Nov. 10: IDF says blast at Shifa caused by errant Gazan missile aimed at troops nearby

PM responds to Macron: Hamas responsible for civilian deaths in Gaza, don’t condemn Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) shakes hands with French President Emmanuel Macron (L) as they hold a joint press conference in Jerusalem on October 24, 2023. (Christophe Ena/Pool/AFP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responds to French President Emmanuel Macron’s call for Israel to stop bombing “these babies, these ladies, these old people” in Gaza, saying the responsibility for civilian deaths lies with Hamas.

“While Israel is doing everything to refrain from harming civilians and calling on them to leave areas of fighting, Hamas-ISIS is doing everything to prevent them from leaving for safe areas and is using them as human shields,” Netanyahu says in a statement from his office, likening the Gaza-ruling terror group to the Islamic State jihadist organization.

Netanyahu says that Hamas is “cruelly holding our hostages — woman, children and the elderly — in a crime against humanity” and “uses schools, mosques and hospitals as terror command centers.”

“These crimes that Hamas-ISIS is coming today in Gaza, will tomorrow be committed in Paris, New York and everywhere around the world. World leaders must condemn Hamas-ISIS and not Israel,” the premier adds.

Hadash party says police broke into Nazareth office amid crackdown on anti-war protesters

The Hadash Nazareth office raided by police on November 10, 2023. (Hadash/X)

The majority-Arab Hadash party says police raided its branch office in Nazareth earlier this evening, tearing down political posters and spray-painting over murals.

“The Ben Gvir police continues its political persecution and attempts to intimidate and silence the Arab public and other forces opposing the war,” Hadash says in a statement, tying the raid to a broader police crackdown on those trying to protest against the war in Gaza. A handful of Arab community leaders were arrested yesterday.

“We will not put up with these provocations. We will continue to lead the joint Arab-Jewish struggle against fascism, war and persecution,” Hadash says.

Biden discusses Gaza war with Oman sultan

US President Joe Biden gives a thumbs up as he leaves St. Edmond Roman Catholic Church in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on November 4, 2023. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP)

US President Joe Biden spoke on the phone earlier today with Oman Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said to discuss the Israel-Hamas war.

“The two leaders discussed the latest developments in Gaza and the importance of sustained humanitarian access and the importance of protecting civilians, consistent with international humanitarian law, as Israel responds to Hamas’s heinous terrorist attack on October 7,” the White House says.

“They emphasized the importance of deterring threats from any state or non-state actor seeking to expand the conflict and of working towards a durable and sustained peace in the Middle East, to include the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

IDF preparing for Gaza fighting to last a year — unsourced report

Soldiers seen during a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, in a handout photo published November 10, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF is expecting to be fighting in Gaza for a year, Channel 12 reports. It says the IDF is set to expand its ground operations into areas where the IDF has never operated before.

“There is no pressure to hurry,” the unsourced report says.

“That is the message army commanders are being told all the time: Work slowly and securely. Bring the results.”

The report says the IDF is “preparing for a period of a year of fighting… in different areas… different methods, but a year of fighting to get to the fourth stage of this war: The entry of a new government in Gaza that is not Hamas and is not backed by the Iranians.”

Macron: Israel must stop bombing babies, ladies and old people in Gaza

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a meeting with officials from Western and Arab nations, the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Nov. 9, 2023. (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron tells the BBC there is “no justification” for Israel’s bombing of “these babies, these ladies, these old people” and reiterates his call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Macron expresses his hope that other Western leaders will join his call.

He claims the “clear conclusion” from the Western governments and others who participated in a Gaza humanitarian aid conference in Paris earlier this week was “that there is no other solution than first a humanitarian pause, going to a ceasefire, which will allow [us] to protect… all civilians having nothing to do with [the] terrorists.”

“De facto – today, civilians are bombed – de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop,” he tells BBC during the lengthy interview.

“It’s extremely important for all of us because of our principles, because we are democracies. It’s important for the mid-to-long run as well for the security of Israel itself, to recognize that all lives matter,” he says.

Macron rejects the notion that the best way for Israel to “protect [itself] is having a large bombing of Gaza,” saying it was creating “resentment and bad feelings” in the region.

UAE envoy blasts IDF military operation in Gaza, calls for immediate release of hostages

UAE Ambassador to the United Nation Lana Nusseibeh in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, January 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

UAE Ambassador to the UN Lana Nusseibeh blasts Israel’s military operation in Gaza, accusing it of indiscriminately striking sites in the enclave in what has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians.

Nusseibeh says Israeli airstrikes are putting the lives of the hostages at risk and calls on Hamas to release them immediately.

Israel revises death count from Oct. 7 Hamas onslaght, dropping it from 1,400 to 1,200

A damaged building in Kibbutz Be'eri near the border with Gaza on October 22, 2023, in the aftermath of a Palestinian terror attack on October 7. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)

Israel has revised the death toll of last month’s Hamas attacks to roughly 1,200, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat tells The Times of Israel.

The revised figure, down from a previous toll of 1,400.

Haiat declines to elaborate on the record what led to the updated figure, but Hebrew media reporting on the lowered number from recent days attributed it to burned bodies being misidentified as those of Israeli civilians, rather than Palestinian terrorists.

‘Surgery without anesthesia’: WHO director-general updates UNSC on dire health situation in Gaza

World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus report by video on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, on March 17, 2022, at UN headquarters. (AP Photo)

Giving a briefing during the UN Security Council’s seventh meeting on the Israel-Hamas war, World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus updates members on the dire health situation in Gaza.

“As more and more people move to a smaller and smaller space, overcrowding is increasing the risks of outbreaks of diarrheal and respiratory disease and skin infections,” he says.

WHO has also verified 250 attacks on heath care facilities in Gaza and the West Bank since October 7 in addition to 25 in Israel, he says, without labeling who was responsible for the attack.

Half of the Gaza Strip’s 36 hospitals and two-thirds of its primary health care centers are not functioning at all, says the WHO chief, adding that four hospitals had been shut down in the last 48 hours alone and revealing that surgeries are being performed without anesthesia.

“WHO continues to call for unfettered access to deliver humanitarian aid to the civilians of Gaza, who are not responsible for this violence, but are suffering in ways that we in this room cannot imagine,” he says.

WHO director-general expresses grave concern for health of hostages in Gaza

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus looks on during a press conference on the World Health Organization's 75th anniversary in Geneva, on April 6, 2023. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP)

The director-general of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tells the UN Security Council that his agency is “gravely concerned for the health and well-being of Israeli hostages in Gaza, many of whom are older people, children and those with urgent medical needs.”

Ghebreyesus says he spoke last month with the families of hostages and will meet with more of them in Geneva next week. “I feel their heartache and fear.”

Columbia University suspends anti-Israel groups SJP, JVP for violating school policies

Illustrative: Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel students at Columbia University on October 12, 2023 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP)

Columbia University is suspending two anti-Israel groups — Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) — as official student groups through the end of the fall semester, the school’s senior executive vice president Gerald Rosberg announces in a statement.

“This decision was made after the two groups repeatedly violated university policies related to holding campus events, culminating in an unauthorized event Thursday afternoon that proceeded despite warnings and included threatening rhetoric and intimidation,” Rosberg says.

The two groups will not be eligible to hold events on campus or receive university funding, Rosberg explains.

“Lifting the suspension will be contingent on the two groups demonstrating a commitment to compliance with university policies and engaging in consultations at a group leadership level with university officials,” he says.

“Like all student groups, SJP and JVP are required to abide by university policies and procedures. This ensures both the safety of our community and that core University activities can be conducted without disruption.”

