Israel ‘will not succumb’ to pressure – Netanyahu
Israel “cannot, and will not, succumb” to international pressure to stop its military campaign in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said during a government meeting, amid growing United States frustrations toward his government’s conduct of the war.
“In the international community, there are those who are trying to stop the war now, before all of its goals have been achieved,” he said.
“They are doing so by means of an effort to bring about elections now, at the height of the war. They are doing this because they know that elections now will halt the war and paralyse the country for at least six months.”
“If we stop the war now, before all of its goals are achieved, this means that Israel will have lost the war, and this we will not allow," he continued.
While Netanyahu did not say where the pressure was coming from, the comments came after Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer - the highest-ranking Jewish official in the US and a staunch ally of Israel - said last week that Israel risks becoming a “pariah” under Netanyahu, and called for elections. US President Joe Biden later praised Schumer for a “good speech”.
Netanyahu also promised to press on with his military’s plan to attack Rafah, the southern Gazan city where over half of the enclave’s population is sheltering.
“We will operate in Rafah,” Netanyahu said. He said it was the “only way” to “eliminate” Hamas and to free the remaining Israeli hostages - the country’s two stated goals for its war in Gaza.
Last week, Israel’s military said it intended to direct a “significant” portion of Rafah’s population of 1.4 million towards “humanitarian islands” in central Gaza ahead of the offensive, which Biden has warned would cross a “red line”. Netanyahu’s office has said he has approved a plan for military operations in Rafah, without providing details.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told ABC’s This Week that the US would not support a Rafah operation “unless or until [Israel] can accommodate the 1.5 million refugees that are there and preserve their safety and security”.
Aid groups are also pleading for restraint. The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says he is “gravely concerned” about Israel’s plan to attack Rafah, and has appealed to Israel to call off the operation.
Humanitarian agencies say the besieged enclave is teetering on the brink of famine, and they are calling for Israel to facilitate increased aid deliveries and open more access points into the territory.
One in three children aged under 2 were now acutely malnourished in northern Gaza, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said, adding that malnutrition among children was reaching “unprecedented” levels.
Israel’s war cabinet and security cabinet were to discuss Israel’s response to Hamas’s ceasefire and hostage release proposal, said an Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
An Israeli delegation will travel to Qatar to continue negotiating a hostage deal, Netanyahu’s office said last week.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was set to meet with Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, an Israeli war cabinet member and political rival of Netanyahu. Germany, a staunch ally of Israel, has called on the Israeli government to “urgently” open more border crossings to support the flow of more aid by truck, which Scholz said would be a topic of conversation in his meeting with Netanyahu.
A second ship carrying 240 tonnes of food aid, as well as machinery, is preparing to depart for Gaza from the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, according to World Central Kitchen, the US non-profit founded by celebrity chef José Andrés.
A first shipment carrying nearly 200 tons of food aid arrived in Gaza on Saturday and was now being “readied” for distribution, the organisation said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Bahraini Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa in Manama to discuss a ceasefire proposal of at least six weeks in Gaza and the Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
At least 31,645 people have been killed and 73,676 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel estimates that about 1200 people were killed in Hamas’s October 7 attack, and says that 249 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operation in Gaza.
The first pieces of the US’s planned floating dock off Gaza’s coast were already en route, Kirby told ABC, adding that it would take roughly six to eight weeks for all parts to arrive and be assembled.
“We are working with partners in the region to figure out the details of how the material will be secured on and off the floating dock,” he said, “and of course, how it will be distributed inside Gaza.”