Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will only accept a partial cease-fire deal that would not end the 8-month-long war in Gaza, casting doubt on the viability of a U.S. backed cease-fire proposal.
Netanyahu made the comments late Sunday in an interview with Israeli Channel 14, a conservative, pro-Netanyahu station. He was he was ready to make a partial deal to bring back some of the 120 hostages still held in the Gaza Strip, but “we are committed to continuing the war after a pause, in order to complete the goal of eliminating Hamas.”
The comments come at a sensitive time as Israel and Hamas appear to be moving further apart over the U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal, and could represent another setback for mediators trying to end the war.
The three-phased plan would bring about the release of the remaining hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. But disputes and mistrust persist between Israel and Hamas over how the deal plays out.
Hamas has insisted it will not release the remaining hostages unless there’s a permanent cease-fire and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,400 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.
Currently:
— Netanyahu says he won’t agree to a deal that ends the war in Gaza, testing the latest truce proposal
— Suspected Yemen Houthi attack targets vessel in waters further away than many previous assaults
— Some visitors to Israel have a new stop on their tours: Hamas’ destruction in the south
— An Israel offensive into Lebanon risks an Iranian military response, top US military leader says
— Democrats wrestle with whether to boycott Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu ’s address to Congress
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here’s the latest:
Graft inquiry warns Netanyahu of possible harm from its conclusions
TEL AVIV, Israel — An Israeli state investigation into an alleged graft scandal involving the purchase of submarines and other warships from Germany said Monday it has sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning him that he could be harmed by its conclusions.
The inquiry, launched in 2022, is looking into an affair involving a $2 billion purchase of naval vessels from Germany’s Thyssenkrupp. A separate court proceeding into the case took testimony from the prime minister but he was not a suspect in the case.
The warning letter could lead to Netanyahu being seen as more deeply implicated in the affair. Netanyahu is on trial for corruption in three other separate cases and he denies all charges.
In a statement, Netanyahu said the submarine purchase was essential for Israel’s security needs.
In announcing the warning letter, the committee said its work so far had indicated there had been “deep disruption” in decision-making in a number of sensitive areas surrounding the submarine purchase that threatened the country’s security and harmed the country’s international ties and economic interests.
The committee did not detail the precise accusations against Netanyahu, but painted a picture of improper decision-making at multiple levels of government, the defense establishment and the military.
The state commission of inquiry has sweeping authority to investigate and summon witnesses, and its recommendations typically guide government policy.
The committee also sent warning letters to former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of Netanyahu, and Yossi Cohen, Netanyahu’s former national security adviser.
Lebanon gives journalists and diplomats a tour of Beirut airport to dispel reports of Hezbollah weapons caches
BEIRUT — Lebanese ministers on Monday gave journalists and diplomats a tour of the country’s only international airport in Beirut in an attempt to prove that the militant Hezbollah group does not store weapons there.
The tour came a day after the British Telegraph newspaper published a story, citing anonymous airport workers, claiming that Hezbollah has shipped an increased number of packages containing missiles through the airport, as months of clashes with the Israeli military on the Lebanon-Israel border have significantly escalated in recent weeks.
Caretaker Transportation Minister Ali Hamieh said the Lebanese government will take legal action against the British newspaper, accusing it of slander and fabricating information. The story was published without a byline.
“Of course we have confidence in the security agencies and are satisfied with their work,” Hamieh said, dismissing claims in the story that Hezbollah’s weapons shipments bypass security services at the busy airport.
Hezbollah and Israeli officials have upped threats against one another, saying that they will target critical military and civilian infrastructure if the conflict spirals into an all-out war.
Israeli airstrikes kill 9 people, including 2 health workers, in Gaza City, Palestinian officials say
CAIRO — Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City have killed at least nine people, including two health workers.
The strikes late Sunday came months after Israel declared that it had mostly dismantled Hamas in Gaza City and the rest of northern Gaza, which Israeli forces have surrounded and largely isolated since the earliest days of the ground invasion.
The Gaza Health Ministry said the strike on the Daraj clinic in Gaza City killed Hani al-Jaafrawi, director of the ministry’s ambulance and emergency department. First responders with the Civil Defense said another health worker, Mohammed Salah, was also killed.
The ministry said Israeli bombardments of Gaza have killed over 500 healthcare workers since the start of the war, and that more than 300 others have been detained.
The Civil Defense said seven other people were killed in a separate strike on Sunday that flattened a home in the Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City. It said rescuers are searching for another missing person.
The Civil Defense, which like the Health Ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, is often the first to respond to airstrikes and frequently releases videos of its rescue efforts.
Israel launched its massive air, land and sea offensive in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel which killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. The Israeli offensive has killed over 37,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not specify whether those killed are civilians or combatants.
Suspected Yemen Houthi attack targets vessel in waters further away than many previous assaults
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A possible attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Monday targeted a ship further away from nearly all of the previous assaults they’ve launched in the Gulf of Aden, officials said, potentially part of a widening escalation by the group.
The attack comes as the U.S. has sent the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower back home after an eight-month deployment in which it led the American response to the Houthi assaults. Those attacks have reduced shipping drastically through the route crucial to Asian, Middle East and European markets in a campaign the Houthis say will continue as long as the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip rages on.
The attack happened Monday morning in the Gulf of Aden some 450 kilometers (280 miles) southeast of Nishtun, a town in the far reaches of Yemen that’s close to the border with Oman, according to the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center. That region for long has been held by forces allied to Yemen’s exiled government, which has battled the Houthis since the rebels took the capital, Sanaa, back in 2014.
The attack was just off to the northeast of Yemen’s Socotra Island, also held by allies of the exiled government.
German foreign minister pushes for cease-fire in Gaza
BERLIN — Germany’s foreign minister is pushing again for a cease-fire in Gaza ahead of her visit to the Middle East, arguing that it’s also important in view of mounting tensions on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Annalena Baerbock said as she arrived at a meeting with European Union counterparts in Luxembourg on Monday that Hamas must finally agree to the cease-fire plan backed by U.S. President Joe Biden plan, saying “this cease-fire is needed more urgently than ever.”
Baerbock plans to visit Israel, the West Bank and Lebanon on Monday and Tuesday.
She said that the situation on the border between Israel and Lebanon “is more than worrying.”
Baerbock added that “a further escalation would be a catastrophe for all the people in the region, and so that is another reason why it’s so absolutely important that we at last achieve the cease-fire in Gaza.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the current phase of fighting against Hamas in Gaza is winding down, setting the stage for Israel to send more troops to its northern border to confront the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
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