“During this especially charged time on our campus, we are strongly committed to giving space to student groups to participate in debate, advocacy, and protest. This relies on community members abiding by the rules and cooperating with University administrators who have a duty to ensure the safety of everyone in our community,” the university official adds.

IDF: Shifa blast caused by errant Palestinian missile fired at troops operating near hospital

People gather around an ambulance damaged in an Israeli airstrike in front of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on November 3, 2023. The IDF said it struck an ambulance that was being used by a Hamas cell, and killed several Hamas operatives. (MOMEN AL-HALABI / AFP)

The IDF’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee says a blast at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City was caused by an errant missile launched by a Palestinian terror group after the medical center’s director blamed Israel.

The terrorists were trying to target Israeli forces operating near the hospital, missed and struck the medical center itself, Adrae says, citing “an analysis of the IDF’s operational systems.”

The hospital received the bodies of another 50 people killed in a strike on Gaza City’s Al-Buraq school, the Al-Shifa director said.

Shifa’s director and Gaza’s Hamas government say the death toll in the blast was 13.

Earlier today, the IDF received reports of a hit on the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The Hamas-run media office in the Gaza Strip immediately claimed that this was a strike carried out by the IDF.

An examination of IDF operational systems indicates that a misfired projectile… pic.twitter.com/RzkR2vkKEI

— Israel ישראל ???????? (@Israel) November 10, 2023

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Israeli snipers had also shot at Al-Quds hospital, killing at least one person. AFP could not immediately confirm the tolls.

Israeli forces would “kill” Hamas militants if they saw them “firing from hospitals,” military spokesman Richard Hecht said.

Another blast at Gaza City’s Al-Buraq school was said to kill 50 people, including Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s granddaughter.

Israel has not commented on that blast.

Saudi crown prince pans Israeli ‘aggression’ in first public comments on war in Gaza

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends a session on 'Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment' as part of the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, on September 9, 2023. (EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL/AFP)

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler denounces the conduct of Israeli forces fighting Hamas in Gaza, ahead of weekend summits that will focus on the unfolding violence in the Strip.

“We condemn the military aggression witnessed in the Gaza Strip, the targeting of civilians, and the continued violations of international humanitarian law by the Israeli occupation forces,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tells a summit with African leaders, his first public comments on the Israel-Hamas war.

“We stress the necessity of stopping this war and forced displacement and creating conditions for the return of stability and achieving peace.”

Riyadh has repeatedly criticized attacks on civilians in statements, though Prince Mohammed had not publicly addressed them before today.

His comments at the Saudi-Africa summit came one day before the Gulf kingdom hosts two emergency meetings on the fighting in Gaza — of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairman of the African Union Commission, also condemns the “obscene violence” afflicting Palestinians.

“We call for a real and practical leap to stop the immediate destruction of Gaza and the killing of thousands of its people in order to give a strong impetus to a political solution by adopting the two-state solution,” he said.

The Saudi-Africa summit’s final declaration voiced “deep concern” about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, called for an end to military operations and urged the international community to apply pressure “to stop Israeli attacks and the forced displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.”

Prince Mohammed also tells the summit that Saudi Arabia would make $25 billion in investments in Africa by 2030, nearly doubling the amount invested in the last decade, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

Israeli embassy claps back at US criticism over demolition of teen attacker’s home

After the US Office for Palestinian Affairs issued a condemnation of Israel’s demolition of the family home of a 13-year-old Palestinian who killed a Border Police officer, the Israeli embassy in Washington responds.

“Context is helpful: the “13-year-old” is a terrorist who murdered an Israeli citizen by stabbing him to death,” the embassy tweets.

Context is helpful: the "13-year-old" is a terrorist who murdered an Israeli citizen by stabbing him to death. https://t.co/Xc6HkVXjN4 pic.twitter.com/RhXNA4EURr

— Embassy of Israel to the USA | #IsraelUSA75 (@IsraelinUSA) November 10, 2023

IDF says it struck Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in response to missile, drone attacks

The Israel Defense Forces strikes a number of Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon on November 10, 2023. (Screen capture/X)

The Israel Defense Forces says it struck a number of Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in response to missile and drone attacks on troops in northern Israel earlier today.

The sites included a weapons depot and “intelligence infrastructure” from which the terror group directed attacks against Israel, the IDF says.

IDF says it struck a number of Hezbollah sites in Lebanon in response to the missile and drone attacks on troops earlier.

The sites included a weapons depot and "intelligence infrastructure" from which the terror group directed attacks against Israel, the IDF says. pic.twitter.com/31L78i0jbF

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 10, 2023

Report: Gaza’s Shifa hospital begins to evacuate as IDF closes in on Hamas command center below

An aerial view shows the compound of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on November 7, 2023. (Bashar TALEB / AFP)

Authorities at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City have begun evacuating the medical center following orders from the IDF, which has surrounded the compound where Hamas is believed to have built a key command center underneath, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The hospital was rocked by at least one explosion on Friday, as Israeli forces approached the site. It is not yet clear who was responsible for the blast.

Between 50,000 and 60,000 people had been sheltering inside and around the grounds of the hospital, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which says there are 2,500 patients.

Civilians have converged around the hospital, hoping to find respite from the bombing in the rest of Gaza City.

Hagari: Hostage talks will take time, don’t rely on reporting that’s not directly from IDF

IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari gives a statement to the media in Tel Aviv on October 16, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/ Flash90)

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari comments on various media reports of potential agreements with Hamas that would see the terror group release some of the hostages it is holding.

“We are constantly, and proactively, working to return the hostages,” Hagari says in an evening press conference.

“These processes are complex, they will still take time. We will not miss a single opportunity to return hostages home,” he says.

Hagari urges the public not to rely on reports regarding hostage deals that don’t come directly from the IDF, which will first update the hostages’ families if there is a development and then update the public.

Israeli officials said to confirm progress toward deal to release large number of hostages

A woman stands in front of photographs of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, outside Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, on November 9, 2023 (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

All three major Israeli TV networks are citing a senior Israeli official who confirms reports of significant progress regarding a deal to release a large number of hostages currently being held in Gaza, with several of the reports talking about as many as 100 captives slated for release.

However, such reports have become common in recent weeks, despite any ultimate release of hostages.

No hostages have been released since a pair were let go on October 20 followed by another on October 22.

No hostages have been released since the IDF launched its ground incursion on October 27.

Some analysts acknowledge that the more such deals are discussed in the press, the less likely they are to unfold.

IDF says troops captured key Hamas strongholds in Gaza City today, killing 150 terrorists

Troops of the IDF's 401st Brigade are seen operating in the Gaza Strip, in a handout photo published November 10, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israel Defense Forces says troops have captured key Hamas outposts in Gaza City today, killing some 150 terror operatives in the process.

The military says that in recent days, its 401st Brigade led an assault on the so-called Bader outpost — the main outpost of Hamas’s Al-Shati Refugee Camp Battalion — located adjacent to civilian homes near the refugee camp.

It says that during the raid on the Bader post, troops destroyed military headquarters and rocket launching sites.

Separately, the IDF says the 401st Brigade captured another Hamas post in the area, and destroyed a weapons manufacturing plant, rocket launching positions and tunnels.

In another raid, the IDF says the brigade battled Hamas gunmen at the Blue Beach Resort on Gaza City’s coast. It says some 30 terror operatives were holed up at the hotel, firing anti-tank missiles at the forces.

“After it was captured, it was revealed that the terrorists used the hotel rooms as a shelter and for planning attacks above and below ground,” the IDF says.

