Netanyahu says ready for Gaza ‘temporary ceasefire'
'If there is an option for a temporary ceasefire to free hostages, we'll be ready,' Netanyahu said, noting that at least 20 hostages were confirmed alive.
But he added the Israeli military aimed to bring all of Gaza under its control by the end of its current operation.
'We must avoid a humanitarian crisis in order to preserve our freedom of operational action,' he said.
His remarks came hours after Israeli troops fired what the army called 'warning shots' near a delegation of foreign diplomats visiting the occupied West Bank, triggering global condemnation and fresh diplomatic tension.
The Palestinian foreign ministry accused Israeli forces of 'deliberately targeting by live fire an accredited diplomatic delegation' near the flashpoint city of Jenin.
A European diplomat said the group had traveled to the area to witness the destruction caused by months of Israeli military raids.
The Israeli army said 'the delegation deviated from the approved route' and entered a restricted zone.
Troops opened fire to steer the group away, it said, adding no injuries were reported and expressing regret for the 'inconvenience caused.'
Gazans are not receiving aid
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called on Israel to investigate the shooting and to hold those responsible 'accountable.'
The incident came as anger mounted over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where Palestinians are scrambling for basic supplies after weeks of near-total isolation.
Palestinian rescue teams said overnight Israeli strikes had killed at least 19 people, including a week-old baby.
No one is distributing anything to us. Everyone is waiting for aid, but we haven't received anything
Umm Talal Al-Masri, displaced Palestinian in Gaza City
A two-month total blockade was only partially eased this week, with aid allowed into the territory for the first time since March 2, a move leading to critical food and medicine shortages.
Israel said 100 trucks with aid entered Gaza on Wednesday, following 93 the day before which the United Nations has said had been held up.
Humanitarian groups have said that the amount falls far short of what is required to ease the crisis.
Umm Talal Al-Masri, 53, a displaced Palestinian in Gaza City, described the situation as 'unbearable.'
'No one is distributing anything to us. Everyone is waiting for aid, but we haven't received anything,' she said.
'We're grinding lentils and pasta to make some loaves of bread, and we barely manage to prepare one meal a day.'
The army stepped up its offensive at the weekend, vowing to defeat Gaza's Hamas rulers, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.
Israel has faced massive pressure, including from traditional allies, to halt its expanded offensive and allow aid into Gaza.
Kallas said 'a strong majority' of EU foreign ministers backed the move to review its trade cooperation with Israel.
EU pressure on Israel
Sweden said it would press the 27-nation bloc to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers, while Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel and summoned the Israeli ambassador.
Pope Leo XIV described the situation in Gaza as 'worrying and painful' and called for 'the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid.'
Israel's foreign ministry has said the EU action 'reflects a total misunderstanding of the complex reality Israel is facing.'
Germany defended a key EU-Israel cooperation deal as 'an important forum that we must use in order to discuss critical questions' over the situation in Gaza.
In Gaza, Israel resumed its operations across the territory on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire.
Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.
Gaza's health ministry said Tuesday at least 3,509 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,655.
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Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
Israel is moving one (big) step closer to annexing Gaza
It would be an understatement to suggest that the current Israeli government has lost the plot. What it is plotting can only bring disaster to the Palestinians in Gaza, probably on Israel as well, and on the chances of bringing this horrific war to an end any time soon. After an all-night meeting last week, the Cabinet decided, in a symbolic move, that by Oct. 7 this year, the Israeli army will take over the entire Gaza Strip. This includes taking control of Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been trapped for many months, suffering from acute shortages of food, drinking water and medical aid, and living in constant fear of the next Israeli military assault. The many hours it took the Israeli Cabinet to reach this decision might suggest to some that there were deep divisions among the decision makers. This is hardly the case. