Page 25 - Benjamin Netanyahu

Netanyahu orders population of Gaza's Rafah evacuated ahead of invasion

Israel says Rafah is the last remaining Hamas stronghold and it needs to send in troops to complete its war plan against the Islamic militant group

Toll from Israeli army action in Gaza is still 'too high': Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the toll from Israel's military offensive on Gaza's civilians remains "too high". Blinken made the comments Wednesday as he was in the region seeking to broker a cease-fire that would pause the fighting. Blinken said the Israeli offensive, launched in response to a deadly Hamas cross-border attack on Oct. 7, is "fully justified". But he expressed concern about the effects of the offensive on Gaza civilians. Thousands of civilians have been killed in the fighting, and the offensive has displaced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and led to a humanitarian crisis. As I told the prime minister and other Israeli officials, the daily toll that its military operations continue to take on innocent civilians remains too high, Blinken said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected Hamas' terms for a cease-fire and hostage-release agreement, vowing to continue the war until absolute victory and dismissing any ...

Netanyahu rejects Hamas cease-fire demands, vows to fight until victory

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected Hamas demands for a cease-fire and vowed to press ahead with Israel's military offensive in Gaza until achieving absolute victory. Netanyahu made the comments Wednesday shortly after meeting the visiting U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who has been traveling the region in hopes of securing a cease-fire agreement. We are on the way to an absolute victory, Netanyahu said, adding that the operation would last months, not years. "There is no other solution." He ruled out any arrangement that leaves Hamas in full or partial control of Gaza. He also said that Israel is the only power capable of guaranteeing security in the long term. Netanyahu also called for the replacement of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. Blinken was scheduled to give a news conference later Wednesday.

Israel's evacuation covers 67% of Gaza, leaves Palestinians crammed

Israel's evacuation orders in the Gaza Strip now cover two-thirds of the territory, or 246 square kilometers (95 square miles), United Nations humanitarian monitors said Tuesday. More than half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people is now crammed into the town of Rafah on the border with Egypt and surrounding areas, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. The Health Ministry in Gaza said the known Palestinian death toll is at 27,478 people after nearly four months of war. A quarter of Gaza's residents are now starving and 85% of the population has been driven from their homes, with hundreds of thousands crammed in makeshift tent camps. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shortly after arriving in the kingdom Monday. It's Blinken's fifth visit to the Mideast since the war in Gaza broke out on Oct. 7, when Hamas stormed into southern Israel. The assault killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilian

Netanyahu slams President Biden's condemnation of Israeli settlers

Biden also said that they undermine the security of Israel and have the potential to "lead to broader regional destabilisation across the Middle East, threatening United States personnel and interests

Israel's PM Netanyahu rejects 2 key Hamas demands for any cease-fire

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected two key demands Hamas has made during indirect cease-fire talks, saying Israel will not withdraw from the Gaza Strip or release thousands of jailed militants. During an event Tuesday in the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu again vowed that the war would not end without Israel's absolute victory over Hamas. Meanwhile, Israeli forces working undercover killed three Palestinian militants in a raid on a hospital in the West Bank, where violence has surged since the outbreak of the war in Gaza. The Israeli military said forces entered the Ibn Sina hospital in the northern city of Jenin early Tuesday and shot the three men, whom Hamas claimed as members. The military said the men were using the hospital as a hideout and that at least one was planning an attack. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the Israeli forces opened fire inside the hospital's wards and called on the international community to stop Israeli operations in ...

Netanyahu rules out Gaza pullout, release of thousands of militants Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that there will be no military withdrawal from Gaza or the release of thousands of jailed militants, two key demands of Hamas in ongoing indirect cease-fire talks. During an event in the occupied West Bank, he once again vowed that the war will not end without absolute victory over Hamas. We will not end this war without achieving all of our goals, he said. We will not pull out the Israeli military from the Gaza Strip and we will not release thousands of terrorists.

UN court misrepresented my comments in genocide ruling: Israel's president

Israel's president on Sunday accused the UN world court of misrepresenting his words in a ruling that ordered Israel to take steps to protect Palestinians and prevent a genocide in the Gaza Strip. The court's ruling on Friday cited a series of statements made by Israeli leaders as evidence of incitement and dehumanizing language against Palestinians. They included comments by President Isaac Herzog made just days after the October 7 Hamas cross-border attack that triggered Israel's war against the Islamic militant group. Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people in that attack and took about 250 others hostage. The Israeli offensive has left more than 26,000 Palestinians dead, displaced more than 80 per cent of Gaza's inhabitants and led to a humanitarian crisis in the territory. Talking about Gaza's Palestinians at an October 12 news conference, Herzog said that an entire nation was responsible for the massacre, the report by the International Court of Justice noted. But Herzog s

Netanyahu defiant after UN court ruling, says aiming for 'complete victory'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday pushed back after an International Court of Justice ruling to limit death and destruction in the military's Gaza offensive, declaring that we decide and act according to what is required for our security and vowing to press on until complete victory. Witnesses said three Palestinians were killed earlier Saturday in an airstrike that Israel's military said was targeting a Hamas commander in southern Gaza. Israel's military is under increasing scrutiny now that the top United Nations court has asked Israel for a compliance report in a month. The court's binding ruling on Friday stopped short of ordering a cease-fire, but its orders were in part a rebuke of Israel's conduct in its nearly 4-month war against Gaza's Hamas rulers. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the main organization aiding Gaza's population amid the humanitarian disaster, saw more countries suspend its funding following allegations that a number of Gaza staf

