Israeli PM Netanyahu announces new Gaza offensive
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the annual ceremony at the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers (Yom HaZikaron) at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, 29 April 2025. PHOTO: REUTERS
Listen to article
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that a new offensive in Gaza will be an intensive military operation aimed at defeating Hamas, but stopped short of detailing just how much of the enclave's territory would be seized.
"Population will be moved, for its own protection," Netanyahu said in a video posted on X. He said Israeli soldiers won't go into Gaza, launch raids and then retreat. "The intention is the opposite of that," he said.
Earlier, Israel's security cabinet has unanimously approved a plan to expand military operations in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli official, though the move will only be implemented after US President Donald Trump visits the region next week.
The decision comes amid ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage exchange agreement with Hamas, which Israel hopes to finalise before escalating its military efforts in the enclave.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
an hour ago
- Express Tribune
US-China reach trade agreement to ease rare earth export curbs
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng leaves Lancaster House, on the second day scheduled for trade talks between the U.S. and China, in London, Britain, June 10, 2025. Photo:REUTERS Listen to article US and Chinese officials said on Tuesday they had agreed on a framework to put their trade truce back on track and remove China's export restrictions on rare earths while offering little sign of a durable resolution to longstanding trade differences. At the end of two days of intense negotiations in London, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters the framework deal puts "meat on the bones" of an agreement reached last month in Geneva to ease bilateral retaliatory tariffs that had reached crushing triple-digit levels. But the Geneva deal had faltered over China's continued curbs on critical minerals exports, prompting the Trump administration to respond with export controls of its own preventing shipments of semiconductor design software, aircraft and other goods to China. I will be disappointed if it's true 'Rare Earth Export Curbs Lifted'. Global security from expanded wars of the waning US hegemon depends on those curbs. — Kathleen Tyson (@Kathleen_Tyson_) June 11, 2025 Lutnick said the agreement reached in London would remove some of the recent US export restrictions, but did not provide details after the talks concluded around midnight London time (2300 GMT). "We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents," Lutnick said. "The idea is we're going to go back and speak to President Trump and make sure he approves it. They're going to go back and speak to President Xi and make sure he approves it, and if that is approved, we will then implement the framework." In a separate briefing, China's Vice Commerce Minister Li Chenggang also said a trade framework had been reached in principle that would be taken back to US and Chinese leaders. The dispute may keep the Geneva agreement from unravelling over duelling export controls, but does little to resolve deep differences over Trump's unilateral tariffs and longstanding US complaints about China's state-led, export-driven economic model. The two sides left Geneva with fundamentally different views of the terms of that agreement and needed to be more specific on required actions, said Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council's GeoEconomics Center in Washington. "They are back to square one but that's much better than square zero," Lipsky added. The two sides have until August 10 to negotiate a more comprehensive agreement to ease trade tensions, or tariff rates will snap back from about 30% to 145% on the US side and from 10% to 125% on the Chinese side. Investors, who have been badly burned by trade turmoil before, offered a cautious response and MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.57%. "The devil will be in the details, but the lack of reaction suggests this outcome was fully expected," said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone in Melbourne. "The details matter, especially around the degree of rare earths bound for the US, and the subsequent freedom for US-produced chips to head east, but for now as long as the headlines of talks between the two parties remain constructive, risk assets should remain supported." Lutnick said China's restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals and magnets to the U.S. will be resolved as a "fundamental" part of the framework agreement. "Also, there were a number of measures the United States of America put on when those rare earths were not coming," Lutnick said. "You should expect those to come off ... in a balanced way." I will be disappointed if it's true 'Rare Earth Export Curbs Lifted'. Global security from expanded wars of the waning US hegemon depends on those curbs. — Kathleen Tyson (@Kathleen_Tyson_) June 11, 2025 US President Donald Trump's shifting tariff policies have roiled global markets, sparked congestion and confusion in major ports, and cost companies tens of billions of dollars in lost sales and higher costs. The World Bank on Tuesday slashed its global growth forecast for 2025 by four-tenths of a percentage point to 2.3%, saying higher tariffs and heightened uncertainty posed a "significant headwind" for nearly all economies. A resolution to the trade war may require policy adjustments from all countries to treat financial imbalances or otherwise greatly risk mutual economic damage, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on a rare visit to Beijing on Wednesday. Phone call helped The second round of US-China talks was given a major boost by a rare phone call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, which Lutnick said provided directives that were merged with Geneva truce agreement. Customs data published on Monday showed that China's exports to the US plunged 34.5% in May, the sharpest drop since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic. While the impact on US inflation and its jobs market has so far been muted, tariffs have hammered US business and household confidence and the dollar remains under pressure. Lutnick was joined by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at the London talks. Bessent departed hours before their conclusion to return to Washington to testify before Congress on Wednesday. China holds a near-monopoly on rare earth magnets, a crucial component in electric vehicle motors, and its decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets upended global supply chains. In May, the US responded by halting shipments of semiconductor design software and chemicals and aviation equipment, revoking export licences that had been previously issued. China, Mexico, the European Union, Japan, Canada and many airlines and aerospace companies worldwide urged the Trump administration not to impose new national security tariffs on imported commercial planes and parts, according to documents released Tuesday. Just after the framework deal was announced, a US appeals court allowed Trump's most sweeping tariffs to stay in effect while it reviews a lower court decision blocking them on grounds that they exceeded Trump's legal authority by imposing them.
