Netanyahu vows to invade Rafah

GAZA STRIP, Mar 17 (AFP): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday to send ground forces into Gaza's southern Rafah city despite growing international concern over the fate of Palestinian civilians sheltering there.
Netanyahu, whose security and war cabinets were later due to discuss latest international efforts towards a truce deal, stressed that "no amount of international pressure will stop us from realising all the goals of the war".
"To do this, we will also operate in Rafah," he told a cabinet meeting, hours before he was set to meet visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for talks on the war raging since October 7.
Israel has repeatedly threatened to launch a ground offensive against Hamas militants in Rafah, now home to nearly 1.5 million mostly displaced Gazans sheltering near the Egyptian border.
US President Joe Biden, whose country provides Israel with billions of dollars in military assistance, has said a Rafah invasion would be a "red line" without credible measures to protect civilians.
UN World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged Israel "in the name of humanity" not to launch a Rafah assault, warning that "this humanitarian catastrophe must not be allowed to worsen".
Envoys were planning to meet in Qatar soon to revive stalled talks for a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
A Hamas proposal calls for an Israeli withdrawal from "all cities and populated areas" in Gaza during a six-week truce and for more humanitarian aid, according to an official from the Palestinian group.
Israel plans to attend the talks, with cabinet members due to "decide on the mandate of the delegation in charge of the negotiations before its departure for Doha", Netanyahu's office said, without giving a date for when they would leave.
The war meanwhile raged on, and overnight Israeli bombardment across the Hamas-ruled territory killed at least 61 Palestinians, the Gaza health ministry said.
The dead included 12 members of the same family whose house was hit in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza.
Palestinian girl Leen Thabit, retrieving a white dress from under the rubble of their flattened house, cried as she told AFP her cousin was killed in the strike.
"She's dead. Only her dress is left," Thabit said. "What do they want from us?"
The war was triggered by Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in about 1,160 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel's retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 31,645 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry.
Shelling and clashes were reported in south Gaza's main city of Khan Yunis and elsewhere, and the Israeli army said its forces had killed "approximately 18 terrorists" in central Gaza since Saturday.
More than five months of war and an Israeli siege have led to dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, where the UN has repeatedly warned of looming famine for the coastal territory's 2.4 million people.
Gaza war death
toll at 31,645
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Sunday that at least 31,645 people have been killed in the territory during more than five months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The latest toll includes at least 92 deaths in the previous 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 73,676 people have been wounded in Gaza since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.