Israel-Hamas war latest: Netanyahu refuses to end fighting until 'war aims are achieved' (2024)

Earlier, Hamas rejected any deal that failed to end the war and accused the Israeli leader of “personally hindering” an agreement.

A senior Hamas official insisted late Saturday that the group would “not agree under any circ*mstances” to a truce that did not explicitly include a complete end to the war.

In an interview with AFP, the official condemned Israeli efforts to secure a hostage-release deal “without linking it to ending the aggression on Gaza” and accused Benjamin Netanyahu of “personally hindering” efforts to reach a truce due to “personal interests”.

Previous negotiations have stalled in part due to Hamas’s demand for a lasting ceasefire and Mr Netanyahu’s repeated vows to crush the group’s remaining fighters in the southern city of Rafah.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has voted unanimously to shutter the offices of the Qatar-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera in Israel.

Details on when it would go into effect or whether it was permanent or temporary were not immediately clear.

The vote comes amid deeply strained ties between Israel and the channel, which have worsened during the war against Hamas.

Al Jazeera, which has been fiercely critical of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, has previously accused Israel of systematically targeting its offices and personnel. In January, the broadcaster accused Israel of the targeted killing of two of its journalists in Gaza.

Israeli officials, meanwhile, have accused the network of anti-Israeli bias – which the network denies.

At least 34,683 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since Oct 7, the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave said on Sunday.

The tally includes at least 29 deaths in the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 78,018 people have been wounded.

A local official in southern Lebanon said an Israeli strike on a village Sunday killed a couple and their child, the latest deadly incident in the border region.

“The dad, the mother and their little son were martyred”, according to the Mays al-Jabal municipality chief Abdelmoneim Chukair, reported by AFP.

Northern Gaza is experiencing a “full-blown famine” which is rapidly spreading across the strip after almost seven months of war, the World Food Programme has warned.

“Whenever you have conflicts like this, and emotions rage high, and things happen in a war, famine happens,” Cindy McCain, the World Food Programme’s executive director told NBC on Sunday.

“What I can explain to you is – is that there is famine – full-blown famine – in the north, and it’s moving its way south,” she added. While Ms McCain’s remarks do not constitute an official declaration of famine, she said they were based on what WFP staff have seen on the ground.

“It’s horror,” she said. “It’s so hard to look at and it’s so hard to hear.”

At least three synagogues and a museum in New York received bomb threats on Saturday, officials said.

A police spokesperson said a bomb threat was sent to the Brooklyn Museum and another to a synagogue in Brooklyn Heights, with no evidence of any explosive device detected.

Two synagogues in Manhattan also received bomb threats, including a West Side synagogue that prompted police to evacuate about 250 people, police said, with nothing found.

Manhattan borough president Mark D. Levine said the synagogue bomb threats were “a clear hate crime, and part of a growing trend of ‘swatting’ incidents targeting Jewish institutions.”

“This is a clear effort to sow fear in the Jewish community. Cannot be accepted,” he said.

Antisemitic incidents of assault, vandalism and harassment in the US more than doubled last year to a record high as anti-Jewish sentiment spiked after the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October, the Anti-Defamation League said in a report last month.

Police on Saturday arrested at least 25 pro-Palestinian protesters and cleared an encampment at the University of Virginia, the university said in a statement, as US campuses braced for more turmoil during graduation celebrations.

Tensions flared at the campus in Charlottesville, where protests had been largely peaceful until Saturday morning, when police officers in riot gear were seen in a video moving on an encampment on the campus’ lawn, cuffing some demonstrators with zip-ties and using what appeared to be chemical spray.

Students across the US have rallied or set up tents at dozens of universities to protest the months-long war in Gaza and call on president Joe Biden, who has supported Israel, to do more to stop the bloodshed in Gaza. They also demand their schools divest from companies that support Israel’s government, such as arms suppliers.

The University of Virginia said in a news release that protesters had violated several university policies including setting up tents on Friday night and using amplified sound.

It was not immediately clear how many of those arrested were UVA students.

Tens of thousands of Israelis protested late into Saturday night demanding a deal to bring hostages home, ahead of further ceasefire talks.

Protesters in Tel Aviv chanted “war is not holy, life is”, with some accusing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of aiming to prolong the conflict in Gaza.

It came as a Hamas delegation, which met mediators in Egypt on Saturday, said a new round of talks would begin on Sunday.

Each side blamed the other for stalled negotiations, with a senior Hamas official insisting late Saturday that the group would “not agree under any circ*mstances” to a truce that did not explicitly include a complete end to the war.

An anonymous Israeli government official told local media that Israel would “under no circ*mstances agree to end the war as part of an agreement to free our abductees”.

They added: “The IDF will enter Rafah and destroy the remaining Hamas battalions there – whether there is a temporary pause to free our captives or not.”

Israel this week briefed Biden administration officials on a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of a potential operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah aimed at rooting out Hamas militants, according to US officials familiar with the talks.

The officials, who were not authorised to comment publicly and requested anonymity to speak about the sensitive exchange, said that the plan detailed by the Israelis did not change the US administration’s view that moving forward with an operation in Rafah would put too many innocent Palestinian civilians at risk.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has vowed to carry out a military operation in Rafah despite warnings from president Joe Biden and other western officials that doing so would result in more civilian deaths and worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis.

The Biden administration has said there could be consequences for Israel should it move forward with the operation without a credible plan to safeguard civilians.

“Absent such a plan, we can’t support a major military operation going into Rafah because the damage it would do is beyond what’s acceptable,” US secretary of state Antony Blinken said late Friday.