Rafah Under Attack – Scores of Civilians Killed, Resistance Fights Back
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(PC, MEMO)
