Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reported this Thursday that he has told the United States that opposes the formation of a Palestinian state as part of any post-war scenario, underscoring the deep divisions between close allies three months after Israel’s attacks on Gaza under the argument that the objective is to eliminate Hamas, the ruling group.
The United States has called on Israel to reduce its offensive and has stated that the creation 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 achieve a “decisive victory over Hamas.” Also rejected the idea of a Palestinian state and revealed that he had raised his positions with the US authorities.
“In any future agreement… Israel needs to control security in all the territory west of the Jordan”Netanyahu said in a nationally broadcast press conference. “This clashes with the idea of sovereignty. What can one do?”
“The prime minister must be able to say no to our friends,” he added.
More than 100 days after Hamas invaded Israel’s occupied southern territories on October 7, Israel continues to wage one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, with the aim of dismantling the militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007 and recovering the hostages who remain captive. The war has stoked tensions across the region and threatens to spark other conflicts.
More than 24,600 Palestinians have been killed In the attacks, about 85 percent of the narrow coastal territory’s 2.3 million residents have fled their homes and the United Nations said a quarter of the population is dying of hunger.
Hundreds of thousands of people have heeded Israeli evacuation orders and gathered in southern Gaza, where shelters run by the United Nations are overflowing and huge tent settlements have been erected. Israel has continued to attack what he claims are militant targets in all parts of Gaza, frequently killing women, girls and boys. Israel’s bombing has been unleashed even in the areas to which it sent Palestinians assuring them that they would be safe.
Israel bombs “safe zones,” homes, universities and other civilian targets in Gaza
Early Thursday morning, doctors revealed that An Israeli airstrike on a house killed 16 people, half of them children, in the town of Rafahin southern Gaza, which was marked as a “safe zone.”
Talat Barhoum, a doctor at Rafah’s el-Najjar hospital, confirmed the death toll from the attack and said there were dozens more wounded. Associated Press images taken at the hospital showed relatives crying over the bodies of their loved ones.
“They were hungry, they were starving and now they have also been attacked,” said Mahmoud Qassim, a relative of some of the victims.
On Thursday images emerged of Israeli soldiers blowing up the main campus of a university on the outskirts of Gaza City in a controlled detonation, one of the many universities they have destroyed. The video, apparently taken with a drone, showed a giant explosion engulfing the Al-Israa University building complex.
The university, a private institution founded in 2014, said in a statement that its main building for graduate studies and undergraduate faculties was destroyed. He explained that Israeli forces took the complex 70 days ago and used it as their base. It is unknown when the explosion occurred and the Israeli military has not offered comment.
According to Hamas, Israeli forces have destroyed more than 390 schools, universities and educational institutions throughout Gaza.
Internet and mobile phone services have not worked in Gaza for five daysthe longest disconnection that has occurred during the war, according to NetBlocks, a group that advocates for internet access. Outages complicate rescue operations and make it difficult to obtain information about the most recent attacks and victims.
It was not immediately known whether the medicines that entered the territory on Wednesday as part of an agreement brokered by France and Qatar have been distributed among the dozens of chronically ill Hamas hostages.
Violence shakes the entire Middle East
Violence has spread throughout the Middle East: Iranian-backed groups have attacked American and Israeli targets; Low-intensity fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah on the border threatens to escalate into an all-out war, and the rebels Houthis in Yemen continue to attack international shipping as protest against Israelfor the war in Gaza, despite aerial bombardments by a coalition led by the United States.
Iran has launched a series of missile attacks against what it described as an Israeli spy base in Iraq and insurgent bases in Syria and Pakistan, which in turn carried out a retaliatory operation on what it called insurgent hideouts on Iranian territory. early Thursday morning.
It was not clear whether the operations in Syria and Pakistan They were related to the war in Gaza. But they showed Tehran’s ability to carry out long-range missile attacks at a time of growing tension with Israel and Washington, which has offered crucial support to its ally in its campaign in the Strip and launched its own attacks against allied groups. of Iran in Syria and Iraq.
Israel has vowed to dismantle Hamas’s military and governance capabilities so that it can never repeat the Oct. 7 attack that started the war. The insurgents overcame Israeli border defenses and stormed several communities, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping around 250 more.
Israeli authorities have also pledged to bring back to the country the more than 100 hostages still in Gaza after Hamas freed almost all the others as part of a November swap for Palestinians imprisoned without charge.
Relatives and supporters marked the first birthday of Kfir Bibas, the youngest Israeli hostage, on Thursday with a somber ceremony in Tel Aviv. The red-haired baby and his 4-year-old brother Ariel were kidnapped along with their mother, Shiri, and father, Yarden, and all four are still being held.
Hamas continues to counterattack Israeli forces throughout Gaza, including in the most devastated areas, and launch rockets into Israel. He asserts that he will not release any more hostages until there is a permanent ceasefire, something that Israel and the United States, its main ally, have ruled out.
The Gaza Ministry of Health maintains that At least 24,620 Palestinians have died since the escalation of the war, about two-thirds of them women and children, and more than 61,800 have been injured. He indicated that many other dead and wounded are trapped under the rubble or have not been recovered due to the fighting. The Ministry does not differentiate between deaths of civilians and combatants.
Israel blames Hamas for the high number of civilian deaths because it fights in densely populated residential areas. Israel says its forces have killed about 9,000 militants, but without providing evidence, and that 193 of its own soldiers have been killed since the ground offensive in Gaza began.
