Israel is returning its focus to eliminating what it says is the last remaining stronghold of Hamas in Gaza ¡ª reviving international concerns about the fate of about 1 million civilians sheltering in the south of the strip.
As tensions with Iran ease, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged late Sunday to ¡°increase the military and diplomatic pressure¡± on Hamas, with the goal of freeing the remaining hostages and declaring victory in the more than six month war. That suggests an imminent and long-feared assault on Rafah, the Gazan city close to the Egyptian border where about half the enclave¡¯s population have taken refuge.
¡°We will land more and painful blows on Hamas ¡ª soon,¡± Netanyahu said, without being more specific.
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