The IDF says that in all, some 150 Hamas operatives were killed by forces during the battles in the Al-Shati area.

The military does not immediately provide new information on possible casualties among Israeli troops.

Police dismiss racial profiling allegation against civilian security squads

An Arab Israeli is detained by a civilian security squad in Tel Aviv on November 9, 2023. (Screen capture/X)

Police appear to dismiss an allegation that some of the civilian security squads that officers are arming and training are using their authority to racially profile and harass Arab Israeli citizens.

Channel 13 publishes footage of an Arab Israeli man, who says he was detained for 10 minutes by one of the squads who spotted him walking on his own last night in Tel Aviv.

A crowd began to gather, angrily urging the civilian security squad to release the man. As tensions flared, the Arab man urged onlookers to calm down, lifted his shirt to show that he did not have any weapons and even defended the conduct of the security squad, which eventually released him.

In a statement responding to the incident, the Israel Police claimed the security squads are made up of citizens from all sectors of society who are volunteering to support the broader community.

Police say that the security squads operate within the Israel Police command “in an orderly and organized manner, have been trained and authorized for the defined task.”

“Any attempt to color their activity in a different shade is a wrong and harms the unity of the people and the spirit of volunteering,” police say, calling on the public to join the security squads.

חברי כיתת הכוננות של ת״א עיכבו הערב בשוק הכרמל אזרח ערבי שפשוט הלך לבדו ברגל ליד מסעדת בסטה. לפי עדי ראיה חברי כיתת הכוננות עיכבו אותו למשך עשר דקות ודרשו ממנו להראות להם תעודת זהות. בשלב מסוים, התקבצו עדי ראיה נוספים וביקשו מהמתנדבים לשחרר אותו, ואז ״החשוד״ הרים את החולצה ודווקא… pic.twitter.com/k33FrQCCJ8

— בר שם-אור Bar Shem-Ur (@Bar_ShemUr) November 10, 2023

IDF: 4 soldiers seriously wounded by Hezbollah missile, drone strikes from Lebanon

Israeli military tanks take up a position during a drill in the Golan Heights on November 9, 2023 (Jalaa MAREY / AFP)

The Israel Defense Forces says three soldiers were seriously wounded by an anti-tank missile launched from Lebanon on an army post near the northern community of Menara earlier today.

Another soldier was seriously wounded and a second was moderately hurt in a drone attack against soldiers on the northern border in the afternoon.

All the soldiers were taken to hospital for further treatment.

The Hezbollah terror group has claimed responsibility for the missile and drone attacks.

The IDF says it is now carrying out strikes against Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in response to the attacks.

Washington Post removes cartoon highlighting Hamas use of human shields after internal pushback

The Washington Post removed from its website a cartoon that highlighted Hamas’s use of human shields after the caricature sparked pushback within the newsroom and from readers, including claims that the depiction of the Hamas figure was “racist,” Fox News reports.

The cartoon was titled “Human shields” and depicted a Hamas spokesperson saying, “How dare Israel attack civilians,” while a frightened woman and four small children are bound with rope to his body.

The cartoon made it into the print edition on Wednesday before it was wiped from the news site.

“Given the many deep concerns and conversations today in our newsroom, I wanted to ensure everyone saw the notes sent out tonight by The Post’s opinions editor, David Shipley, to Post readers and to his staff in opinions,” Washington Post executive editor Sally Buzbee wrote in an email to staffers earlier this week, which has been leaked to Fox News.

“As editor of the opinion section, I am responsible for what appears in its pages and on its screens. The section depends on my judgment. A cartoon published by Michael Ramirez on the war in Gaza, a cartoon whose publication I approved, was seen by many readers as racist. This was not my intent. I saw the drawing as a caricature of a specific individual, the Hamas spokesperson, who celebrated the attacks on unarmed civilians in Israel,” Shipley writes.

“However, the reaction to the image convinced me that I had missed something profound, and divisive, and I regret that. Our section is aimed at finding commonalities, understanding the bonds that hold us together, even in the darkest times. In this spirit, we have taken down the drawing. We are also pushing a selection of responses to the caricature. And we will continue to make the section home to a range of views and perspectives, including ones that challenge readers. This is the spirit of opinion journalism, to move imperfectly toward a constructive exchange of ideas at all possible speed, listening and learning along the way,” he adds.

This is the editorial cartoon which the Washington Post deleted.

The cartoon by Michael Ramirez, titled “Human Shields” depicted a Hamas leader using civilians as human shields.

The truth might hurt, but it’s still the truth.@washingtonpost @Ramireztoons pic.twitter.com/ZG1dUbUKau

— Israel ישראל ???????? (@Israel) November 10, 2023

Granddaughter of Hamas chief Haniyeh reportedly killed in Gaza

Roaa Haniyeh. (Courtesy)

Roaa Haniyeh, the granddaughter of the head of Hamas’s political bureau Ismail Haniyeh, was killed today in an IDF airstrike in Gaza City, Al Jazeera reports, without citing evidence.

Israel has not commented on the eport.

Hundreds attend memorial service for Druze soldier killed in gun battle along Lebanon border

Hundreds of people have gathered for a memorial service in the northern Druze village of Yanuh-Jat for Lt. Col. Alim Abdallah on November 10, 2023. (Courtesy)

Hundreds of people have gathered for a memorial service in the northern Druze village of Yanuh-Jat for Lt. Col. Alim Abdallah, the deputy commander of the 300th “Baram” Regional Brigade, who was killed in a gun battle along the Lebanon border on October 9, while he was responding to an infiltration alert.

Abdallah, a 40-year-old father of three served in the military for close to 23 years.

Blinken: More that can and should be done to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to the media at the end of the India-US '2+2' ministerial dialogue in New Delhi on November 10, 2023. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool/AFP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says “much more needs to be done to protect civilians and to make sure that humanitarian assistance reaches them” in Gaza.

“Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks, and we want to do everything possible to prevent harm to them and to maximize the assistance that gets to them,” Blinken tells reporters on the sidelines of the US-India Ministerial Dialogue in New Delhi. “More that can and should be done.”

Blinken expresses his appreciation for the decision by Israel yesterday to begin implementing daily, four-hour humanitarian pauses in specific areas of northern Gaza to allow Palestinians to evacuate or stock up on food, water, medicine or other essentials amid the fighting.

He urges the allowing of additional trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza as well as ensuring that there’s an “adequate supply” of fuel to power things such as hospitals and desalination plants.

The secretary says the US will continue discussing concrete steps Israel can take to protect civilians amid the fighting in Gaza while also working “relentlessly” to get the 239 hostages home, intensifying efforts to expand access of humanitarian aid into the Strip, deterring adversaries from opening additional fronts against Israel and working toward an eventual two-state solution when the war ends.

Blinken says the US has put together a series of “basic principles” that will guide the post-war peace effort: no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza; no use of Gaza as a platform for terror attacks against Israel; no reduction in the territory of Gaza; and a commitment to Palestinian-led governance for Gaza and for the West Bank, and in a unified way.

This handout photo taken and released on November 10, 2023, by the Indian Press Information Bureau (PIB) shows US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (2R), India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (2L), US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (R) and his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh (3L) during the India-US ‘2+2’ ministerial dialogue in New Delhi (Photo by PIB / AFP)

“These and some other ideas that we’ve put forward and that others share, and that I think, can start to be the basis for what we need to do,” Blinken says.

Israel does not appear to be on board with some of these principles, however. Israeli officials, including Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, have indicated that the IDF will have to create a buffer zone within Gaza in order to prevent future attacks.

