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ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
🔴 Live: Netanyahu rejects international recognition of Palestinian state
Israeli Prime Minister Binjamin Netanyahu said late Thursday that he rejected a plan for international recognition of a Palestinian state, saying such an initiative “would offer an enormous reward to terrorism”. Read our liveblog for all the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas war.
Issued on: 16/02/2024 – 03:15
1 min
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convenes the weekly cabinet meeting at the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel, January 7, 2024.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convenes the weekly cabinet meeting at the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel, January 7, 2024. © Ronen Zvulun, Reuters
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FRANCE 24
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FRANCE 24
Summary:
Israeli forces stormed the main hospital in southern Gaza on Thursday, hours after Israeli fire killed a patient and wounded six others inside the complex.
The Israeli military said it killed a Hezbollah commander, his deputy and another fighter in an air strike in Lebanese territory in an attack on Wednesday in which seven civilians were also killed.
The leaders of Canada, Australia and New Zealand on Thursday called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, according to a joint statement released in response to reports about Israel’s planned military operation in Rafah.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 28,663 people have been killed and 68,395 wounded in Israeli strikes on the enclave since October 7, the vast majority women and children. Israeli officials say about 1,140 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks in southern Israel. Militant fighters took some 250 hostages during the attack and 132 are still in Gaza, according to Israeli figures.
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Biden warns on Rafah offensive in fresh call with Netanyahu, says White House
US President Joe Biden warned in a new call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday against Israel launching an operation on the Gaza Strip city of Rafah without a plan to keep civilians safe.
Biden warned Netanyahu about moving into the southern part of the Gaza Strip without a plan to ensure the safety of some 1 million people sheltering there.
“The President… reiterated his view that a military operation should not proceed without a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the civilians in Rafah,” a readout of the call from the White House said.
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25 minutes ago
Netanyahu rejects international recognition of Palestinian state
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Thursday that he rejected a plan for international recognition of a Palestinian state, saying such an initiative “would offer an enormous reward to terrorism”.
“Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” Netanyahu said in a post in Hebrew on social media platform X.
“Such recognition, in the wake of the October 7 massacre, would offer an enormous reward to unprecedented terrorism and would prevent any future peace agreement,” he said.
“Israel categorically rejects international diktats concerning a permanent settlement with the Palestinians,” he added, saying that a peace agreement could only result from “direct negotiations without preconditions”.
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Yesterday’s key developments:
Israel has hit back at what it described as an “unjustifiable” South African appeal to the United Nations’ top court to apply more legal pressure over a threatened offensive on the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels say they fired missiles at a “British ship” off the country’s coast, the latest in a series of incidents that have disrupted global shipping.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that he believed an agreement on a truce in the Israel-Hamas war and the release of hostages was still “possible”.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP, Reuters)
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.
The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN’s counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