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was determined to gain approval for the proposal, come what may. The only robust resistance came from Eyal Zamir, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, who tried to talk some sense into those around the table regarding the horrendous implications of such a decision for the military, the hostages still held by Hamas, and the country's standing in the world. But in a Cabinet stuffed with extremists, sycophants who would have no political existence without Netanyahu, and those who are too afraid to challenge him, the go-ahead for the plan was a formality. The Cabinet set out what it called five principles for expanding the military campaign in Gaza: disarming Hamas; the return of all hostages, both living and deceased; the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip; Israeli security control of the Gaza Strip; and the establishment of an alternative civilian government that involves neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority. In reality, these can hardly be described as 'principles' but instead simply repeat the Cabinet's existing objectives; some of which were set early in this war, others added as it became apparent that the level of destruction Israeli authorities were inflicting on Gaza required that they at least pretend that they do not intend to remain in Gaza for the long term. In a Cabinet stuffed with extremists, sycophants who would have no political existence without Netanyahu, and those who are too afraid to challenge him, the go-ahead for the plan was a formality. Yossi Mekelberg So far, Israel might have reduced the military capabilities of Hamas but it has not eliminated the organization. Instead, it has simply inflicted immense misery and suffering upon the Palestinian people and deepened the divisions within Israel itself, while compromising the reputation of the country to the extent that it will now take a very long time for it to be salvaged. And for this Israeli government, any mention of efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages is mere lip service. Why Netanyahu should continue to believe that what Israel has failed to achieve in more than 22 months of war, despite infinitely superior military capabilities operating with little-to-no consideration for the lives or well-being of civilians, will nonetheless eventually lead to ultimate victory over Hamas beggars belief. The obvious ulterior motives of Israel's prime minister are becoming ever more apparent as he not only ignores the recommendations of the head of his army but, astonishingly, also a letter signed by some 600 retired senior security officials, including former army and intelligence agency chiefs, who wrote to US President Donald Trump urging him to put pressure on Israeli authorities to end the war in Gaza immediately. It is also telling that in their despair, these people, all of whom served their country loyally for decades, should send their plea to the American president and not their own prime minister, in whose integrity and judgment they have completely lost trust. Those who signed that letter are not wrong to have lost faith in Netanyahu's conduct of this war; his latest decision, which to all intents and purposes means occupation of the Gaza Strip in its entirety, was taken either because he is biding his time to satisfy the messianic ultranationalists within his coalition government, or is gambling that by entering Gaza City he will be able to defeat Hamas and release the hostages, which could put him in a position to call an early general election and perhaps win it. The former scenario is pure, cynical opportunism. The latter reflects cynicism and delusion in equal measure. Regardless of the motivation, the outcome will be yet more suffering and bloodshed. Moreover, it was reported that during last week's Cabinet meeting, Gen. Zamir warned that this course of action was as good as giving up on those hostages still thought to be alive. In light of the fact that it was mainly diplomacy that achieved the prior release of some hostages, it is impossible to contradict his warning. For a long time now, this war has no longer been about defeating Hamas or rescuing the hostages … it has purely been about rescuing Netanyahu's declining political career and saving him from a possible jail sentence. Yossi Mekelberg In an effort to cool the inevitable roasting his country would receive from the international community upon learning of his plan, Netanyahu refrained from describing the objective of the military operation as an 'occupation' and opted instead to use the word 'takeover.' After more than 22 months of mass killings and destruction inflicted by Israel in Gaza, however, his decision was still viewed as a step too far by countries around the globe, including close friends and allies, who condemned it in no uncertain terms. The UK's prime minister, Keir Starmer, instantly condemned the Israeli security Cabinet's decision as 'wrong' and urged its members to immediately reconsider as 'it will only bring more bloodshed.' In an unprecedented move, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced that his government would no longer approve the sale of military equipment to Israel if it might be used in Gaza. It would be naive not to believe that one of the calculations made by the Israeli government in formulating its plan was that the threat of a large-scale military operation would result in many residents of Gaza City fleeing to other parts of the tiny territory, and perhaps eventually leaving it. This would only add to the extreme woes of the Palestinian population, many of them young children, who have been displaced several times in the past two years with no access to food or clean water, and are suffering from malnutrition and even starvation. Moreover, war in urban areas not only means the likelihood of many civilian casualties, it also means further deployment in such an environment of already exhausted Israeli troops who have been on active service on the front lines for nearly two years, with all the likely effects this might have on their judgment. It is a recipe for disaster. For a long time now, this war has no longer been about defeating Hamas or rescuing the hostages. Instead, it has purely been about rescuing Netanyahu's declining political career and saving him from a possible jail sentence for corruption. In service of that, he will stop at nothing. • Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. X: @YMekelberg
Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
