Benjamin Netanyahu News

JERUSALEM (Reuters) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday dismissed the idea of holding early elections, while thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv for an anti-government protest.

two-state solution in the Mideast, but as part of a negotiated settlement. With talks long stalled and Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza deepening, some European countries are voicing support for recognising a Palestinian state sooner. "Recognising a Palestinian state is not a taboo for France," Macron said Friday at a meeting in Paris with Jordan's King Abdullah.

Canada, Australia and New Zealand on Thursday called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, according to a joint statement released in response to reports about Israel's planned military operation in Rafah. «We are gravely concerned by indications that Israel is planning a ground offensive into Rafah. A military operation into Rafah would be catastrophic,» the statement by the Prime Ministers of the three countries said.

Joe Biden said he's pushing for a six-week pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow for the release of hostages, saying that could lay the groundwork for broader peace. Such a pause «would bring an immediate and sustained period of calm into Gaza for at least six weeks, which we could then take the time to build something more enduring,» Biden said Monday following a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II at the White House.

Israel's finance minister has slammed a decision by the financial ratings agency Moody’s to downgrade Israel’s credit rating

Dutch government on Monday to halt the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel, citing a clear risk of violations of international law. A trio of human rights organizations brought a civil suit against the Netherlands in December, arguing authorities needed to reevaluate the export license in light of Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip. «It is undeniable that there is a clear risk that the exported F-35 parts are used in serious violations of international humanitarian law,» Judge Bas Boele said in reading out the ruling, eliciting cheers from several people in the courtroom. The exports must cease within seven days.

By Sudarshan Varadhan

Gaza hospital officials told AP. Notably, Israel managed to rescue only two of the claimed 136 Hamas hostages in this airstrike. The Israeli raid took place in Rafah, the city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip where 1.4 million Palestinians have fled to escape fighting elsewhere in the Israel-Hamas war.

Oil prices fell in early Asian trade on Monday after Israel said it had «concluded» a series of strikes in southern Gaza, slightly easing concerns about supply from the Middle East. Brent crude futures were down 43 cents, or 0.5%, at $81.76 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were 46 cents, or 0.6% lower, at $76.38 a barrel at 0135 GMT.

Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that Israel should not proceed with a military operation in Rafah without a plan to ensure the safety of the roughly 1 million people sheltering there, the White House said. Biden's call with Netanyahu happened days after the U.S. leader told reporters that Israel's military response in the Gaza Strip was «over the top,» reflecting growing concern and frustration over the rising death toll of civilians in the Palestinian enclave. The U.S. president reaffirmed the shared goal of seeing Hamas defeated and ensuring the long-term security of Israel, but also called for «urgent and specific steps» to increase the throughput and consistency of humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians trapped in Gaza, the White House said in a statement.

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 44 Palestinians — including more than a dozen children — in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Saturday, hours after Israel's prime minister said he had asked the military to plan for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people there ahead of a ground invasion. Benjamin Netanyahu did not provide details or a timeline, but the announcement set off panic and warnings from diplomats. More than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people are packed into Rafah, many after following Israeli evacuation orders that now cover two-thirds of the territory. It's not clear where they could run next.

Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the army to prepare to «evacuate» hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza's Rafah, his office said Friday, after Washington warned it would not support any ground assault on the city. The show of defiance against Israel's main ally came after President Joe Biden issued his strongest criticism yet of Netanyahu's conduct of the war, warning the response to Hamas's October 7 attack had been «over the top». Netanyahu told military and security officials to «submit to the cabinet a combined plan for evacuating the population and destroying the battalions» of Palestinian militant group Hamas holed up in Rafah, a statement from his office said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has ordered the military to prepare a plan to evacuate the population of Rafah ahead of an expected Israeli invasion of the southern Gaza town. Netanyahu made the announcement Friday following international criticism of Israel's plan to invade the crowded town on Egypt's border. Israel says Rafah is the last remaining Hamas stronghold and it needs to send in troops to complete its war plan against the Islamic militant group. But an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians have crammed into the town after fleeing fighting elsewhere in Gaza. Netanyahu said a «massive operation» is needed in Rafah. He said he asked security officials to present a «double plan» that would include the evacuation of civilians and a military operation to «collapse» remaining Hamas militant units.

By Ahmad Ghaddar

Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was committed to international law after the World Court ordered it to take action to prevent acts of genocide in its war in Gaza, but he reiterated that it had a right to defend itself. Responding to a case brought by South Africa, Netanhayu said the charge of genocide was «outrageous».

Gaza Strip in the deadliest attack on Israel's forces since the October 7 Hamas raid that triggered the war, the military said Tuesday, a major setback that could add to mounting calls for a cease-fire. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mourned the soldiers but vowed to press ahead with the offensive until «absolute victory» over Hamas. He has also promised to return over 100 hostages held captive in Gaza.

Gaza, at meetings with the top diplomats from the two sides and key Arab states in Brussels. The surprise Hamas attack on October 7 on Israel and the subsequent devastating military response from Israel has plunged the Middle East into fresh turmoil and sparked fears of a broader conflict.

Israel-Hamas war: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu-led government on Sunday decided to hold the tax fund collected for the Palestinian Authority (PA) and transfer it to Norway. The move comes as Israel accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) of funding Hamas operations- the terrorist group that launched the brutal 7 October attack against Israel, which triggered the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Gaza authorities on Sunday informed that the death toll in Israel's operations Hamas has reached a staggering 25,000 most of which include innocent civilians.

Aleph Farms of Israel has received the preliminary green light from health officials to produce and sell the world's first steaks made from cultivated beef cells, not the entire animal

Iran-backed militants in Western Iraq targeting Al-Assad Airbase on 20 January, Saturday, claims US Central Command. Taking to microblogging site X, US CENTCOM posted, “Most of the missiles were intercepted by the base’s air defense systems while others impacted on the base. Damage assessments are ongoing.

Joe Biden said on Friday it was still possible Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could agree to some form of Palestinian state, after the two leaders spoke for the first time in nearly a month amid tensions over the Gaza war. Their call came a day after Netanyahu said he opposes allowing Palestinian sovereignty in the wake of the conflict with Hamas, deepening Israeli divisions with key backer Washington over the conduct of Israel's offensive and what comes next. But Biden said after the call that it was not impossible Netanyahu might come round to some form of so-called two-state solution, mooted for decades as a way to end tensions in the Middle East, despite the Israeli premier's comments. «There are a number of types of two-state solutions. There's a number of countries that are members of the UN that… don't have their own militaries,» Biden told reporters.