Netanyahu Defends Gaza Plan Condemned at Home and Abroad
After talks on a third ceasefire stalled in July, the Netanyahu government on Friday authorized an advance on Gaza City. Israeli forces had previously skirted the area for fear that hostages believed to be held there could be hurt or lost in the chaos of combat.
Though the army has yet to mobilize the reinforcements required to roll into action, the plan has drawn condemnation from foreign powers already upset at a hunger crisis besetting Palestinians in Gaza, after Israel cut off aid between March and May in a bid to sideline Hamas. The US, by contrast, has indicated readiness to back its Middle Eastern ally.
There's also been recrimination in Israel, where polls for months have shown a majority prefer a negotiated deal to recover all hostages, even if it means winding down the war with Hamas still standing.
Relatives of the hostages are calling for a general strike to protest the latest plans. At the other end of the political spectrum, far-right coalition parties are grumbling that the proposal, which Netanyahu says will defeat Hamas once and for all, doesn't go far enough.
'Our goal is not to occupy Gaza. Our goal is to free Gaza — free it from Hamas terrorists,' Netanyahu told foreign reporters at a briefing on Sunday. 'Contrary to false claims, this is the best way to end the war.'
In previous statements during the 22-month-old conflict, Netanyahu suggested victory was imminent. He struck a more cautious note on Sunday, declining to give a detailed timeline for advances on Gaza City and, later, on central townships that have also largely been spared incursions. The operations would be 'fairly quick' and prevent Israel getting into a war of attrition with Hamas holdouts, he said.
Twenty of the hostages, mostly taken during the Hamas incursions into Israel in October 2023, are believed to be still alive. Hamas has threatened to execute them rather than see them rescued. Their relatives also worry about the risk they could be killed in crossfire once new assaults ramp up.
'The move that I'm talking about, I think, has a possibility of getting them out,' Netanyahu said.
Doubling down on his rejection of allegations that Israel has been deliberately starving Gazans, Netanyahu said the 'exact opposite' was true. While acknowledging 'deprivation' in parts of the coastal enclave, he said aid is now reaching its 2 million civilian residents.
In contrast, the UN's World Food Program says a quarter of Gazans are on the brink of famine. Hamas authorities say the daily number of trucks entering in the past two weeks, since restrictions on aid deliveries were relaxed by Israel, has averaged 100, far below the 600 the group demands.
Still, black market food prices, a measure of scarcity, are dropping. Sugar, at $8.76 a kilo ($3.97 per pound) is about 10 times cheaper than a few days ago. A kilogram of flour costs $3.50 to $4.38, a recent steep decline although still far above the pre-war price of $0.88.
Several Western countries, lamenting the protracted conflict, have pledged to recognize a Palestinian state. Germany, historically Israel's most important European ally, intends to stop supplying the Netanyahu government with arms for use in Gaza.
Netanyahu said his German counterpart, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, had 'buckled under the pressure' of what he called false media reports and pro-Palestinian groups. 'We will win the war with or without the support of others,' he said.
Most Israelis don't want any remnant of Hamas in Gaza nor a Palestinian state to arise there or in the West Bank, Netanyahu said.
Hamas, which is committed to the Jewish state's destruction and blacklisted as a terrorist group in much of the West, has sounded undeterred by Netanyahu's plan.
'The weapons of resistance are a legitimate right as long as the occupation remains,' Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al-Araby TV, reiterating the group's refusal to disarm as demanded by Israel for an open-ended truce. 'The resistance will continue until the establishment of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state.'
--With assistance from Alisa Odenheimer, Ethan Bronner, Fares Akram and Fadwa Hodali.
