Netanyahu Makes Surprise Visit To Rafah, Days Before Speech To US Congress

Netanyahu's visit to the southern city of Rafah was announced hours after Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site. Ben Gvir's move could disrupt sensitive talks aimed at reaching a cease-fire in the 9-month-old Israel’s war on Gaza.

Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist settler leader, said he went up to the flashpoint site to pray for the return of Israeli hostages “but without a reckless deal, without surrendering.” Israeli negotiators landed in Cairo on Wednesday to keep working on the talks.

The two leaders' visits came hours after Israel's parliament overwhelmingly passed a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state. 

Israeli forces invaded Rafah in early May, forcing most of the 2 million Palestinians sheltering there to flee. Rafah, once a crucial entry point for humanitarian aid, is now a dusty ghost town full of bullet-riddled apartment buildings with blasted-out walls and shattered windows. Very few civilians remain.

In recent weeks, Israel has stepped up strikes in central Gaza, where many Palestinians have fled to escape fighting in other parts of the beleaguered territory. On Friday, the UN's International Court of Justice is expected to issue an advisory opinion on the legality of Israel's 57-year occupation of the Palestinian territories, an ongoing legal case not connected to the current Israel-Hamas war. 

The war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel, has killed more than 38,600 people, according to the territory's Health Ministry. The war has created a humanitarian catastrophe in the coastal Palestinian territory, displaced most of its 2.3 million population and triggered widespread hunger.

(With AP Inputs)