\n<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel insisted on Saturday that Israel would not bow to international pressure to call off its plan for a ground invasion of Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza that is now packed with more than a million Palestinians.<\/p>\n
Many of the people now in Rafah are displaced and living in schools, tents or the homes of friends and relatives, part of a desperate search for any safe refuge from Israel\u2019s military campaign, which has dragged on for more than four months. Their lives are a daily struggle to find enough food and water to survive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who want to prevent us from operating in Rafah are basically telling us: Lose the war,\u201d Mr. Netanyahu said at a news conference in Jerusalem on Saturday evening. \u201cIt\u2019s true that there\u2019s a lot of opposition abroad, but this is exactly the moment that we need to say that we won\u2019t be doing a half or a third of the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
About the same time as Mr. Netanyahu addressed the news conference, thousands of anti-government protesters filled a central thoroughfare in Tel Aviv \u2014 the largest protest against the prime minister in months. They filled the same street where mass protests against Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s efforts to weaken the country\u2019s judiciary riled the nation before the start of the Israel-Hamas war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Calls for an immediate election rose above a din of air horns. Protesters lit a red flare in the middle of a drum circle while others wielding flags stared down half a dozen police officers on horseback.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people need to rise up, and the government needs to go,\u201d said one protester, Yuval Lerner, 57. Mr. Lerner said that even before the war, he lost confidence that the government has the nation\u2019s best interest at heart, but \u201cOct. 7 proved it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s comments also came as world leaders and international organizations were raising alarms that an invasion of Rafah would only compound the humanitarian disaster for displaced Palestinians.<\/p>\n
Josep Borrell, the European Union\u2019s top diplomat, reiterated on Saturday his appeal to Israel to refrain from launching a military operation in Rafah \u201cthat would worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Netanyahu, however, said Palestinians would be permitted to leave Rafah and contended that there was \u201ca lot of space\u201d north of the city where civilians could resettle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Israeli leader played down the chances of a quick breakthrough in indirect talks with Hamas on a cease-fire in exchange for a hostage release. He said that Hamas \u2014 the armed group that long controlled Gaza and which led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that started the war \u2014 was making \u201cludicrous\u201d demands in those negotiations.<\/p>\n
Explaining his decision to stop Israeli officials from participating in follow-up negotiations in Cairo earlier this week, the prime minister went on to say Hamas had not compromised on its demands \u201cone nanometer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing to do until we see a change,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Saturday, Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas\u2019s political wing, issued a statement accusing Israel of \u201cprocrastinating\u201d in addressing Hamas\u2019s demands. Hamas has been calling for a comprehensive cease-fire, the reconstruction of Gaza, the end of Israel\u2019s blockade of the territory and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.<\/p>\n
President Biden told a news conference on Friday that he didn\u2019t expect Israel to invade Rafah while efforts to free the hostages were ongoing.<\/p>\n
South Africa this week<\/a> asked the International Court of Justice, the United Nations\u2019 top judicial body, to intervene to stop Israel\u2019s planned advance into Rafah. But on Friday, the court declined to issue new constraints aimed at preventing such an incursion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Instead, it said the \u201cperilous situation\u201d in Gaza, including in Rafah, required Israel to abide by its previous ruling last month, which included taking \u201call measures within its power\u201d to prevent the crime of genocide by its forces.<\/p>\n Mr. Netanyahu has called the charge that Israel has engaged in genocide \u201cfalse\u201d and \u201coutrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n Israeli officials have insisted that an incursion into Rafah is needed to destroy tunnels between Egypt and Gaza and to try to root out Palestinian militants there. But the Israelis have not yet presented a plan to evacuate civilians as the U.S., Israel\u2019s closest ally, has demanded.<\/p>\n Many civilians sheltering in Rafah have already moved multiple times as Israel\u2019s military campaign has pushed farther south, and some have said their homes north of the city have been destroyed and they have grown tired of repeatedly relocating.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they want to come here \u2014 amid all these people \u2014 there will be massacres,\u201d said Khalil el-Halabi, 70, one of the many displaced Palestinians from northern Gaza who have sought shelter in Rafah.<\/p>\n