Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday to “finish the job” in response to mounting demands that the military operation in Gaza end.
On Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council will likely vote on a resolution that the Arab world has pushed for, calling for an urgent humanitarian truce in Gaza; the US has already said that it would veto this resolution.
In order to get the resolution ready for a vote, Algeria, the Arab council representative, finalized the text. Officials from the council, who wished to remain anonymous due to a lack of authorization to speak publicly, confirmed that the vote would be held on Tuesday morning.
Half of the 2.3 million Palestinians who have sought sanctuary in the enclave live in Rafah, but the Israeli administration has not made any public comments about when they plan to launch a ground attack there. Among Netanyahu’s three-person War Cabinet is retired general Benny Gantz, who has a significant but not decisive say in the matter.
During his address to a gathering of Jewish American leaders, Gantz warned that the conflict would extend to the Rafah region if the captives were not returned before Ramadan. In the past, tensions have been high in the area around the start of Ramadan on March 10.
Despite recent improvements in ceasefire talks, Netanyahu has branded the demands made by the governing Hamas armed organization in Gaza as “delusional.”
As Israel’s most important partner, the US maintains its desire to mediate a hostage-release deal and end the violence that began with Hamas’ murderous assault in southern Israel on October 7.
An interim truce in hostage negotiations and an agreement to free hostages have been sought by the United States, Qatar, and Egypt. On Saturday, however, Qatar reportedly said that negotiations have not been “progressing as expected.”
There were over 1,200 casualties and 250 captives during the assaults against Israel on October 7. Although a considerable number of captives are still in Gaza, dozens were freed last year as part of a short ceasefire arrangement.