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel does not want to reoccupy or govern Gaza after the war, he also says that the IDF will remain in control of Gaza after the war and that Israel will maintain overall security responsibility over the Strip for an indefinite period after the war, and it is not clear whether those statements contradict each other.

Amid criticism that the Biden administration had been paying mere lip service to the two-state solution before the war, Blinken asserts that the US has “long been committed to two states.”

The criticism was bolstered after Foreign Affairs published a print version of an article written by US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan before the October 7 onslaught, which boasted US efforts to maintain calm in the Middle East, while not making any mention of the two-state solution. The online version, which went live after the Hamas massacre removed the line claiming that the region is the quietest it’s been in decades and adds a line about the importance of a two-state solution.

“When we came to office, the conditions certainly didn’t look like they were ripe to advance that in the moment. We first needed to try to make sure that there was as much calm as possible, and then to try to build from there,” the secretary says.

This picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip on November 10, 2023, shows smoke rising above buildings during an Israeli strike on the northern part of the Palestinian enclave(Photo by Jack Guez / AFP)

He notes that over the last two and a half years, the US has pushed back on moves by Israel to expand settlements, legalize wildcat outposts, demolish Palestinian homes, evict Palestinians, harm the status quo at Jerusalem holy sites along with settler violence.

Blinken points to regional meetings the US organized in Egypt and Jordan earlier this year that brought together Israeli and Palestinian leaders for political and economic discussions, which were the first of their kind in over a decade.

He also highlights the efforts the US has made to advance Israel’s integration in the region, including talks with Saudi Arabia to normalize with Israel that the sides said were rapidly advancing before the war broke out. Blinken insisted those negotiations were “not as a substitute for a Palestinian state but actually as a way to advance it.”

“But now we’ve had… almost beyond the human imagination the horror of October 7th. That only reinforces us in our conviction and our commitment to durable and lasting peace, which again, we see through two states,” Blinken says.

Most Arab Israelis feel a part of the State of Israel and its problems, survey finds

Two women work together at a volunteer center in Rahat, Israel, run by Jewish and Arab volunteers. (Facebook, used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)

A new Israel Democracy Institute survey finds a 20-year high of both Jewish (94%) and Arab (70%) Israelis who say they feel a part of the State of Israel and its problems.

The figure for Arab Israelis has increased by 22% from the last survey published in June 2023.

Asked whether they’re optimistic about the future of the country though, just 27% of Arab Israelis — compared to 72% of Jewish Israelis — responded that they are, the lowest figure recorded since the survey first began measuring optimism in 2009.

Asked, “If you could receive American citizenship or citizenship of another Western country, would you prefer to move there to live or would you prefer to remain in Israel?” a majority of Jewish Israelis (80.5%) and a slight majority of and Arab Israelis (59%) respond that they’d prefer to stay in Israel.

Those majorities held across all political orientations, including left (66%), center (80%) and right (84%).

The survey was conducted online and over the phone on November 5 and 6, with 502 people participating. The margin of error is 4.04%.

Gantz: I’ve convinced American, international colleagues not to use term ‘settler violence’

National Unity chair Benny Gantz holds a Zoom meeting with executives of American Jewish organizations on November 9, 2023. (Screen capture/Israel Hayom)

National Unity chairman and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz says during a Zoom meeting yesterday with executives of legacy American Jewish organizations, I believe I’ve succeeded in convincing my American colleagues and international colleagues not to use the phrase settler violence anymore.

“Because 99% or more of the settlers are law-abiding people living in the settlements driving in the roads,” he asserts in a clip leaked to the Israel Hayom daily.

While Gantz says he has succeeded in the effort, it is unclear which colleagues he is referring to as the State Department continues to use the term and the European Union has begun describing the phenomenon as “settler terrorism.”

US President Joe Biden has repeatedly urged Netanyahu to clamp down on the recent uptick of violence by “extremist settlers.”

For his part, Gantz says on the Zoom that settlers make up a disproportionate number of those who have been killed fighting for the IDF in Gaza.

“I don’t want to sweep under the rug the fact that a small, extremist group who [is taking] actions against Palestinians. We are operating against it, we are using police forces and [the Shin Bet] against it,” Gantz adds.

The Yesh Din rights group said last week that there had been over 172 incidents of settler violence and harassment against Palestinians in at least 84 Palestinian towns and communities in the West Bank since Hamas’s terror onslaught.

These actions have resulted in the displacement of nearly 600 Palestinians from 13 communities who were forced to abandon their homes due to fear of settler attacks, the B’Tselem rights group says.

Shin Bet head said to tell unmoved PM that his far-right ministers interested in igniting W. Bank

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, greets National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir at the Knesset on May 23, 2023. (Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP)

During a recent war cabinet meeting, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar implored the small group of senior ministers present to ensure that the government transfers the tax revenues that belong to the Palestinian Authority to Ramallah, explaining that the PA’s collapse could lead to a violent intifada breaking out in the West Bank, the Maariv news site reports.

Bar stressed the importance of working to stabilize the West Bank and combating settler violence so that the IDF doesn’t have to suddenly contend with an eastern front while it is fighting Hamas in Gaza, Maariv says.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would bring the matter before the full cabinet. At which point he was interrupted by Bar who explained that the full cabinet is not the solution, but part of the problem as there are ministers in the government that are trying to ignite the area, Maariv says, ostensibly referring to Finace Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and other ministers from their far-right parties who have opposed steps to stabilize the PA.

Ultimately, the cabinet voted to transfer some of the tax revenues to the PA but deducted roughly NIS 100 million ($26 million) in funds that Ramallah uses to pay for services in the Gaza Strip — a cut that was still opposed by the security establishment and infuriated the Biden administration, according to a US official.

IDF says three drones launched from Lebanon set off sirens in Upper Galilee

Smoke rises during an exchange of fire between the IDF and Hezbollah terrorists on the border between Israel and Lebanon, November 9, 2023. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

The Israel Defense Forces says three drones were launched from Lebanon at northern Israel earlier, setting off sirens in the Upper Galilee.

One drone was intercepted by the Iron Dome, while the other two impacted unspecified areas in northern Israel, the military says.

“The incident has ended and its details are under review,” the IDF adds.

UN’s Palestinian refugee agency says over 100 Gaza staff killed in Israel-Hamas war

Damaged buildings are seen in the northern Gaza Strip, as an IDF armored D9 bulldozer flattens land, November 7, 2023. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)

The head of the United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says that more than 100 of its staff had been killed in the war in Gaza.

“Devastated. Over 100 UNRWA colleagues confirmed killed in one month. Parents, teachers, nurses, doctors, support staff,” UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini says on X.

“UNRWA is mourning, Palestinians mourning, Israelis mourning. Ending this tragedy needs (a) humanitarian ceasefire now,” he adds.

The UN agency says in a video message that 101 of its employees had been killed since the October 7 Hamas onslaught.

“They were teachers, school principals, engineers, doctors, a psychologist, support staff, sanitation and tech workers,” it says.

Netanyahu says IDF will control Gaza after war, rejects idea of international force

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with the mayors of southern Israeli towns on November 10, 2023. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the IDF will remain in control of Gaza after the war in comments likely to raise eyebrows in the international community, hours after he told Fox News that Israel does not want to re-occupy or govern the Strip.

Earlier this week, Netanyahu told ABC News that Israel will have “overall security responsibility” over the Gaza Strip “for an indefinite period” after the war against Hamas ends.

The latest comments are made in a meeting with the mayors of Gaza border towns — the first group meeting that Netanyahu has held with them since the war, something he came under fire for earlier this week when he chose to first meet with a group of settlement mayors.