(Updates with more comments from Netanyahu, other details throughout.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
17 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Bullets, bombs, starvation are killing Gaza's children
Today, I am angry. I am disappointed. I write because my children are dying. Your children are dying. Our children are dying in Gaza. I can hear their cries. I can feel their pain. Why can't you? Every day, around 30 children are killed — by bombs, missiles, and deliberate, systemic deprivation. Only two days ago, 83 Palestinians lost their lives in the Gaza Strip. Families are going days without food, leaving their orphaned children behind. Health systems have completely collapsed. Supplies have crumbled. Water is scarce. Fuel is gone. Hope is dying. Starving infants are perishing in their mothers' arms, while aid trucks sit blocked at borders. This is the gruesome face of a war that has no moral justification. This is not merely a tragedy — it is a moral apocalypse and a brutal crime against humanity. And the world's institutions? The UN? Governments? They are failing. Recent reports from the United Nations have been alarming and frightening. Gaza stands on the brink of a famine. A quarter of the population are already facing famine-like conditions and over 3,20,000 children, the entire population under five, are at risk of acute malnutrition. In Gaza City alone, child malnutrition rate has quadrupled in the last two months. I am not an expert on the historical conflict between Israel and Palestine, nor a scholar of geopolitics and neither an authority to propose a definitive solution. Certainly, the captivity and killing of innocent Israelis at the outset was unacceptable. But that does not justify the brutal retaliation on Gaza or any violence. In 2023, when Hamas had held innocent Israelis hostage and a war-like situation had just about begun, I knew that the repercussions would be worse than we could ever imagine. I couldn't sit back and immediately called my fellow Nobel Laureate friends, reminding them that the call for peace must come from us. On October 30, we 104 Nobel Laureates jointly made an appeal to every single Head of State and urged international organisations and governments to ensure the safety and well-being of all Israeli and Palestinian children. Our call to action undoubtedly had some impact. The international media covered it extensively and it echoed in the political and global discourse for a few months. We were hopeful. But sadly today, leaders are ignoring the grave situation and failing the children. Transcending borders The suffering of Gaza's children transcends borders, ideologies and conflicts. Children bear no responsibility for war. They do not drop bombs or launch rockets. They do not set policies. They hold no historical grievances. So why must they pay the ultimate price for the failures and hatred of adults? Is it their crime to be born in a particular piece of land or into a family of a certain faith? Why should these innocents suffer for the acts, right or wrong, of their ancestors? Why is the lens with which we are viewing people today, and our emotions and judgments so coloured by religious politics? This is the moment to speak out clearly. We must demand an immediate ceasefire to stop the killing of innocent civilians. Restrictions on food, water, fuel, and medical aid must be lifted immediately. Local food and grocery supply systems, bakeries, farms must be urgently restored and small vendors should be allowed to function without any fear of threats. Aid workers must be protected, never targeted or obstructed. Those weaponising starvation, blocking aid, or denying access to basics needed for survival must be held accountable under international law. The time for merely expressing concern, hosting seminars, showing sympathy, or issuing press statements is over. We must choose between complicity and compassion. And I mean compassion not as a soft emotion or a feeling, but a transformative force born from feeling the suffering of others as one's own and taking mindful action to end that suffering. Contrary to popular belief, compassion is not a moral ideal, but a practical and effective strategy for resolving conflicts. There is a sliver of hope when, last month, the UK, France, and 26 other countries issued a tough statement condemning Israel for depriving Palestinians of 'human dignity'. The streets are filled with protesters, shocked and enraged by the scale of violence and trauma being unleashed. Several countries including Australia, France, Turkey, and Tunisia, have held demonstrations in the past few weeks. Other governments must also come together to produce a systematic, comprehensive, and concrete response. The day is not very far when we will realise that power does not lie in firing missiles; power lies in compassion. The voices of the innumerable young war survivors from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other conflict zones who I have interacted with over the years haunt me. I vividly recall an incident from some years back when I met a 10-year-old wheelchair-bound boy in a Syrian refugee camp in Germany. He had taken shelter along with several other children, women and men, all bearing the scars of war. During our conversation, he told me that he had lost his legs — and his father — in a bomb blast. He was separated from his mother in the chaos that followed. Overcome with grief, I had asked the child what he wants to do in future. I will never forget the conviction in his voice as he replied, 'I want to study and become an engineer so that I can go back to my village that was destroyed in the war, and rebuild it.' There was hope in his eyes and his dream was alive. If we cannot save the children of Gaza from bullets, bombs and the slow death of starvation, how can we ever speak of nurturing their dreams and hopes for the future? Kailash Satyarthi is the founder of the Satyarthi Movement for Global Compassion; views are personal
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
European Leaders Urge Trump to Press Putin to Meet Zelenskiy
