Ramadan deadline flagged as food dwindles

RAFAH, GAZA STRIP: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again brushed off calls to halt the military offensive in Gaza, vowing to ‘‘finish the job’’ as a member of his war cabinet threatened to invade the southern city of Rafah if remaining Israeli hostages were not freed by the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Israel’s government has not publicly discussed a timeline for a ground offensive on Rafah, where more than half the enclave’s 2.3 million Palestinians have sought refuge. Retired general Benny Gantz, part of Netanyahu’s three-member war cabinet, represents an influential voice but his is not the final word on what might lie ahead.

‘‘If by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue to the Rafah area,’’ Gantz told a conference of Jewish American leaders. Ramadan, which will begin around March 10, is historically a tense time in the region.

Netanyahu wants Israel to achieve ‘‘total victory’’ over Hamas. In response to international concern over a Rafah offensive, he has said Palestinian civilians would be evacuated. Where they would go in largely devastated Gaza is not clear.

The suggested timing for the offensive came as the WHO chief said southern Gaza’s main medical facility, Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, was ‘‘not functional any more’’ after Israeli forces raided it on Friday.

Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a WHO team was not allowed to enter Nasser Hospital on the weekend. In a post on X, he said about 200 patients remained, including 20 who needed urgent treatment elsewhere.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said at least 200 militants had surrendered at the hospital. He also said Hamas was defeated in Khan Younis, and was largely leaderless in Gaza. He gave no evidence to support the claims.

Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said there was no power, no oxygen and not enough staff to treat the patients remaining in Nasser Hospital.

‘‘It’s gone completely out of service. There are only four medical teams, 25 staff, currently caring for patients inside the facility,’’ he said.

The Israeli military said in a statement that hundreds of militants were hiding in the hospital and some had posed as medical staff. It released images of weapons it said were found along with medications that were transferred from Israel and intended for the more than 100 hostages held by Hamas. The military said it had arrested at least 100 suspects on the hospital premises.

‘‘The packages of medicine that were found were sealed and had not been transferred to the hostages,’’ the military said.

Hamas dismisses Israeli allegations, saying they served as a pretext to destroy the healthcare system.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 70 medical personnel were among those arrested, along with patients, leaving 150 patients without medical care. It said Israel had refused to allow patients, including newborns, to be evacuated to other hospitals.

The military said it was looking for the remains of hostages inside the hospital and did not target doctors or patients. It said the raid occurred ‘‘without harming patients and medical staff, and in accordance with the values of the IDF and international law’’.

Hamas’ October 7 attack killed about 1200 people, mostly civilians. It took about 250 people hostage. Militants still hold around 130 hostages, a quarter of them believed to be dead. Most of the others were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November.

Israel has killed at least 28,985 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry

About 80 per cent of Gaza’s population has been displaced, and a quarter face starvation. Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority, said 123 aid trucks had entered Gaza through Israel’s Kerem Shalom border crossing yesterday and four trucks of cooking gas had entered through the Rafah crossing with Egypt. That’s well below the 500 trucks entering daily before the war.

In the occupied West Bank, a shootout erupted when Israeli forces went to arrest an armed suspect in the town of Tulkarem. The military said the suspect was killed, and a member of Israel’s paramilitary Border Police was severely wounded. It described the target of the raid as a senior militant. The Palestinian Health Ministry said two Palestinians were killed.

The war in Gaza has threatened to ignite wider conflict in the region. The US Central Command said it conducted five self-defence strikes on Saturday against cruise missiles and drones in area of Yemen controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group.

Algeria, the Arab representative on the UN Security Council, has circulated a draft resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire and unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza, and rejecting the forced displacement of Palestinians.

US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the draft ‘‘will not be adopted’’ and that it ran counter to Washington’s efforts to end the fighting. The US has vetoed previous resolutions that had wide international support.

The US, Qatar and Egypt have spent weeks trying to broker a ceasefire and a hostage release, but Qatar on Saturday said the talks ‘‘have not been progressing as expected’’.

Hamas has said it would not release all remaining hostages without Israel ending the war and withdrawing from Gaza. It also demands the release of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including top militants.

Israeli strikes across Gaza continued, killing at least 18 people overnight into yesterday, according to medics and witnesses. A strike in Rafah killed six people, including a woman and three children, and another killed five in Khan Younis.

‘‘All those who were martyred were those whom the Jews asked to move to safe places,’’ said a bystander after the Rafah strike, Ahmad Abu Rezeq.