“IDF forces will remain in control of the Strip, we will not give it to international forces,” Netanyahu tells the southern mayors, according to a readout from his spokesperson.

US officials have raised the idea in recent weeks that an international force of sorts, possibly with troops from neighboring Arab allies would manage security in the Gaza Strip for an interim period until it can be returned to a functioning Palestinian government, which Washington hopes will be the Palestinian Authority.

However, in his comments to the southern mayors, Netanyahu appears to reject the idea outright.

The mayors told Netanyahu that they want a different security reality after the war is over and urged him not to agree to a ceasefire until the last terrorist in Gaza is killed, the statement from the premier’s spokesperson says.

Netanyahu also promised the mayors that the government that the government will supply the Gaza border towns with economic aid to compensate for the damages incurred during the October 7 massacre.

Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says war death count crosses 11,000

Palestinians pray over the bodies of those killed in Israel-Hamas war prior to their burial in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip on November 10, 2023. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says that 11,078 people have been killed since the Israel-Hamas war outbreak on October 7.

The death toll includes 4,506 children, a health ministry statement says, while 27,490 people have been wounded in the war, which erupted with deadly Hamas attacks on southern Israel.

The figures cannot be independently verified and are believed to include Palestinian civilians killed by terror activity in the Strip as well as Palestinian terrorists killed by the IDF. Hamas is also believed to restrict information regarding the death count among its own fighters.

Relative of hostage reports ‘very respectable’ meeting with PM’s wife; bashes Obama

Sara Netanyahu (third from right) meets with families of hostages held by Hamas, November 9, 2023, in Tel Aviv. (Amos Ben Gershom, GPO)

Yael Angel, whose nephew Ofir is held hostage in Gaza, tells Channel 12 news that the families of the hostages had a “very respectable” meeting yesterday with Sara Netanyahu.

She says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined part of the meeting, which lasted some two-and-a-half hours.

According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, the prime minister’s wife told the families: “I know that you have not had a moment’s rest. Every day that goes by without your loved ones is an endless pain. My heart is with you; all of our hearts are with you.”

She promised the families that the prime minister “will do everything to bring our hostages, your loved ones, safely back home.”

Yael Angel, whose nephew Ofir is held hostage in Gaza, speaks to Channel 12 news, November 10, 2023 (Screenshot; used in accordance with clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Angel on Channel 12 also refers to former president Barack Obama’s criticism of Israel’s response to the Hamas massacres. “Two hundred and forty people are held hostage and the world is silent, and there are ‘buts’ and ‘perhapses’. I’d like to see Mr. Obama if one of his daughters was held hostage by Hamas. In two days, she’d be out, and there’d be no ‘buts’. There are no buts or perhapses,” she says. “Hamas can be destroyed.”

Egypt’s Sissi hosts Qatar leader for Gaza ceasefire talks

This handout picture released by the Egyptian Presidency on November 10, 2023, shows Egypt's President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi (R) receiving Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in the Presidential Hall at Cairo International Airport. (Photo by Handout / Egyptian Presidency / AFP)

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani meet to review “intensive efforts” toward a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, Cairo says.

Both Egypt and Qatar have played a major role in the regional and international response to the war, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 onslaught in southern Israel.

In Cairo, Sissi and Sheikh Tamim “discussed the Israeli military escalation in the Gaza Strip, and the subsequent regional challenges that push the region in dangerous and uncalculated directions,” the Egyptian presidency says in a statement.

“The two leaders discussed the best ways to protect innocent civilians in Gaza and to stop the bloodshed,” it adds.

“They reviewed the intensive efforts aimed at achieving a ceasefire and sustaining the delivery of humanitarian aid in quantities that meet the needs of the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

The high-level meeting in Cairo comes ahead of Saturday’s summits in Saudi Arabia where Arab and Muslim leaders are expected to press for an end to more than a month of fighting.

Israel has rejected calls for truce, demanding first that the estimated 239 hostages seized on October 7, who are thought to be held in Gaza, are released.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, who is usually based in Qatar, on Thursday met with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel “for discussions on the current situation in the Gaza Strip,” the terror group said.

Both Egypt and Qatar had been involved in previous talks which led to the release, at the end of October, of two women kidnapped by Hamas during its attack on Israeli territory on October 7.

IDF says target shot down by Patriot system near Eilat was a drone

The Israel Defense Forces says the aerial target intercepted by the Patriot air defense system near the southernmost city of Eilat last night was a drone.

It says the hostile unmanned aerial vehicle was downed before it could enter Israeli airspace.

The IDF publishes a video of the interception.

The UAV was intercepted hours after another drone hit a school in Eilat, causing damage.

IDF says the aerial target intercepted by the Patriot air defense system near the southernmost city of Eilat last night was a drone.

It says the hostile unmanned aerial vehicle was downed before it could enter Israeli airspace.

The IDF publishes a video of the interception. pic.twitter.com/434UVu5tV1

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 10, 2023

Army says it has hit some 15,000 terror targets in Gaza since start of war

This picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip on November 10, 2023, shows smoke rising above buildings during an Israeli strike on the northern part of the Palestinian enclave(Photo by Jack Guez / AFP)

The Israel Defense Forces says it has struck some 15,000 targets belonging to terror groups in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war on October 7, and seized and destroyed some 6,000 weapons, including firearms, rockets, anti-tank missiles, anti-aircraft missiles, explosive devices and ammunition.

It says ground, air and naval forces continue to strike Hamas targets across the Strip, including command centers, rocket launchers, weapons depots, tunnels and other infrastructure used by the terror group, as well as dozens of operatives.

The IDF releases footage showing recent strikes.

IDF says it has struck some 15,000 targets belonging to terror groups in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war on October 7, and seized and destroyed some 6,000 weapons, including firearms, rockets, anti-tank missiles, anti-aircraft missiles, explosive devices and… pic.twitter.com/ZoyJVLMSX1

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 10, 2023

Drone infiltration alert sounds in north

Suspected drone infiltration alerts are sounding in several communities in the Upper Galilee, close to the Lebanon border.

The IDF says it is investigating the “hostile aircraft” alarms.

The alerts come after a drone was launched from Syria yesterday, hitting a school in Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat.

Cabinet to meet in person on Sunday after AG issues reprimand

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, second right, and Government Secretary Yossi Fuchs, right, at the cabinet meeting in the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on September 27, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The cabinet will meet on Sunday for the first time in two weeks after Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ruled that it was not sufficient for the government ministers to confer via telephone alone.

Baharav-Miara said such a procedure was reserved only for emergency situations and the cabinet had an obligation to meet in person.

The meeting is currently scheduled for Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Since the start of the war on October 7, the cabinet has issued over 70 decisions decided by a telephone poll.

Hezbollah says 7 fighters killed in Syria

Hezbollah terrorists carry the coffin of their comrade, Qassim Ibrahim Abu-Taam, who was killed along Lebanon's southern border with Israel, during his funeral procession in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, Lebanon, Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group said seven of its fighters have been killed, but didn’t specify where they died other than to say that they were “martyred on the road to Jerusalem.”

A Hezbollah official and a Lebanese security official said the seven fighters were killed in neighboring Syria this morning. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Pro-government Syrian media outlets reported an Israeli airstrike on the central province of Homs early Friday.

Hezbollah has been fighting in Syria along with Syrian government forces where they have helped tip the balance of power in his favor during Syria’s 12-year conflict.

The Israeli military said earlier Friday that it struck targets in Syria following a drone strike on the Red Sea city of Eilat saying that it was fired from Syria.

Since Oct. 8, they have been exchanging fire with Israeli troops along the Lebanon-Israel border.

