Netanyahu to address media ahead of UN emergency meeting on Israeli plan to take over Gaza City
Date: 13:26 BST
Title: Israel sets out five objectives in plan to 'take control' of Gaza City
Content: The Israeli prime minister's office released a statement on Friday detailing five objectives of their plan to "take control" of Gaza City. These are:
The IDF said the military would prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the "civilian population outside the combat zones".
The Israeli military currently controls about three-quarters of Gaza, and almost all of its 2.1 million citizens are situated in the quarter of the territory that the IDF does not control.
Update:
Date: 13:14 BST
Title: Israel's Gaza City takeover plan sparks protests and criticism
Content: Warren BullBBC News
It was early on Friday that Israel's security cabinet agreed to expand its war in Gaza, prompting criticism from the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres.
He said it would result in additional forced displacement and killings, and deepen what he called the already catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians.
In Israel itself, tens of thousands of people protested against the plan on Saturday evening. Families of hostages held by Hamas in the Palestinian territory say it will endanger their relatives.
Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected the criticism, insisting his country will "free Gaza from Hamas".
Update:
Date: 13:09 BST
Title: Netanyahu to hold news conference, as UN convenes emergency Gaza meeting
Content: An Israeli strike hit Gaza City's southern Al-Zeitoun neighbourhood on Friday
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been facing mounting criticism from world leaders over his plan to "take control" of Gaza City, as protests in Israel intensified on Saturday.
We're expecting to hear from Netanyahu in a news conference at 14:30 BST (13:30 GMT) - you can watch live at the top of this page.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting at 16:00 on Israel's plan to take over Gaza City. The meeting has been called for by every member of the council except the US and Panama.
On Friday, the UN Secretary General's spokesperson described
Israel's move as a "dangerous
escalation".
Stay with us for the latest developments and analysis.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
11 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Senator Fatima Payman delivers brutal four-word message to Anthony Albanese after being vindicated for quitting Labor over Palestine
Fatima Payman, who sensationally quit Labor over its stance on Gaza, has demanded an apology from Anthony Albanese after he announced the Australian government would recognise Palestinian statehood. The Prime Minister revealed on Monday that Australia would recognise Palestinian statehood at the United Nations next month, following similar commitments made by other Western allies including the UK, France and Canada. Senator Payman, who defied Labor in June 2024 by voting with the Greens to call for the recognition of Palestinian statehood, said she was 'absolutely thrilled' by Monday's announcement, claiming it was vindication for her decision to defy Albanese. 'Having to cross the floor to vote for such an important issue and then having to endure the resulting fallout from Labor and some in the community was one of the most stressful moments of my life,' Senator Payman said in a media release. 'But it is terrific to know that Labor has finally caught up and that my move has been vindicated.' Senator Payman was forgiving of her former boss, Albanese, claiming she was now 'sanguine' over his decision to 'indefinitely suspend' her for 'disrespecting' the Labor Party caucus. But that same magnanimity was not matched in Senator Payman's social media comments section, after she shared a buoyant where she claimed that Albanese's long-awaited announcement proved she was 'on the right side of history'. Responding to a critic who asked if she would 'now apologise to Albo and beg to be allowed back in the party', Senator Payman did not mince her words. 'Why would I do that lol?', she responded, in her trademark 'youth-speak'. 'I stuck by the Labor Party Platform and did right by the members. He owes me an apology.' A spokesperson for Senator Payman told the Daily Mail she has not heard anything from the Prime Minister's office or any one within Labor's senior ranks. Treasurer Jim Chalmers was asked on Wednesday morning whether Senator Payman had now been vindicated in her decision to quit Labor but dodged the question. 'I always think that whether it's Senator Payman or others, we're better off working for change within the party, rather than sitting outside the party,' Chalmers told ABC RN. 'She doesn't have an identical view to the government on this still, and this government works through issues in a considered, consultative and methodical way, and that's why we've made this announcement that we made earlier in the week.' 'I haven't spoken to Senator Payman about it, or heard any public commentary from her. 'No doubt there's been some. But we work through these issues in our own way, on our own, in our own time, and that's what's seen the progress delivered this week.' Senator Payman, who is in the process of founding her own party, said that recognition of Palestinian statehood was only the first step. 'Now we need sanctions on Israel, an end to the arms trade, full transparency in our trade relationships, and recognition of the Palestinian right to return,' she added. 'Only then can recognition be matched with the meaningful action Palestinians deserve.' Labor's long-awaited announcement triggered a flurry of furious criticism from Israel and Jewish groups, who accused them of playing into Hamas 's hands by 'effectively 'rewarding terrorism'. However, Albanese hit back, accusing the Israeli government of presiding over a 'completely unacceptable' situation whereby Gazans are dying of starvation. Albanese said that when he spoke to Netanyahu last Thursday, the Israeli Prime Minister made the same argument that he had made a year ago. 'That if we just had more military action in Gaza, somehow that will produce a different outcome,' Albanese told the ABC. 'What it's producing is more and more innocent lives being lost. More and more violence. More and more destitution that we're seeing play out with the starvation that has occurred in Gaza.' Albanese accused Netanyahu of being 'in denial about the consequences that are occurring for innocent people'. Labor's support for Palestinian statehood is contingent on Hamas playing no role in any future government, free elections being held and demilitarisation of the region. However, serious doubts have been raised about the faith Albanese is placing in the 89-year-old Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas, who has not faced election since 2005 in the notoriously corrupt West Bank, has also promised to end 'pay to slay' rewards for terrorists and their families. However, Jewish groups have pointed out that he has a notorious track record of breaking promises.
