Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Wednesday that his country is preparing for a ground operation in Gaza, but refused to go into detail “for security reasons.”
Netanyahu said in a televised statement on the nineteenth day since the war broke out: “I will not discuss the timing of the ground operation against Hamas, which will inevitably take place while we wait for the right conditions to ensure the safety of our soldiers.”
He added: “The date for the ground operation in Gaza will be established through a single address to the Council of War Ministers.”
Netanyahu called on Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip to leave the area and move south.
He said: “We are working around the clock to achieve the objectives of the battle, without political considerations, until we achieve victory over Hamas.”
He added: “Hamas will pay the price when we enter Gaza, and they are on the same level as ISIS. I call on the countries of the world to support us in the battle against terrorism, which is also their battle.”
Netanyahu acknowledged that he will have to take responsibility for what happened on October 7 and provide answers to the shortcomings related to the Hamas attack.
Netanyahu’s statement came hours after French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited Israel on Tuesday, warned that a “large-scale” Israeli ground operation in the Gaza Strip “would be a mistake.”
Macron said in statements to journalists in Cairo after discussions with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, that if Israel carried out “a large-scale intervention that endangered the lives of the civilian population, then I think it would be It would also be a mistake for Israel, because this would not protect it in the long term and because this is not consistent with respect for the civilian population and with respect for international humanitarian law and the rules of war. “
During the press conference, Sisi called for action to prevent an Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip because it would lead to “very many civilian casualties.”
The bloodiest war erupted in Gaza when Hamas carried out a surprise attack in southern Israel, in which its members killed around 1,400 people, most of them civilians, and took 222 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
On the other hand, the Hamas-led Gaza Ministry of Health announced that 6,546 people have been killed so far, most of them civilians, as Israel continues to bomb the Strip in preparation for a possible ground operation.