Israeli forces hammered Rafah in southern Gaza with tanks and artillery Saturday, hours after US President Joe Biden said Israel was offering a new roadmap towards a full ceasefire backed by France and Germany. While the Palestinian militant group Hamas described the proposal as “positive”, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu underlined that any permanent ceasefire in Gaza rested upon “the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities”. Read FRANCE 24's liveblog to see how all the day's events unfolded.
This blog is no longer being updated. For more coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, click here.
Summary:
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Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday insisted on Hamas's destruction as part of the Israeli plan presented by US President Joe Biden to end the Gaza war. "Israel's conditions for ending the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas's military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel ... Israel will continue to insist these conditions are met before a permanent ceasefire is put in place.”
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Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid vowed Saturday to support Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu if he goes ahead with the truce and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden. Two of Netanyahu's far-right coalition partners, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, threatened to quit his government if he goes ahead with the deal.
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Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Saturday he was "thrilled" to accept an invitation to address the US Congress, where he plans to "present the truth" about the Gaza war.
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Egypt will host Israeli and US officials on Sunday to discuss the reopening of the Rafah crossing, a vital conduit for aid into the besieged Gaza Strip, Egyptian state-linked media said on Saturday.
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At least 36,379 Palestinians have been killed and 82,407 wounded in Israel’s war in Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.
Yesterday's key developments:
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought Friday to press Hamas to accept a new Gaza ceasefire plan in talks with the top diplomats of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey via telephone calls from his plane as he returned from a NATO meeting in Prague, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
- US President Joe Biden on Friday called on Hamas militants to agree to a new offer from Israel on releasing hostages in exchange for a Gaza ceasefire, saying it was the best way to begin winding down the deadly conflict.
- Israeli forces on Friday struck targets across Gaza, including the southernmost Rafah area and Nuseirat in central Gaza. Strikes on two separate locations killed a total of 11 people overnight, medical sources at a hospital in Deir al-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp reported.
- The Israeli military on Friday said it has ended operations in eastern Jabaliya in northern Gaza after destroying tunnels and weapons production sites.
- The Israeli military on Friday said two more of its soldiers were killed in fighting in Gaza. Nearly 300 soldiers have been killed since Israel began its ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave.
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)
