Israel bombs Gaza after Hamas' 'no hostage will leave alive' warning

Israel has pledged to keep fighting until it removes Hamas from power, dismantles its military capabilities and returns all of the hostages taken by militants during Hamas' Oct 7 surprise attack

Hamas has threatened that not a single hostage will be allowed to leave Gaza alive unless its demands for a prisoner exchange are met.
 

Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said dozens of Hamas militants have surrendered and he described the situation as “the beginning of the end” for the group.

Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants in Gaza's two largest cities on Monday, with civilians still trapped in the fighting even after hundreds of thousands have fled to other parts of the besieged territory.

Israel has pledged to keep fighting until it removes Hamas from power, dismantles its military capabilities and returns all of the hostages taken by militants during Hamas’ October 7 surprise attack into Israel that ignited the war.

The US has provided unwavering diplomatic and military support for the campaign, even as it has urged Israel to minimise civilian casualties and further mass displacement. The war has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians and driven nearly 85 per cent of the territory’s 2.3 million people from their homes.

Residents said there was heavy fighting in and around the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israeli ground forces opened a new line of attack last week, and battles were still underway in parts of Gaza City and the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, where large areas have been reduced to rubble.

In central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike overnight flattened a residential building where some 80 people were staying in the Maghazi refugee camp, residents said. Meanwhile, France, Germany and Italy called for the European Union to set up a special sanctions scheme to target Hamas as EU foreign ministers met on Monday to consider possible next steps in response to the Middle East crisis.

UN Security Council delays Gaza vote

The United Nations Security Council delayed voting on a resolution that would call for a cease-fire in Gaza, giving Arab leaders more time to try to persuade the US to let it pass.

Top diplomats from countries including Egypt, Qatar and Jordan were set to met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington later Friday amid a push for the US to abstain from voting. 

US officials argue that more time is needed for quiet diplomacy

Harvard under lens after Penn leaders ousted

A bipartisan group of lawmakers demanded the dismissal of three high-profile university presidents who testified before a House committee this week about antisemitism and offered narrow legal responses to questions over whether calling for the genocide of Jews was against school policy.

“The world is watching — you can stand with your Jewish students and faculty or you can choose the side of dangerous antisemitism,” Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, and Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat, said in a letter to the governing boards of Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania and the Massac­husetts Institute of Technology on Friday. 

- Bloomberg