The latest deaths raise to 68 the number of Hezbollah fighters who have been killed since the Israel-Hamas war began last month.

Abbas says PA willing to take control of Gaza, but only under a broader deal

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist terror group Hamas, in Ramallah in the West Bank, November 5, 2023. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool photo via AP)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reiterates that the PA is ready to take control of the Gaza Strip again following Israel’s war with Hamas, but says that will only happen if the move is part of a comprehensive political solution that includes a Palestinian State established along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Israel has said it intends to retain security control of Gaza for an indefinite period once it ends its military incursion to destroy the Hamas terror group that currently rules the Strip, but does not intend to re-occupy the enclave.

With Israel unlikely to agree to Abbas’s call, it remains unclear who will control the Strip after the conflict. The international community has also expressed hesitancy in taking a role.

In a speech marking the 19th anniversary of the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Abbas calls to preserve Arafat’s “legacy” and protect the Palestine Liberation Organization – which controls the PA – as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people – thereby disavowing its rival movement Hamas.

Abbas calls for an international peace conference to provide “international guarantees” and a timetable to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

He rejects the idea that the Gaza Strip will be reoccupied by Israel, and that Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank might be forced out in a second nakba, a reference to the displacement of Palestinians in the wake of Israel’s war of independence in 1948.

After the Israeli security cabinet voted last week to withhold from the funds transferred to the PA those monies designated for Gaza’s salaries, Abbas vows that the PA will continue to pay wages for government employees in Gaza despite the cuts.

The PA leader refuses to condemn Hamas for the ongoing war, although the terror group opened hostilities on October 7 with its onslaught in which some 1,400 Israelis were killed and some 240 were kidnapped, and holds Israel “fully responsible” for the conflict, adding that military solutions will not bring security or peace to anyone.

Medics say two people wounded by shrapnel from rocket attack on Tel Aviv area

The Magen David Ambulance service is treating two people who were wounded in the rocket barrage from the Gaza Strip on the Tel Aviv area.

MDA’s director-general Eli Bin tells Channel 12 news that one person is light-to-moderately wounded and the other is in good condition.

He says both were wounded by falling shrapnel after interceptions, at two different sites.

Rockets fired at Tel Aviv area for first time since Tuesday

A large rocket barrage is fired at the Tel Aviv area for the first time the region has been targeted since Tuesday night.

Multiple interceptions by Iron Dome are seen in the skies above the city.

Hamas claims responsibility.

Multiple interceptions over central Israel. First rocket fire on Tel Aviv since Tuesday night. pic.twitter.com/X3iBU5nZql

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 10, 2023

Warning Sirens sound in  Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Bnei Brak, Holon,  Ashdod, Ganot, Rishon LeZion, Petach Tikva, Ra’anana Herzliya and surrounding communities.

There are no immediate reports of direct impact or injuries.

Netanyahu meeting with southern municipal heads for first time since October 7

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks from the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, November 7, 2023. (Screenshot: YouTube; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with the regional council heads from southern Israel for the first time since many of their communities were devastated in the October 7, Hamas assault.

Netanyahu is hosting them at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv.

The premier has faced widespread criticism for failing to meet them until now, with many noting that he first made time to meet with West Bank settler leaders.

Hundreds of residents of the Gaza border communities were killed when Hamas terrorists breached the border, while some 240 were taken hostage.

Other southern towns and cities have faced daily barrages of rockets from Gaza.

Many of the towns and communities have since been evacuated as Israel presses ahead with its offensive in Gaza, leaving tens of thousands internally displaced.

Sderot mayor Alon Davidi tells Army Radio ahead of the meeting that Israel is responsible for what occurred.

“The state of Israel is the one that brought our great enemy upon us. The system that each time we thought we could rely on someone else brought about this tragedy; the leadership brought us to this place,” he says.

Anti-tank missile fired at IDF post near Lebanon border; army shelling source of fire

An anti-tank guided missile was fired from Lebanon at an Israeli army post on the border near the northern community of Menara.

The Israel Defense Forces does not immediately provide information on possible injuries in the attack.

It says troops are responding with artillery shelling at the source of the missile fire.

Hezbollah has carried out dozens of missile and rocket attacks against northern Israel in recent weeks.

IDF: Troops kill some 30 Hamas terrorists, seize weapons, intel caches at training camp

RPGs found in a Hamas outpost in the northern Gaza Strip, November 10, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israel Defense Forces says troops of its 7th Armored Brigade raided a Hamas outpost and training camp in the northern Gaza Strip over the past day, seizing dozens of weapons and killing some 30 terror operatives.

The IDF says troops captured assault rifles, missiles, mortars, drones, maps, communications equipment, and other technological equipment from the site.

It says the troops also raided the offices of Muhammad Sinwar, the brother of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, capturing weapons and other materials.

IDF says troops of its 7th Armored Brigade raided a Hamas outpost and training camp in the northern Gaza Strip over the past day, seizing dozens of weapons and killing some 30 terror operatives.

The IDF says troops captured assault rifles, missiles, mortars, drones, maps,… pic.twitter.com/5z7SzInRBR

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 10, 2023

In another operation carried out by the 7th Brigade with members of the elite combat engineering Yahalom unit, troops raided a Hamas outpost belonging to the terror group’s Sabra neighborhood battalion.

The IDF says troops found anti-aircraft missile operation and calibration systems, several drones, a loaded rocket launcher, technological equipment, and intelligence documents, in the outpost.

IDF soldier dies of wounds sustained in Gaza fighting

The Israel Defense Forces announces that a soldier who was critically wounded during fighting in the central Gaza Strip on November 8 has died today.

He is named as Staff Sgt. Yehonatan Yitzhak Semo, 21, of the Paratrooper’s 202nd Battalion, from Karmei Zur.

Semo’s death brings the toll of slain soldiers in Israel’s ground operation in the Gaza Strip to 37.

Blinken says more needs to be done to protect Palestinian civilians

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) shakes hand with India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, ahead of meetings in New Delhi on November 10, 2023. (Photo by JONATHAN ERNST / POOL / AFP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he welcomes Israel’s agreed pauses in its offensive in Gaza, but that more needed to be done.

“I think some progress has been made,” Blinken says, speaking in New Delhi. “But I was also very clear that much more needs to be done in terms of protecting civilians and getting humanitarian assistance to them.”

IDF says 14 Hamas members held in West Bank raids

The Israel Defense Forces says troops detained 41 wanted Palestinians, including 14 Hamas members, during overnight raids across the West Bank.

The IDF also confirms troops demolished the Hebron homes of brothers Saqer and Mohammed a-Shanter, accused of killing Batsheva Nigri in a shooting attack in August.

Since October 7, the IDF says troops have arrested 1,540 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 930 affiliated with Hamas.

According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, at least 176 West Bank Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, and in some cases by settlers, since October 7.

Palestinians report fighting on outskirts of Shifa, Rantisi hospitals; no confirmation from IDF

Hamas officials and Palestinian media report fighting on the outskirts of Gaza’s Shifa hospital, where Israel says Hamas has its command center, and the Rantisi hospital.

The reports say special forces are operating in the area and armored forces are closing in.

The head of the Hamas-run media office in Gaza, Salama Maarouf, tells Al Jazeera that strikes were carried out near three hospitals in total, but gives no casualty figures.

Israeli military reached Rantisi Hospital, near Al-Nasr neighborhood and is besieging the hospital pic.twitter.com/APeNAMylYt

— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) November 10, 2023

There is no comment from the IDF, which said yesterday that the 162nd Division was operating in Hamas’s “military quarter” of Gaza City, clashing frequently with terror operatives. According to the IDF, the so-called military quarter, adjacent to Shifa Hospital, is “the heart” of Hamas’s intelligence and operational activities, and sites in the area were used to plan and prepare the October 7 onslaught in southern Israel that killed some 1,400 people and saw the abduction of some 240.