Sky News
31 minutes ago
- Sky News
West Bank: The city locked down by heavily armed troops - where what was once law now means nothing
The first Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers emerge on to the streets of Hebron, through the pedestrian entrance to an Israeli settlement that has taken over a section of the old town. They are heavily armed and pass me sitting in the doorway of a shop where I had been sheltering from the burning hot West Bank sun. I murmur a greeting, but they ignore me and head inside, climbing to an upper balcony of the building to oversee the city's market area. 29:15 Within the hour, they're joined by dozens of military units of the IDF, on foot and in armoured jeeps, fanning out across the busy streets – ordering shops to shut and market traders to wheel away their stalls of fruit and vegetables. Groups of Palestinian journalists are shouted at and told to move back, and we are as well after I ask to be told in English what they want. While soldiers continue to close down stalls and shops around us, we are moved three times by them and then finally led away from an area where a green cloth screen is being unfurled by the soldiers. They're closing the whole area down, forcing cars to move on, and clearing the streets. Anyone trying to pass their lines is turned around. A young man in a motorised wheelchair approaches a group of three soldiers - two men and a woman - all heavily armed and imposing. He, too, is told he cannot pass; he's told to go back. An elderly woman attempts to retrieve cardboard boxes and the meagre goods she sells on the roadside, but she is shooed away. An agitated soldier stamps on the cardboard boxes she was trying to rescue, flattens them, and kicks them against a wall. It felt to me that everyone looking on, the press and public alike, collectively sighed "really?" It seemed so pointless to destroy her boxes. The green cloth screen the soldiers had strung up along a side street billowed in the wind so we could easily see beyond it. The army realised this and manoeuvred vehicles in front of the most exposed areas. This part of Hebron, a Palestinian city, was locked down. Some hours later though, groups of Orthodox Jews and Israeli settlers emerged from a settlement and made their way past the screen, staring occasionally into Hebron's streets, walking towards a tomb about 500 metres away. The tomb, they say, is a holy site for them, and they wanted to see it. 'I was born here' A young Palestinian man who runs his family's souvenir shop told me that settlers guarded by the military pass by his shop in Hebron weekly. Waseem Jabari told me he has many Jewish friends, but says when the settlers come, they do it to show the whole city of Hebron belongs to them. "But for me as a Palestinian who lives in Hebron, and I was born here, I grew up here, I don't like violence, I don't like the problem, because it's not a solution," he told me. Read more: Inside the West Bank conflict What are settlements and who are settlers? "For us, too many Palestinians have died, many Palestinians have been killed, many arrested, we are so tired of that, and for us, it's enough." 'We need justice' I told Waseem I had heard the settlers think the Palestinians want to kill them. He shook his head and told me what he wants is peace, that he doesn't like violence. "We need our justice, we need rights, and we need freedom, the same as other people and the same as other countries, we don't need any problems— Jewish, Christian, Muslim, we are all human people," he said. Hebron's city centre is classified as Area A in the West Bank, where under Israeli law it is stated that no Israelis are allowed. What I witnessed shows that the classification seems to have no place in reality any more. The military and the settlers it enables to enter places like Hebron simply ride roughshod over accepted norms. It's not normal here any more - for Palestinians in the West Bank, life has certainly got worse. The October 7th Hamas attack on Israel changed everything.
The Guardian
41 minutes ago
- The Guardian
What conditions has Australia put on recognition of a Palestinian state – and what will happen if they are not met?
