Benjamin Netanyahu News

Oil prices fell in early Asian trading hours on Wednesday after market sources said that data from the American Petroleum Institute showed an increase in U.S. crude and fuel stockpiles, an indicator of weak demand. Brent crude oil futures fell 21 cents, or 0.3%, to $82.95 a barrel by 0020 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 13 cents, or 0.2%, to $78.25 a barrel.

Gaza's vital Rafah border crossing on Tuesday in what the White House described as a limited operation, as fears mount of a full-scale invasion of the southern city as talks with Hamas over a cease-fire and hostage release remain on a knife's edge.

Israel carried out strikes on the Gazan city of Rafah overnight as it sought to put «pressure» on Hamas ahead of talks in Egypt on Tuesday aimed at sealing a truce proposal endorsed by the militants. After having vowed for weeks to push into the southern border town, Israel called on Monday for Palestinians in eastern Rafah to leave for an «expanded humanitarian area» ahead of a ground incursion. An AFP correspondent in the city reported heavy bombardment throughout the night, while the Kuwaiti hospital there said Tuesday in an updated toll that 11 people had been killed and dozens of others injured in Israeli strikes.

Hamas on Monday agreed to a Gaza ceasefire proposal from mediators, but Israel said the terms did not meet its demands and pressed ahead with strikes in Rafah while planning to continue negotiations on a deal. The developments in the seven-month-old war came as Israeli forces struck Rafah on Gaza's southern edge from the air and ground and ordered residents to leave parts of the city, which has been a refuge for more than a million displaced Palestinians.

Israel called on Palestinians to leave eastern Rafah Monday ahead of a ground invasion of the southern Gaza city, amid increasing global alarm about the consequences of such a move. The evacuation call followed disagreement between Israel and Hamas over the Palestinian militant group's demands to end the seven-month war, during weekend negotiations in Cairo.

Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday denounced international criticism of the country's war in Gaza. He was speaking at a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem. The Israeli PM recalled the time when Nazis killed six million Jews during World War II, saying “no nation came to our aid" and “people were completely defenseless against those who sought destruction".

Oil futures edged up on Monday after Saudi Arabia hiked June crude prices for most regions and as the prospect of a Gaza ceasefire deal appeared slim, renewing fears the Israel-Hamas conflict could still widen in the key oil producing region. Brent crude futures climbed 28 cents, or 0.3%, to $83.24 a barrel at 0119 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were at $78.40 a barrel, up 29 cents, or 0.4%.

Al Jazeera on Sunday condemned as «criminal» a move by the Israeli government to ban the broadcaster from operating over its coverage of the Gaza war. «We condemn and denounce this criminal act by Israel that violates the human right to access information,» Al Jazeera said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, in Arabic.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his government has voted unanimously to shutter the offices of the Qatar-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera in Israel

Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his government has voted unanimously to shut down the local offices of Qatar-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera. Netanyahu announced the decision on X, formerly Twitter, but details on the implications of the step on the channel, when it would go into effect or whether it was permanent or temporary shuttered were not immediately clear.

truce were expected to resume Sunday after Hamas rejected any deal that failed to end the war in the Palestinian territory and accused Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu of «personally hindering» an agreement. Negotiators seeking to halt the devastating seven-month war have proposed a 40-day pause in the fighting and an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, according to details released by Britain.

₹6,617 per barrel on the multi commodity exchange (MCX). -On Wednesday, crude oil prices fell more than three per cent to a seven-week low after the US Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady and warned of stubborn inflation, which could curtail economic growth this year and limit oil demand increases.

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman called on the country's Prime Minister and military chief of staff to cooperate with his office's probe into the failures of October 7 in separate letters sent on Wednesday. «My public and ethical duty as the state auditor is to carry out a comprehensive audit of the biggest failure in the history of the state, the Simchat Torah massacre on October 7,» Englman wrote in a letter to Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi.

₹6,622 per barrel on the multi commodity exchange (MCX). In other energy markets, U.S. diesel futures were on track to close at their lowest since July 2023, while U.S.

Blinken reiterated US opposition to an Israeli assault on the crowded Gaza city of Rafah in talks Wednesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to press ahead, a US official said. Blinken «reiterated the United States' clear position on Rafah,» State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, two days after Blinken again voiced opposition to an assault over concerns for the safety of civilians sheltering in the southern Gaza city. Blinken, on his seventh trip to the Middle East since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, met Netanyahu for two and a half hours at his Jerusalem office, first alone and then with aides.

Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Tuesday to launch an incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering from the almost 7-month-long war, just as cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas appear to be gaining steam. Netanyahu's comments came hours before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was to arrive in Israel to advance the truce talks — which appear to be one of the most serious rounds of negotiations between Israel and Hamas since the war began. The deal is meant to free hostages, bring some relief to the population and avert an Israeli offensive into Rafah and the potential harm to civilians there. Netanyahu said Israel would enter Rafah, which Israel says is Hamas' last stronghold, regardless of whether a truce-for-hostages deal is struck. His comments appeared to be meant to appease his nationalist governing partners but it was not clear whether they would have any bearing on any emerging deal with Hamas.

₹6,995 per barrel on the multi commodity exchange (MCX). Also Read: US Q1 GDP: At 1.6%, US economy grows at slowest pace in 2 years, misses estimates on sharp uptick in core inflation -Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, said that any rulings by the International Criminal Court, which is investigating Hamas' attacks on Israel and the military assault, would not affect Israel's next actions, but would ‘’set a dangerous precedent.'' -Israel's military said that its air force struck in Lebanon's West Beqaa District and killed a militant who advanced attacks against Israel. Israel stepped up air strikes on Rafah after saying it would evacuate civilians from city in southern Gaza and launch an all-out assault despite allies' warnings that doing so could cause mass casualties.

Israel demonstrated its military dominance over adversary Iran in its apparent precision strikes that hit near military and nuclear targets deep in the heart of the country, meeting little significant challenge from Iran's defences and providing the world with new insights into both militaries' capabilities. The international community, Israel and Iran all signalled hopes that Friday's airstrikes would end what has been a dangerous 19-day run of strikes and counterstrikes, a highly public test between two deep rivals that had previously stopped short of most direct confrontation. The move into open fighting began April 1 with the suspected Israeli killing of Iranian generals at an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria. That prompted Iran's retaliatory barrage last weekend of more than 300 missiles and drones that the US, Israel and regional and international partners helped bat down without significant damage in Israel. And then came Friday's apparent Israeli strike. As all sides took stock, regional security experts predicted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government and the country's allies would emerge encouraged by the Israeli military's superior performance. In response to international appeals, however, both Israel and Iran had appeared to be holding back their full military force throughout the more than two weeks of hostilities, aiming to send messages rather than escalate to a full-scale war.

The Biden administration is imposing sanctions on two entities accused of fundraising for extremist Israeli-occupied West Bank settlers who have harassed and attacked Palestinians

Israel ended with relief Friday after Tehran declared it had defeated what it said was a small attack on its territory by Israeli drones. But while the strike, which Israel didn’t officially claim, avoided touching off fresh escalation for now, there was no escaping that the tit-for-tat exchange ushered in a new era where the two adversaries look more willing to fight each other directly rather than through proxies. And that, government officials and experts fear, could lead to open war.

Israel has rehearsed, time and again, bombing and missile campaigns that would take out Iran's nuclear production capability, much of it based around the city of Isfahan and the Natanz nuclear enrichment complex 75 miles to the north.