UN says humanitarian pauses to fighting agreed by Israel are ‘cynical and cruel’

Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip along Salah al-Din Street in Bureij, Gaza Strip, November 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, describes Israel’s decision to allow a four-hour humanitarian pause each day in combat operations in northern Gaza to allow civilians to flee to the south as “very cynical and cruel.”

“There has been continuous bombings, 6,000 bombs every week on the Gaza Strip, on this tiny piece of land where people are trapped and the destruction is massive. There won’t be any way back after what Israel is doing to the Gaza Strip,” Albanese tells reporters in Adelaide, Australia.

“So four hours ceasefire, yes, to let people breathe and to remember what is the sound of life without bombing before starting bombing them again. It’s very cynical and cruel.”

Israel agreed to US demands for the localized pauses that will take place in a different northern Gaza neighborhood each day, with residents notified three hours ahead of time. They will be able to use this time to either evacuate to the south via the two humanitarian corridors that Israel has established or leave their homes in order to restock on food, medicine and other aid, the senior Israeli official said.

Israel has been urging Palestinians to leave northern Gaza since the start of the war more than a month ago.

More than 100,000 Palestinians have taken advantage of the breaks to move south on safe routes in recent days.

Yemen officials blame ‘maintenance’ for nationwide internet outage

Internet access across the war-torn nation of Yemen collapsed and stayed down for hours, with officials later blaming unannounced “maintenance work” for an outage that followed attacks by the country’s Houthi rebels on both Israel and the US.

The outage began early this morning and halted all traffic at YemenNet, the country’s main provider for about 10 million users which is now controlled by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthis.

Both NetBlocks, a group tracking internet outages, and the internet services company CloudFlare reported the outage. Neither initially offered a cause for the collapse.

“Data shows that the issue has impacted connectivity at a national level as well,” CloudFlare said.

Several hours later, some service was restored, though access remained troubled.

In a statement to the Houthi-controlled SABA state news agency, Yemen’s Public Telecom Corp. blamed the outage on maintenance.

“Internet service will return after the completion of the maintenance work,” the statement quotes an unidentified official as saying.

The outage came after a series of recent drone and missile attacks by the Houthis targeting Israel. That includes a claimed strike Thursday targeting the Israeli port city of Eilat on the Red Sea. The Houthis also shot down an American MQ-9 Reaper drone this week with a surface-to-air missile, part of a wide series of attacks in the Mideast raising concerns about a regional war breaking out.

⚠️ Confirmed: Live network data show a major internet outage on #Yemen's Houthi-controlled YemenNet telco; the incident has knocked the operator offline, leaving overall national connectivity at 33% of ordinary levels ???? pic.twitter.com/T4W1NEz6bs

— NetBlocks (@netblocks) November 10, 2023

UN says Palestinian economy shrank ‘unprecedented’ 4% in month of war

This picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip, shows Israeli strikes on the northern Gaza Strip on November 9, 2023 (RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP)

A UN report paints a stark picture of the Palestinian economy after a month of war and Israel’s near-total siege of the Gaza Strip.

The gross domestic product shrank 4 percent in the West Bank and Gaza in the war’s first month, sending over 400,000 people into poverty, the UN says.

Hamas terrorists, who rule Gaza, launched a surprise assault on Israel on Oct. 7 killing some 1,400 people, mainly civilians, and kidnapping some 240 others.

More than two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes since Israel launched weeks of intense airstrikes followed by an ongoing ground operation, vowing to obliterate Hamas.

The rapid assessment of the economic consequences of the Gaza war released by the UN Development Program and the UN Economic and Social Commission for West Asia was the first UN report showing the impact of the conflict.

If the war continues for a second month, the UN projects that the Palestinian GDP, which was $20.4 billion before the war began, will drop by 8.4% — a loss of $1.7 billion. And if the conflict lasts a third month, Palestinian GDP will drop by 12%, with losses of $2.5 billion and more than 660,000 people pushed into poverty, it projects.

UN Development Program Assistant Secretary-General Abdallah Al Dardari tells a news conference that a 12% GDP loss at the end of the year would be “massive and unprecedented.”

By comparison, he says, the Syrian economy used to lose 1% of its GDP per month at the height of its conflict, and it took Ukraine a year and a half of fighting to lose 30% of its GDP, an average of about 1.6% a month.

Soldiers find rocket launcher hidden in shipping container on Gaza coast

Troops of the Israeli military’s 401st Brigade have located a Hamas rocket launcher on the coast of the Gaza Strip, hidden inside a shipping container, footage released by the IDF shows.

The IDF also says paratroopers operating in the Gaza City neighborhood of Sheikh Ijlin found a rocket launcher near a residential home.

Both launchers were destroyed, the IDF says.

IDF says troops of the 401st Brigade located and destroyed a Hamas rocket launcher on the Gaza coast, hidden inside a shipping container. pic.twitter.com/YJlGTsYjGp

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 10, 2023

IDF says it killed several top Hamas commandos in a series of raids

IDF forces in the northern Gaza Strip seen in a handout photo released November, 10 2023 (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israel Defense Forces says ground forces killed several Hamas operatives, including members of the terror group’s elite Nukhba forces who participated in the October 7 massacre.

The operations were carried out following intelligence information provided to the soldiers by the Shin Bet Security agency.

The IDF says the troops killed Ahmed Musa, a Nukhba company commander, and Amr Alhandi, a Nukhba platoon commander, who were holed up in Jabaliya.

According to the IDF, Musa was one of the Hamas commanders who led the assault on the Zikim base, the nearby Kibbutz, and another army post in the area on October.

“In recent days Ahmed Musa led offensive activity against IDF forces in the west Jabaliya area,” the IDF says.

The IDF says troops also killed Muhammed Kahlout, the head of Hamas’s so-called sniper array in the terror group’s northern Gaza brigade.

In another incident, the IDF says troops of the 252nd Division killed 19 Hamas operatives who were planning to attack soldiers.

IDF said to demolish Hebron home of brothers accused of killing Batsheva Nigri

The Israel Defense Forces destroyed the Hebron-area home of two brothers accused of killing Batsheva Nigri in a shooting attack in August, Palestinian media reported.

Nigri, a 42-year-old mother of three, was shot dead in front of her daughter in the attack on a vehicle near Hebron. Another man was seriously wounded in the shooting.

Israeli security forces arrested two men, Saqer and Mohammed a-Shanter, suspected of carrying out the shooting the following day.

Israel regularly demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out deadly terror attacks as a matter of policy.  The efficacy of the policy has been hotly debated even within the Israeli security establishment, while human rights activists denounce the practice as unjust collective punishment.

تغطية صحفية: آثار الدمار الذي لحق بمنزل عائلة الأسيرين الشنتير بعد تفجيره من قبل قوات الاحتلال. pic.twitter.com/tMmYVRjOhm

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) November 10, 2023

Iran said to tell Qatar that expansion of Israel-Hamas war ‘inevitable’

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, speaks during an emergency meeting on the Israel-Hamas war at the United Nations General Assembly, in New York, October 26, 2023. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP)

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has reportedly told his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani that the expansion of the Israel-Hamas war is “inevitable.”

“Due to the expansion of the intensity of the war against Gaza’s civilian residents, expansion of the scope of the war has become inevitable,” Iran’s Press TV quotes Amir-Abdollahian as saying in a phone call yesterday.