European leaders urged Donald Trump to press Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire and a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskiy when he sits down with the Russian president on Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking to reporters after a call with Trump and other European leaders, said that any decision on territorial concessions will need to be made by Ukraine. 'Trump was very clear on the fact that the US wants to obtain a ceasefire at this meeting in Alaska,' he told reporters in Bregancon, France, on Wednesday. 'There are no serious territorial exchange plans on the table today.' German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who also was on the call with the US leader, reiterated that Ukraine would need to be involved in any decisions. 'We have made it clear that Ukraine will be at the table as soon as there is a follow-up meeting,' Merz told reporters. 'President Trump wants to make a ceasefire a priority.' Trump joined European leaders including from Germany, France and Italy as well as Zelenskiy and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte for the call. The discussions came after days of intense diplomacy between US, European and Ukrainian officials ahead of Trump's meeting with Putin scheduled for Friday in Alaska. Moscow is demanding that Ukraine cede its entire eastern Donbas region to Russia as well as Crimea, which his forces illegally annexed in 2014, as a condition to unlock a ceasefire and enter negotiations over a lasting settlement, Bloomberg previously reported. Such an outcome would require Kyiv to give up parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces still under Ukraine's control and hand Russia a victory that its army couldn't achieve militarily for more than a decade. Zelenskiy told reporters earlier this week that he won't cede Donbas, adding that the Kremlin could use it as a launchpad for a future new offensive. European nations have made clear to the US that they will not formally recognize territory illegally occupied by Russia. Kyiv and its allies argue that a truce along the current battle-lines should be the first step toward formal negotiations. European leaders also stressed to Trump that Ukraine needs robust security guarantees to ensure that any deal holds. 'If there is no movement on the Russian side in Alaska, then the United States and we Europeans should and must increase the pressure,' Merz said. 'President Trump is aware of this position and largely shares it.' Trump hasn't implemented any direct measures against Moscow so far, though he doubled tariffs on Indian goods to 50% last week for its purchases of Russian oil, sparking outrage in New Delhi. He threatened to ramp up economic pressure on Moscow unless Putin agreed to a ceasefire by last Friday. That deadline passed without any further action after the two sides announced their first summit meeting since Trump's return to the White House in January. European leaders also said that Trump, Putin and Zelenskiy could aim to formalize a ceasefire alongside an agreement on the core parameters for peace negotiations at a trilateral meeting, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. .
Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Ukraine claims attack on key hub for Russian oil pipelines
Ukraine claimed a strike on an important hub for Russia's network of crude-exporting pipelines, though flows from the system to Europe seem to remain uninterrupted for now. A worker stands at the oil tank terminal of the state-run company MERO, which transports crude oil and protects the strategic crude oil reserves of the Czech Republic, on June 17, 2025 in Nelahozeves, near Kralupy nad Vltavou. The Czech Republic has phased out Russian oil in a painstaking process taking much longer than the three years since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, its mastermind Jaroslav Pantucek, CEO and board chairman of Mero said. (Photo by Michal Cizek / AFP)(AFP) The attack on an oil-pumping station in Unecha caused damage and a large-scale fire in the area of the facility in Russia's Bryansk region, near the border with Ukraine and Belarus, the General Staff in Kyiv said in a Facebook post. Explosions were heard in the storage area and where the main and support pumps are located, according to the statement. It wasn't possible to independently verify Ukraine's claims on the Unecha strike. Russian oil-pipeline operator Transneft PJSC didn't immediately respond to a Bloomberg request for comment. The strike is the latest in a flurry of intensified drone attacks on Russian oil and gas infrastructure this month, ahead of a meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on Friday. Earlier this month Ukraine hit four Russian refineries, with operations at three plants owned by oil giant Rosneft PJSC being disrupted. On Tuesday, Ukraine said it attacked a key helium plant in Russia. The Unecha station is a key facility of the Druzhba pipeline network, through which Russia sends its crude to Hungary and Slovakia, and transits Kazakh oil to Germany. The station is also part of the Baltic Pipeline System-2, a link that takes Russian crude to the port of Ust-Luga, the country's second-largest oil-export facility on the Baltic Sea. 'Crude oil deliveries are on schedule,' Hungarian refiner Mol Nyrt. told Bloomberg on Wednesday, while the country's foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, condemned the attack in a Facebook statement. Slovak pipeline operator Transpetrol said that so far there's no record of any request 'to change the approved current monthly schedule' for crude flows via the Druzhba link. The flows of Kazakh oil through the Transneft system is being carried out as normal, without restrictions on the acceptance of oil from shippers, the country's energy ministry said by email. The Bryansk region's governor, Alexander Bogomaz, said in a Telegram post that a fire broke out at a fuel infrastructure facility in the Unecha district as a result of Ukrainian rockets and drones attack. The fire has been put out, he added, without providing further details on potential damage.
