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Biden, Netanyahu on collision course after Gaza UN vote

Biden, Netanyahu on collision course after Gaza UN vote

RELATIONS between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sank to a wartime low with the U.S. allowing passage of a Gaza ceasefire resolution at the United Nations and drawing a sharp rebuke from the Israeli leader. Netanyahu abruptly scrapped a visit to Washington this week by a senior delegation to discuss Israel’s threatened offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah after the U.S. abstained in a Security Council vote that demanded an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the release of all hostages held by the Palestinian militants. The suspension of that meeting puts a major…
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Netanyahu says Israel to press on with Rafah assault plan

Netanyahu says Israel to press on with Rafah assault plan

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would keep on with the military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, where aid agencies say famine is looming, while ceasefire talks were set to resume. Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting that Israel would push into Rafah, the last relatively safe place in the tiny, crowded Gaza enclave after more than five months of war, despite international pressure for Israel to avoid civilian casualties. "We will operate in Rafah. This will take several weeks, and it will happen," he said, without clarifying if he meant the assault would last for weeks or would begin…
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Rafah attack: How Israel plans to hit Hamas and scale back war

Rafah attack: How Israel plans to hit Hamas and scale back war

ISRAEL expects to continue full-scale military operations in Gaza for another six to eight weeks as it prepares to mount a ground invasion of the enclave's southernmost city of Rafah, four officials familiar with the strategy said. Military chiefs believe they can significantly damage Hamas' remaining capabilities in that time, paving the way for a shift to a lower-intensity phase of targeted airstrikes and special forces operations, according to the two Israeli and two regional officials who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely. There is little chance that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government will heed international criticism to call…
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Netanyahu says ‘enough’ remaining Israeli hostages alive to warrant Gaza war

Netanyahu says ‘enough’ remaining Israeli hostages alive to warrant Gaza war

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview aired that "enough" of the 132 remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza are alive to justify Israel's ongoing war in the region. Asked how many of the hostages are still alive, Netanyahu said "enough to warrant the kind of efforts that we're doing. "We're going to try to do our best to get all those who are alive back and, frankly, also the bodies of the dead," he said in the interview with ABC's "This Week" program. Netanyahu also said that one Palestinian civilian has been killed for every Hamas fighter…
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Israeli settlers hold conference on resettlement in Gaza

Israeli settlers hold conference on resettlement in Gaza

HUNDREDS of members of the Israeli settler community gathered for a convention in Jerusalem calling for Israel to rebuild settlements in Gaza, and the northern part of the Occupied West Bank. Israel withdrew its military and settlers from Gaza in 2005 after a 38-year occupation and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it does not intend to maintain a permanent presence again, but that Israel would maintain security control for an indefinite period. There has been little clarity, however, about Israel's longer-term intentions, and countries including the United States have said that Gaza should be governed by Palestinians. The conference…
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Gaza hostage relatives burst into Israeli parliament, calls for action mount

Gaza hostage relatives burst into Israeli parliament, calls for action mount

A group of relatives of Israelis held hostage by Palestinian gunmen in Gaza stormed a parliamentary committee session in Jerusalem, demanding that the lawmakers do more to try to free their loved ones. The action by about 20 people signalled growing domestic dissent in the fourth month of the Gaza war against Hamas. One woman held up pictures of three family members who were among the 253 people seized in the cross-border Hamas rampage of October 7 that triggered the worst fighting in decades. Some 130 remain in captivity after others were brought home in a November truce. "Just one…
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Netanyahu condemns ICJ genocide case; Gazans return to wasteland in north

Netanyahu condemns ICJ genocide case; Gazans return to wasteland in north

BENJAMIN Netanyahu condemned South Africa's genocide case against Israel in Gaza as "hypocrisy and lies", as some Gazans returned to scenes of total devastation in the north of the enclave where Israeli forces have begun withdrawing. Three months of Israeli bombardment have laid much of the coastal enclave to waste, killing more than 23,000 people and driving nearly the entire population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes. An Israeli blockade has sharply restricted supplies of food, fuel and medicine, creating what the United Nations describes as a humanitarian catastrophe. Israel says its only means to defend itself is by eradicating…
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Israeli jets pound central Gaza as Netanyahu indicates longer war

Israeli jets pound central Gaza as Netanyahu indicates longer war

ISRAELI jets intensified attacks on central Gaza, residents and medics said, as battles raged through the rubble of towns and refugee camps in a war that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would take "many more months" to end. Netanyahu's comments signal no let-up in a campaign that has killed many thousands and levelled much of Gaza, while his vow to restore Israeli control over the enclave's border with Egypt raises new questions over an eventual two-state solution. Air strikes pounded al-Maghazi and al-Bureij in the centre of Gaza, killing 10 people in one house and driving more to flee…
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Israel’s Netanyahu vows no let-up in war against Hamas as Gaza deaths mount

Israel’s Netanyahu vows no let-up in war against Hamas as Gaza deaths mount

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to keep up the fight against Hamas militants while Palestinians mourned more than 100 people who Gaza health officials said were killed overnight in Israeli airstrikes. Netanyahu visited Israeli troops in the northern Gaza Strip just hours after one of the besieged enclave's deadliest nights in the 11-week-old battle between Israel and Hamas. Retaliating against Hamas for its deadly October 7 cross-border rampage, Israel has been under pressure from its closest ally the United States to shift operations in Gaza to a lower-intensity phase and reduce civilian deaths. But Netanyahu told lawmakers from his…
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Israel keeps pounding Gaza, Houthis vow more Red Sea attacks

Israel keeps pounding Gaza, Houthis vow more Red Sea attacks

ISRAEL kept pounding the shattered Gaza Strip while Yemen's pro-Palestinian Houthi movement vowed to defy a U.S.-led naval mission and keep hitting Israeli targets in the Red Sea. Israel's campaign to eradicate Hamas militants behind an October 7 massacre has left the coastal enclave in ruins, brought widespread hunger and homelessness, and killed nearly 20,000 Gazans, according to the Palestinian enclave's health ministry. Under foreign pressure to avoid killing innocents, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war will not stop until the remaining 129 hostages are freed and Hamas is obliterated after its fighters slay 1,200 Israelis. The conflict has spread beyond Hamas-ruled…
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