Benjamin Netanyahu rejects truce deal; UN ‘alarmed’ at ground push
Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a new truce deal with Hamas as the Israeli military pushes into the border city of Rafah where thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge. Follow updates.
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Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the latest truce deal, making it clear he will not accept Hamas’ “bizarre demands” for a ceasefire.
In a televised statement, the Israeli Prime Minister said bowing to the militant group’s demands would “only invite another massacre.”
He said Israel was committed to eliminating Hamas, returning the Israeli hostages and ensuring the militant group in Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.
Mr Netanyahu said Israel had been warned not to send troops into Gaza because Hamas’ network of tunnels would defeat them.
“The brave fighters and brave commanders proved the exact opposite – they proved it was possible,” he said.
“The soldiers and commanders achieved unprecedented achievements. The IDF killed and wounded more than half of Hamas’s fighting force – 20,000.
“They continue to eliminate them in raids all the time. They destroy rocket factories and hiding places.
“We will continue to the end to destroy the underground network.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is believed to have told Mr Netanyahu that he would “think about the thousands of children who were killed in Gaza,” for the rest of his life.
Mr Blinken made the comments during a discussion with Israel’s leader about the civilian victims of Israel’s war with Hamas, Israel’s Channel 13 reports.
Mr Blinken said he was “shocked” by the October 7 massacre and was “committed to preventing such a thing from happening again.”
But he added that “entire families that are not connected to Hamas were harmed” amid the fighting in Gaza.
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‘DEAL WITH HAMAS AFTER’: FREED HOSTAGES’ PLEA
Five released hostages from Gaza have called on the Israeli government to do everything they can for the release of the remaining 136 hostages, saying “we can deal with Hamas afterward”.
The five women were released in late November and told a press conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday that the only “absolute victory” would be the release of the 136 hostages.
A 62-year-old hostage, Aviva Seigel, who was taken captive on October 7, said if the hostages are saved, “we’ll have saved the State of Israel and that will be absolute victory”.
Siegel’s husband, Keith Seigel, remains captive in Gaza.
Another hostage, 72-year-old Adina Moshe, delivered an emotional address, after her husband was killed on October 7.
“I was there, I felt there, I hurt there, but I was released,” Moshe said.
“My friends, the youth that I educated, they’re still there. I think that some of them did not survive. I know that they don’t receive their required medications, and I know that they’re no longer in the place that I was with them.”
“Again, I am asking you, Mr. Netanyahu, everything is in your hands, you’re the one who can do it, and I’m extremely scared, that if you continue along this path…there won’t be any more hostages to release,” she added.
‘PISSED OFF’: CANADIANS BLOCKED FROM LEAVING GAZA
Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller said he was “pissed off” that extended family members of Canadians were being blocked from leaving war-torn Gaza
Ottawa last month provided a list of about 1000 people approved to come to Canada to Israeli and Egyptian authorities, who jointly control the only border crossing out of the Palestinian territory, at Rafah.
The measure aimed to reunite Canadian nationals with spouses or common-law partners, children and grandchildren regardless of age, siblings and their immediate families, as well as parents and grandparents.
They would be permitted to stay in Canada temporarily while fighting continues to rage in Gaza. But none have been allowed yet to leave the coastal strip.
“I’m pretty pissed off about it,” Miller told reporters.
“Perhaps there is some trepidation by people on the ground as to whether to let these folks out, but it’s a humanitarian gesture, and it’s immensely frustrating for me,” he said.
The Canadian government had previously focused on getting more than 600 Canadians, their spouses and children out of Gaza.
NETANYAHU’S GOAL ‘GENOCIDE’: HAMAS
A senior Lebanon-based official in Hamas said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s continued pursuit of war in Gaza showed the goal was “genocide” against Palestinians.
Mr Netanyahu’s “insistence on continuing the aggression totally confirms that the goal of the aggression on Gaza is genocide against the Palestinian people”, Osama Hamdan told a news conference in Beirut.
“We will exert every effort to protect our people, whether through the resistance on the ground or... political efforts to stop the aggression,” Hamdan added.