Express Tribune
3 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Northern Irish rioters clash with police over assault protest
Listen to article Hundreds of masked rioters attacked police and set homes and cars on fire in the Northern Irish town of Ballymena on Tuesday, in the second successive night of disorder that followed a protest over an alleged sexual assault in the town. Police in Northern Ireland sporadically come under attack when tensions rise in parts of the British region, 27 years after a peace deal ended three decades of sectarian bloodshed there. Officers in riot gear and driving armoured vans responded with water cannon and plastic baton rounds after being attacked by petrol bombs, scaffolding and rocks that rioters gathered by knocking down nearby walls, a Reuters witness said. Calm was restored to Ballymena, located 45 kilometres (28 miles) from the capital Belfast, at around 0100 local time (0000 GMT), police said. Officers in riot gear and driving armoured vans responded earlier with water cannon and non-lethal rounds, known as attenuated energy projectiles, after being attacked by petrol bombs, scaffolding and rocks that rioters gathered by knocking down nearby walls, a Reuters witness said. One house was burned out and a police officer vomited after leaving another in a different part of the town that rioters had attempted to set alight, the witness added. Several cars were set on fire and one lay upside down in flames as police sirens blared throughout the town past midnight. The first night of rioting on Monday saw four houses damaged by fire, and doors and windows smashed in other homes and businesses, in what police said was being investigated as racially motivated hate attacks. Fifteen officers were injured. Hundreds of protesters had gathered in Ballymena earlier on Monday after two teenage boys appeared in court that day, accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in the County Antrim town. Local media reported that the charges were read to the teenagers via an interpreter. Separate protests on Tuesday blocked off some roads in Belfast, another Reuters witness said. Police said they also dealt with sporadic disorder in the towns of Newtownabbey and Carrickfergus, as well as some incidents in north Belfast. The British government and local politicians condemned the violence. The terrible scenes of civil disorder we have witnessed in Ballymena again this evening have no place in Northern Ireland. There is absolutely no justification for attacks on PSNI officers or for vandalism directed at people's homes or property. — Hilary Benn (@hilarybennmp) June 10, 2025 "The terrible scenes of civil disorder we have witnessed in Ballymena again this evening have no place in Northern Ireland," Britain's Northern Ireland Minister Hilary Benn said on X.
Business Recorder
3 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Israeli strikes kill 35 in Gaza, many near an aid site, medics say
CAIRO: Israeli military strikes killed at least 35 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, most of them at an aid site operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in central Gaza, local health officials said. Medical officials at Shifa and Al-Quds Hospitals said at least 25 people were killed as they approached the aid site near the former settlement of Netzarim, and dozens were wounded. Ten other people were killed in other Israeli military strikes in Khan Younis in the south of the enclave, they added. The Israeli military had no immediate comment. On Tuesday, when Gaza health officials said 17 people were killed near another GHF aid site in Rafah in southern Gaza, the army said it fired warning shots to distance 'suspects' who were approaching the troops and posed a threat. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday there had been 'significant progress' in efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, but that it was 'too soon' to raise hopes that a deal would be reached. Israel strike on Lebanon kills two Despite efforts by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar to restore a ceasefire in Gaza, neither Israel nor Hamas has shown willingness to back down on core demands, with each side blaming the other for the failure to reach a deal. Two Hamas sources told Reuters they did not know about any new ceasefire offers. The war erupted after Hamas-led took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in an October 7, 2023, attack, Israel's single deadliest day. Gaza rescuers say at least 10 killed in Israel strikes Israel's military campaign has since killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the coastal enclave.