From preventing harm to the maximization of suffering: How Europe fumbled migration
Europe's hastily constructed migration frameworks have evolved from mere bureaucratic missteps into the calibrated engine of devastation that we see today. What began as fatally misguided attempts at containment, fixated on hardened borders and outsourced deterrence at a cost of billions, has mutated into a self-perpetuating source of misery, amplifying human suffering to gain an edge in the face of the ever-changing winds of domestic politics. Naysayers will argue that the crisis that emerged as migrant arrivals increased, and the death tolls from unsuccessful attempts mounted, forced Brussels into what proved to be such a sloppy response and so there was bound to be some 'policy drift' — unfortunate mishaps to be temporarily endured until future interventions corrected them. However, the reality of the situation is rather different, because the sum total of Europe's failures is now a measurable, accelerating retreat from its proclaimed values, which is being executed using a cold political calculus. Humanitarian obligations are being discarded not through neglect but as conscious strategy. The driving imperative? Electoral survival at any cost, even if it means dismantling the very principles and ideals Europe projects globally. The initial failures have hardened into a purposeful architecture in which harm is not a byproduct but the main output. Consider the numbers: Brussels channels more than $5.2 billion into outsourcing its border enforcement, transforming Libya, Tunisia and Morocco into de facto migration buffer zones that inevitably become markets for cruelty in which payment hinges on suppression of arrival numbers, regardless of the methods used. The result? A 59 percent reduction in Mediterranean crossings in 2024. However, this masks woeful operational realities in the strategic abandonment of tens of thousands of people in desert expulsion zones, including surging death tolls, many of which go undocumented, and the identification of mass graves near the border between Libya and Tunisia. That is without even taking account of the domino effects of illicit economies and networks that thrive on 'double-dipping.' In Libya, for example, non-state armed groups easily obtain EU funding for containment efforts while simultaneously actively trafficking desperate people via 'safe route taxes,' boat fees and even 'auctions.' Europe has engineered a self-sustaining machinery of harm. By outsourcing brutality, legitimizing xenophobic rhetoric, and criminalizing humanitarian acts, it has rendered its own asylum norms obsolete. Hafed Al-Ghwell The fault for this lies primarily with programs, initiatives and sources of funding such as the EU's Neighborhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument, which financially rewards autocrats for migrant suppression while omitting any binding safeguards on human rights. Naturally, such myopic policies allow, inadvertently or not, evil to metastasize through impunity: regimes that often score the lowest on human rights indices face zero consequences for systemic abuses, precisely because they deliver the required reduction in arrival numbers. In Tunisia, for instance, EU-funded operations enable the regime of President Kais Saied to detain, extort and forcibly abandon sub-Saharan migrants in the desert, a policy explicitly designed to 'make life difficult' until refugees 'ask for voluntary return.' It is a chilling calculus that reduces human lives to the level of deterrence metrics, all underwritten by funding and tacit endorsement from Europe. Clearly, this externalization machinery is not a passive drift, or the handiwork of overzealous actors with a blank check empowered by Europe's tilt toward far-right populism. Europeans are now actively fortifying authoritarian governance abroad while simultaneously feeding political radicalization domestically. By providing funding and technical support, Europe is empowering its 'partners' to enact violent crackdowns and forced displacements, actions that in turn validate and intensify the nativist rhetoric within European capitals. This cycle is mutually reinforcing: electoral anxieties drive the funding, the funding manufactures containment 'successes' at the cost of human suffering, and these manufactured results further entrench the political forces demanding increasingly harsh action. Humanitarian principles are not eroded by accident, they are traded for a '59 percent' statistic. Simultaneously, the political landscape in Europe has been irrevocably poisoned by the very xenophobia its policies help to cultivate. Political corrosion now manifests as a self-inflicted contagion, wherein the mainstream parties that adopt increasingly nativist rhetoric inevitably accelerate their own irrelevance while empowering the very extremism they claim to combat. Germany's center-right Christian Democrats promised intensified border theatrics and mass deportations of Syrians while hemorrhaging support to extremists despite initial leads in polls, ultimately resulting in the far-right Alternative for Germany party securing 21 percent of the vote at the federal election in February. Meanwhile, the suspension of asylum rights in Poland, a move rubber-stamped by Brussels, failed to act as an electoral shield and instead merely paved the way for anti-migrant populists to secure executive and veto authority. The 16.6 million forcibly displaced persons in the Middle East and North Africa are confronted not only by razor wire but a continent that is actively investing in their suffering. Hafed Al-Ghwell These far-right parties now wield ministerial authority that is normalizing