ISRAEL’S GROUND PUSH INTO RAFAH ALARMS UN
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said he was “alarmed” by reports that the Israeli military would push on into Rafah.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled to the border city to escape daily bombardments and the city’s population has now swollen to more than one million.
“Such an action would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences,” Mr Guterres said.
“It is time for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages.” AFPTV footage showed frantic scenes of Palestinians running for their lives, many screaming, as gunfire rang out from advancing Israeli forces in a Gaza City neighbourhood.
32 HAMAS HOSTAGES KILLED
At least 32 hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip have been killed, according to the Israel Defence Force.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military confirmed the deaths and is assessing “unconfirmed intelligence” that at least 20 more captives may have also been killed.
“We are working in all ways to return (the hostages) home, and exhausting all information about them and their conditions,” Mr Hagari told reporters.
“The IDF is accompanying the families of the hostages in these complex and difficult days, and our representatives are providing the families with any confirmed information on their loved ones,” he says.
Israel says 136 hostages remain in Gaza, at least 32 of whom are dead.
Mr Hagari said 29 of the dead were kidnapped on October 7 and another two were soldiers, Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, whose remains have been held since they were kidnapped and killed by Hamas in 2014.
HAMAS RESPONDS TO POTENTIAL DEAL
Hamas’s response to a potential hostage deal has been delivered via Qatar, The Mossad in a statement carried by the Prime Minister’s Office says.
The statement says the response is being evaluated by the relevant authorities.
It comes as a government source told Israel broadcaster Kan “we will not accept any conditions for ending the war”.
BLINKEN IN MIDDLE EAST FOR TRUCE TALKS
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Saudi Arabia for another Middle East crisis tour, hoping to secure a new truce in the Israel-Hamas war.
On his fifth trip to the region since October 7, Mr Blinken landed in Riyadh on Tuesday and was later expected to visit Israel and mediators Egypt and Qatar.
As bombardment and battles keep raging across Gaza, Mr Blinken is expected to discuss a truce framework not yet signed off on by either Hamas or Israel.
The top US diplomat says he discussed efforts to increase humanitarian aid in Gaza with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
“Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and I met in Riyadh to discuss efforts to increase urgent humanitarian aid and ensure it gets to those who need it in Gaza,” Mr Blinken said in a social media post.
“We will continue to engage in diplomacy in the region to prevent the further spread of the conflict.”
Ahead of the trip he stressed the need for “urgently addressing humanitarian needs in Gaza”, after aid groups have repeatedly sounded the alarm over the devastating impact nearly four months of war have had on the besieged Gaza Strip.
Dubbed a “pressure cooker of despair” by the United Nations, Rafah now hosts more than half of Gaza’s population, displaced due to Israel’s assault.
SIX KILLED IN US AIR BASE HIT
A strike near a US base in Syria killed six members of a US-allied militia despite the US pounding Iran-allied sites with air strikes over the weekend.
A US military official confirmed that there were fatalities from an attack on the al-Omar oilfield, part of a complex that includes a US base and is jointly controlled with the American military. The official declined to comment further.
The Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-allied Kurdish militia, said six of its fighters had died in a drone strike on al-Omar.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella of Iran-backed armed groups, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Tensions with Iran-backed groups have escalated after the deaths of three US troops in a drone strike in Jordan last month.
FRANCE CALLS FOR END TO SETTLER VIOLENCE
French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said that Israeli “settler violence must stop” against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, following a meeting with Mr Netanyahu.
“Under no circumstances can there be forced displacement of Palestinians, neither out of Gaza nor out of the West Bank,” Sejourne said during a Middle East tour aimed at securing a truce between Israel and militant group Hamas in Gaza.
The French minister denounced anti-Palestinian rhetoric and “even calls to commit war crimes” by Israeli officials, after some Netanyahu allies have appeared to endorse Jewish resettlement of the Gaza Strip after the war.
Sejourne called for supporting the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority of president Mahmud Abbas.
‘UNPRECEDENTED LEVEL OF DESTRUCTION’
Video footage shared by the UN organisation UNRWA hows the extent of devastation caused by Israeli bombing in Gaza.