The Australian government has pledged to recognise a Palestinian state. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says the decision is 'predicated' on commitments from the Palestinian Authority's (PA) Mahmoud Abbas, who has said his group will undergo critical governance reforms, and that a future state will have no room for members of the terrorist group Hamas. But Albanese's government won't say what would happen if those commitments are missed. Here are the key questions about the recognition discussion. Albanese says Abbas has made pledges including: A demilitarised Palestine. Recognising Israel's right to exist in peace and security. The Palestinian Authority holding elections and undertaking governance reforms, including education system reforms to not promote further violence. No role for Hamas. Shahram Akbarzadeh, a professor of Middle East politics at Deakin University, says the PA commitments raise 'lots of challenges'. He describes the PA as 'rife with corruption and nepotism' but says there is no other body which could begin processes towards Palestinian statehood. It is vital then, Akbarzadeh says, that western nations – likely led by the EU, UN and ideally the US – help lead democratic and governance reforms in the PA. 'All of this requires and calls for sustained international engagement and investment – funds and expertise,' he says. 'If the international community wants to see a viable new state emerge, there needs to be support for it. You can't just issue a declaration and walk out the door.' Sussan Ley, the opposition leader, claims Albanese is skating over the issue. 'He actually refuses to say what will happen if the conditions that he sets out for recognition are not met,' she told the Sydney radio station 2GB. Akbarzadeh says barring Hamas from a future governing role is 'widely accepted' by Arab leaders, but the 'practicalities' are difficult. 'That's going to be a much harder proposition than disarming Hamas … it will involve a lengthy process of checks and balances,' Akbarzadeh says. He questions whether the ban would extend to people in Gaza who were forced to affiliate with members of Hamas, as the ruling party in the territory. 'Affiliation with Hamas during that time doesn't mean necessarily they're all terrorists. Everyone in Gaza had some sort of affiliation with Hamas, as a necessity of life. It adds another layer of complication,' he says. Amal Naser, of the Palestine Action Group, told Channel Nine: 'I don't think it's very plausible' Hamas could be blocked from a future Palestinian state. 'But the key issue here is that western states can't be determining who is in governance in Palestine, but they do have an obligation to prevent and punish this genocide,' she said. Albanese told Channel Nine the international community could stop Hamas members from running for elections – but did not say exactly how. 'You can [stop Hamas] if you have the Arab states in the Middle East all speaking as one as well as the Palestinian Authority as well as the international community.' Albanese has repeatedly said recognition is a chance to 'isolate Hamas' and promote more moderate voices. Albanese and the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, shrugged off repeated questions on Monday and Tuesday about commitments not being met. Albanese has refused multiple times to say whether Australia could revoke Palestinian recognition. Government sources indicate Labor is focused on making the reforms work, rather than considering alternatives. Wong told the ABC on Monday that Australia and the international community would 'hold the Palestinian Authority to its commitments'. Ley says a future Coalition government would revoke Palestinian recognition, raising questions about how such a diplomatic backflip could be executed three or six years into the future of a newly established Palestine. The Coalition has claimed Palestinian recognition is a reward for Hamas. Wong says there is 'much more work to do in building a Palestinian state'. Australia will contribute to building the capacity of the PA and providing humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza. Asked on the ABC whether Australia would help in rebuilding Gaza after Israel's military bombardment, Albanese said Australia would 'play our part' – but noted Australia was 'not big players in the Middle East'. More than 146 countries have already recognised Palestine. In recent weeks, France, Canada and the UK have pledged to recognise. The Canadian leader Mark Carney's pledge was also predicated on the PA's commitment to reforms and elections, including no role for Hamas and a demilitarised Palestine. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, in pledging recognition, noted Abbas's condemnation of Hamas, and the PA's calls for Hamas to be disarmed and excluded from future governance of Palestine. Macron also spoke of the PA's commitment to reforms and elections. The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, pledged to recognise Palestine unless Israel's government took 'substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza', including a ceasefire and peace plan. Wong says practical steps, such as an Australian embassy presence or conferring full embassy status to the Palestinian delegation to Australia, would be tied to the PA's commitments. But no firm timeline or details have been confirmed. The government is facing pressure from inside and outside its ranks to go further in responding to Israel's military campaign. Labor Friends of Palestine, an internal pressure group, has urged the government to impose sanctions on more members of Netanyahu's government, put more aid and mobile hospitals into Gaza, and set up a humanitarian visa pathway for Palestinians. Other Palestinian Australian groups have urged the cutting of diplomatic ties with Israel – a step Albanese rejected as 'completely counterproductive'.