the dismantling of international protection frameworks. Their playbook is consistent: manufacture consent through spectacle, in the calculated normalization of cruelty and abandonment. Germany's Interior Ministry, for example, illegally rejected 330 asylum seekers within two months of performative border operations, a spectacle divorced from efficacy yet potent in terms of political messaging. Similarly, Poland concealed the documented deaths of dozens of migrants in the Bialowieza exclusion zone since 2021, a direct consequence of systemic pushbacks. Beyond the Mediterranean, other countries historically remote from front-line arrivals are also actively pursuing regressive policies, as European values capitulate to misguided reactionism. The human toll of this is both immediate and intergenerational. Germany's suspension of family reunification rights for subsidiary protection holders (individuals who do not meet the criteria for refugee status but have been granted international protection because of the risk of serious harm in home countries), primarily Syrians, will result in fractured households for years to come, severing integration pathways. Moreover, Germany now processes a mere 2.8 asylum claims per 100,000 people. The rate in Poland has plummeted to a negligible 0.4. These figures are dwarfed by the 8,900 in Jordan. This deliberate institutional collapse facilitates the next regression: the targeted erosion of protections for even Ukrainian refugees. Once deemed 'acceptable,' and initially welcomed as 'European kin,' they now face punitive means-testing, reduced child benefits in Poland, and the denial of social provisions in Germany under Merz's spurious 'social tourism' libel. Solidarity, it seems, expires when usefulness diminishes. The capitulation of the more moderate center-right has failed to contain the surge in anti-migrant populism or reduce its appeal to enterprising politicians seeking office or reelection. It has succeeded only in commodifying human suffering as electoral currency, and entrenching the dismantling of protection frameworks as standard operating procedure. Worse still, Europe is even criminalizing compassion. The 'Hajnowka 5' face five-year prison sentences in Poland for providing water and clothing to an Iraqi family. In Belgium, police colluded with far-right militants to violently dismantle solidarity vigils. The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, set for implementation in 2026, codifies this moral collapse by incentivizing 'remigration,' a euphemism for coercive strategies of attrition that effectively abandon migrants in a lethal state of limbo. The conclusion to draw from all this is inescapable: Europe has engineered a self-sustaining machinery of harm. By outsourcing brutality, legitimizing xenophobic rhetoric, and criminalizing humanitarian acts, it has rendered its own asylum norms obsolete. The 16.6 million forcibly displaced persons in the Middle East and North Africa are confronted not only by razor wire but a continent that is actively investing in their suffering. With far-right parties now entrenched in governments from Warsaw to Berlin — for now — and the EU institutionalization of deterrence-as-doctrine, any return to protection-based policies is politically foreclosed. Europe has not merely failed to manage migration, it has weaponized despair. The ruins of its values are now scattered in deserts, forests and voting booths alike. • Hafed Al-Ghwell is senior fellow and program director at the Stimson Center in Washington D.C. and senior fellow at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies. X: @HafedAlGhwell
Leaders
2 hours ago
- Leaders
Netanyahu Has Become a ‘Problem in Himself': Danish PM
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Saturday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become 'now a problem in himself,' according to AFP. Considering Political, Trade Pressure During an interview with the Jyllands-Posten daily, Frederiksen stated that she would try to put pressure on Israel to put an immediate end to the Gaza war as Denmark currently holds the EU presidency. She also condemned the 'absolutely appalling and catastrophic' humanitarian situation in Gaza and new settlement project in the occupied West Bank. 'We are one of the countries that wants to increase pressure on Israel, but we have not yet obtained the support of EU members,' she added. Crucially, Frederiksen also noted that she intended to explore options for 'political pressure and sanctions — whether targeting settlers, ministers, or even Israel as a whole — including measures related to trade and research.' 'We are not ruling anything out in advance. Just as with Russia, we are designing the sanctions to target where we believe they will have the greatest effect,' she added. Gaza War Currently, Israel is facing regional and international pressure to put an end to its war in the Palestinian enclave and allow the delivery of more aid. At the same time, the Israeli government has been facing harsh criticism from countries, nations, and individuals who considered the war as a genocide or ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Since the beginning of Hamas-Israel War, the Israeli strikes have killed more than 61,499 Palestinians and wounded over 152,800, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Dozens of Gazans including children have lost their souls due to malnutrition throughout the war that caused unthinkable humanitarian conditions. Related Topics: American Artist Heads Protest against Israeli War in Gaza 'Do Not Forget Gaza': The Final Will of Anas Al-Sharif Al Jazeera Holds Vigil for Journalists Killed in Gaza Airstrike Short link : Post Views: 4