The video shows an UNRWA health centre completely demolished.
“This is an unprecedented level of destruction and forced displacement, taking place in front of our eyes,” the organisation said.
In northðŸ“#GazaStrip, the scale of destruction and loss is staggering.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) February 5, 2024
This footage shows one of our @UNRWA health centres. There is nothing left.
This is an unprecedented level of destruction and forced displacement, taking place in front of our eyes. pic.twitter.com/z1el0QfhEe
BROADCASTER FINDS ‘FLIMSY’ EVIDENCE FOR ISRAEL’S UNRWA CLAIMS
The British public broadcaster Channel 4 News has said that an Israeli intelligence dossier forming the basis for allegations that UNRWA employees took part in the October 7 attacks includes little evidence to back up those claims.
The Channel 4 programme reported that Israel “provides no evidence to support its explosive new claim that UNRWA staff were involved in the terror attacks on Israel” in the document.
According to Channel 4 News, the dossier simply states that “from intelligence information, documents, and identity cards seized during the course of the fighting, it is now possible to flag around 190 Hamas and PIJ terrorists operatives who serve as UNRWA employees. More than 10 UNRWA staffers took part in the seventh of October”.
Other news outlets that have obtained the confidential report, including Sky News and The Financial Times (FT), have also expressed doubt about the strength of the evidence presented and also came to the same conclusion.
“The intelligence assessment, which has been seen by the FT, provides no evidence for the claims, which it says are based on smartphone intercepts and captured identity cards,” the publication reported.
Rights advocates have warned that defunding UNRWA will worsen the humanitarian crisis for millions of Palestinian refugees in Gaza and across the region.
We got hold of Israel’s dossier against UNRWA - why did the donors including the UK withdraw funding on such flimsy unproven allegations before an investigation?https://t.co/9ssCrIbfPK
— Lindsey Hilsum (@lindseyhilsum) February 5, 2024
AROUND 100,000 KILLED, WOUNDED OR MISSING IN GAZA
UN chief Philippe Lazzarini said that in around four months of war, at least 100,000 people in Gaza have been killed, wounded or are currently missing.
He said that the number equates to about five per cent of the population.
“In addition, around 17,000 children are unaccounted or separated from their families,” he said.
In northðŸ“#GazaStrip, the scale of destruction and loss is staggering.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) February 5, 2024
This footage shows one of our @UNRWA health centres. There is nothing left.
This is an unprecedented level of destruction and forced displacement, taking place in front of our eyes. pic.twitter.com/z1el0QfhEe
HOUTHIS RELEASE CHILLING VIDEO
The Houthis have released chilling video showing them carrying out a simulation exercise of an assault on an Israeli “command and control centre,” where they assassinate IDF generals and take soldiers hostage.
According to a report in The New York Post, Israeli forces also posted footage of a Hamas training camp — “with models simulating entrance gates of Israeli kibbutzim, military bases and IDF armoured vehicles’’ — that was used to prep for the Palestinian terror group’s Israel massacre October 7.
In the Houthi video, titled “Yemen is the Pillar Support of Palestine,” the Iran-backed terrorists show missiles being fired and drones dropping bombs on buildings with Israeli and American flags, The Times of Israel reported.
Militants carrying Palestinian flags also are seen raiding an Israeli “pillbox,” or outpost, made of canvas, shooting down its surveillance cameras and destroying its tents.
The rebels began targeting ships in the Red Sea in November to avenge Israel’s offensive in Gaza – but they have often attacked vessels with no clear ties to Israel, endangering shipping in a vital route for global trade.
The US and UK have launched air strikes against the Houthis since January in response to their action in the Red Sea.
On Sunday, American forces struck Houthi anti-ship and land attack cruise missiles in Yemen, US Central Command said, a day after joint US-UK strikes against the group.
Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said the air strikes “will not deter us” and retaliation after the recent operations, The Times of Israel reported.
– with AFP
Originally published as Benjamin Netanyahu rejects truce deal; UN ‘alarmed’ at ground push
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