Israel instructs Northern farmers to be prepared for expansion of war

People are also instructed to check the functioning of generators, to increase food stocks and to perform any additional action they think is right in order

Netanyahu mourns loss of 21 soldiers in Gaza, says army will fight on

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has mourned the loss of 21 soldiers in the deadliest single attack in Gaza and says the army will fight on until absolute victory. In a posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, Netanyahu said Monday was one of the hardest days since the outbreak of the war. He says the army will launch an investigation into the attack, in which a militant fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a tank, setting off a secondary explosion that brought two buildings down on the soldiers. It was the deadliest single attack on Israeli forces in Gaza since the ground operation began. In the posting on Tuesday, Netanyahu wrote: In the name of our heroes, and for our own lives, we will not stop fighting until absolute victory.

Kin of hostages in Gaza storm Israel's parliament asking for release deal

The developments showed the increasing pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has dug in on both fronts

Biden, Netanyahu speak for first time in weeks during war tensions

Their conversation came a day after the Israeli leader rejected calls from the US and Arab nations for the Palestinian Authority to rule Gaza after the war with Hamas

Netanyahu to Gaza hostage families: Hamas has not made a solid deal offer

"I am saying this as clearly as I can because there are so many incorrect statements which are certainly agonising for you," Netanyahu added

Hezbollah official killed, amid apparent Israeli shift to targeted killings

An Israeli airstrike hit two vehicles near a Lebanese army checkpoint in south Lebanon on Sunday, killing a Hezbollah member and wounding several other people, including civilians, Lebanese state media and health officials reported. The strike appeared to be part of a shift in Israeli strategy toward targeted killings in Lebanon after more than three months of near-daily clashes with Hezbollah militants on the border against the backdrop of the war in Gaza. Hezbollah announced that one of its members, identified as Fadel Shaar, had been killed in the strike in the town of Kafra. Local civil defense and hospital officials said seven people were wounded, including two women, one of whom was in critical condition. Video from the scene showed a passenger sedan in flames next to a small truck stopped in the middle of the road. The Israeli military did not comment on the strike. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, Hezbollah forces have engaged in near-daily clashes wit

Israel's Netanyahu rejects any Palestinian sovereignty in post-war Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes any form of Palestinian sovereignty in post-war Gaza, his office said Saturday, appearing to rebuff US President Joe Biden's suggestion that creative solutions could bridge wide gaps between the two leaders' views on Palestinian statehood. In a sign of the pressures Netanyahu's government faces at home and abroad over the war, a protest outside the prime minister's home grew as more people joined a group representing families of the more than 100 remaining hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups. The families are demanding the government take bold steps to free the hostages, fearing that Israel's military activity in Gaza further endangers their lives. Netanyahu is also under heat to appease members of his right-wing ruling coalition by intensifying the war against Hamas, which governs Gaza, and must contend with calls for restraint from the United States, its closest ally. A statement from the prime minister's office said

Relatives of hostages held by Hamas protest outside Netanyahu's home

Relatives of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza protested on Saturday outside the home of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, expressing frustration over his government's seeming lack of progress in getting the more than 100 captives released as the war in Gaza drags on. A group representing families of the hostages said they had "begged for 105 days" and now demanded that the government show leadership and take bold steps to free the hostages. A member of Israel's War Cabinet has called a cease-fire the only way to secure their release, a comment that implied criticism of Israel's current strategy. The protest outside the prime minister's home and the remark by former Israeli army chief Gadi Eisenkot were among signs of growing strife in Israel over the direction of the war in its fourth month. Netanyahu has said he will push for complete victory against Hamas but has not outlined how he would achieve it. Critics have accused him of preventing a Cabinet-level debate about a ...

Biden-Netanyahu hold talks after almost a month, discuss two-state solution

The US President also discussed the ongoing efforts to secure the release of all remaining hostages under Hamas captivity and reviewed the situation in Gaza

Firmly against Palestinian state in any postwar scenario: Netanyahu to US

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he has told the United States that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of any postwar scenario, underscoring the deep divisions between the close allies three months into Israel's assault on Gaza aiming to eliminate its Hamas rulers. The US has called on Israel to scale back its offensive and said that the establishment of a Palestinian state should be part of the day after. But in a nationally broadcast news conference, Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with the offensive until Israel realises a decisive victory over Hamas. He also rejected the idea of Palestinian statehood. He said he had relayed his positions to the Americans. In any future arrangement...Israel needs security control all territory west of the Jordan, Netanyahu told a nationally broadcast news conference. This collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can you do? The prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to our friends, he ..

Will oppose Palestinian state in any postwar scenario: Netanyahu to US

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has informed the United States that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of any postwar scenario. The announcement on Thursday exposed the deep divisions that have emerged between the close allies three months into Israel's war against Gaza's Hamas rulers. The US has called on Israel to scale back its offensive and said that the establishment of a Palestinian state should be part of the day after. In a nationally broadcast news conference, Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with the offensive until Israel realizes a decisive victory over Hamas. He also rejected the idea of Palestinian statehood. He said he had relayed his positions to the Americans. In any future arrangement...Israel needs security control all territory west of the Jordan, Netanyahu told a nationally broadcast news conference. This collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can you do? The prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to our .