Iran and its terror proxies in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq have been threatening a regional conflict since the start of the war sparked by Hamas’s brutal October 7 assault on southern Israel that killed some 1,400 people, most of them civilians and saw some 240 people taken hostage in Gaza.

The US has sent two aircraft carrier groups and a nuclear-powered submarine to the region in a bid to deter Tehran.

Qatar, which has close ties to Hamas, has been working to try to broker a ceasefire and a hostage release.

US slams Israel for demolishing home of 13-year-old who killed cop

The US slams Israel for demolishing the family home of a 13-year-old Palestinian who killed a Border Police officer in a February stabbing attack.

“The government of Israel has demolished the home of a Palestinian family in response to the actions of their 13-year-old child. An entire family should not lose their home because of the actions of one individual,” the US Office of Palestinian Affairs tweets.

On Wednesday a large police force went into the Shuafat refugee camp north of Jerusalem and demolished the home of  Muhammad Zalbani, who stabbed Border Police officer Staff Sgt. Asil Sawaed, 22 as he inspected a bus at the Shuafat crossing in February.

Israel defends the highly controversial home demolition policy as a deterrent to future terror attacks but rights groups say it amounts to collective punishment and it has even been linked to future attacks by impacted relatives.

???????????????? Israel explode a casa do terrorista palestino Muhammad Zalbani em Shuafat, um campo de refugiados na Jerusalém Oriental. pic.twitter.com/RPftTriX7c

— Tarciso Morais (@TarcisoRenova) November 8, 2023

New top American general says Israeli goal of toppling Hamas ‘a pretty large order’

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown attends a meeting with US President Joe Biden in the Oval Office of the White House, on October 5, 2023, in Washington. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/AFP)

Asked whether he’s concerned that the rapidly climbing, non-combatant death toll in Gaza due to Israel’s war against Hamas will lead Palestinian civilians to turn to terror activity, US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Charles Q. Brown responds, “Yes, very much so.”

“And I think that’s something we have to pay attention to,” Brown tells reporters in his first comments on the war in Gaza since he took over as the top US military official last month.

“That’s why when we talk about time — the faster you can get to a point where you stop the hostilities, you have less strife for the civilian population that turns into someone who now wants to be the next member of Hamas,” he says.

Brown calls Israel’s war aim of toppling Hamas “a pretty large order,” while claiming that Israel was focused on targeting senior Hamas leadership, which it might succeed in doing more quickly.

Israel has said Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar is at the top of its kill list, as the IDF slowly advances in its ground incursion through the northern section of the Strip

An American intelligence official tells The New York Times that Sinwar’s exact location is not known to the US and that they have left open the possibility that the IDF has a better understanding of where he is.

Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s Gaza governor, speaks during a meeting in Gaza City, on April 30, 2022. (Mahmud Hamas/AFP)

Israel has been closing in on the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City which stands above an underground Hamas command center that houses senior operatives of the terror group, a US official tells The Times of Israel.

But targeting that hospital could put the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of Palestinian civilians at risk, the US official warns.

Top US military officials have been pushing their Israeli counterparts to be “more calculating and precise” in its Gaza strikes, an official tells NYT, adding that Washington has urged Israel to use 250-pound satellite-guided bombs instead of 1,000- to 2,000-pound munitions.

Still, Israel’s decision to effectively split Gaza in half through its military operations has won praise from current and former US military commanders who spoke to The New York Times.

As has Israel’s decision to hold off a full-scale ground invasion, instead advancing a phased incursion that started with northern Gaza on October 27, which was in line with recommendations from US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, the US official tells The Times of Israel.

Nonetheless, Brown tells reporters, “I think the longer this goes, the harder it can become.”

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, November 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Brown avoids outright advocating for a short military campaign but says that operations like the one Israel is trying to pull off have a tendency to extend longer than planned.

“[Almost] every conflict that I’ve been involved with throughout my military career … [has] particularly gone a bit longer than most people would have imagined. So we’ve got to prepare ourselves for that,” he says.

While insisting that Israel is abiding by the laws of war in Gaza, the joint chiefs chairman says the IDF could improve public explanations of its sometimes controversial conduct and adds that he has raised this issue with his Israeli counterpart Herzi Halevi during an October 30 phone call, after Israel bombed a major Hamas stronghold in the Jabaliya refugee camp.

The IDF said the strike took out a senior Hamas commander along with several other terrorists but at least 50 civilians were reportedly killed in the blast that caused underground terror tunnels to collapse, bringing down several nearby buildings.

“There’s room for improvement based on what we’re seeing… What I’ve talked to [Halevi] about is how do we demonstrate — not only with the videos but also as they talk about the strikes — why they’re striking in some locations, provide more context to the strike,” Brown says.

IDF soldier killed fighting in Gaza, bringing death toll in ground operation to 36

Staff Sgt. Gilad Rozenblit, a combat medic in the 401st Armored Brigade's 52nd Battalion, who was killed fighting against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip on November 9, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israel Defense Forces announces that a soldier was killed during fighting against Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday.

He is named as Staff Sgt. Gilad Rozenblit, 21, a combat medic of the 401st Armored Brigade’s 52nd Battalion, from the northern community of Ginegar.

His death brings the toll of slain soldiers in Israel’s ground operation in the Gaza Strip to 36.

Internet collapses in Yemen after recent Houthi attacks targeting Israel and US

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Internet access across the war-torn nation of Yemen collapsed early this morning without explanation, web monitors say.

The outage began early today and affected the YemenNet, which is now controlled by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

Both NetBlocks, a group tracking internet outages, and the internet services company CloudFlare report the outage. Neither offer a cause for the collapse.

The Houthis and Yemen telecommunication officials don’t immediately acknowledge the outage.

A previous outage occurred in January 2022 when the Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis in Yemen bombed a telecommunications building in the Red City port city of Hodeida. There was no immediate word of a similar attack.

The undersea FALCON cable carries internet into Yemen through the Hodeida port along the Red Sea for TeleYemen. The FALCON cable has another landing in Yemen’s far eastern port of Ghaydah as well, but the majority of Yemen’s population lives in its west along the Red Sea.

GCX, the company that operates the cable, doesn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The outage comes after a series of recent drone and missile attacks by the Houthis targeting Israel amid its campaign of airstrikes and a ground offensive targeting Hamas in the Gaza Strip. That includes a claimed strike Thursday again targeting the Israeli port city of Eilat on the Red Sea. Meanwhile, the Houthis also shot down an American MQ-9 Reaper drone this week with a surface-to-air missile, part of a wide series of attacks in the Mideast raising concerns about a regional war breaking out.

IDF says it struck Syria in response to drone attack on Eilat school

The scene of a blast in Eilat caused by a drone of unknown origin, November 9, 2023. (Courtesy)

The military announces it carried out strikes in Syria in response to a drone attack on a school in Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat.

A statement from the Israel Defense Forces says it targeted the organization that launched the drone, without specifying who was behind the attack, where it originated or what the IDF hit.

“The Syrian regime is fully responsible for all terror activity that is carried out from Syrian territory. The IDF will respond severely to any attempt to harm the territory of the State of Israel,” says the statement.

Doug Emhoff meets with Jewish students at Cornell after antisemitic threats

US Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff meets with Jewish students at Cornell University on November 9, 2023. (Shelly Greenspan/X)

US Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and US envoy for international religious freedom Rashad Hussain met earlier Thursday with students and administrators at Cornell University to discuss an alarming rise in antisemitic threats made against Jewish students on campus since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, the White House says.

Emhoff and Hussain held a roundtable with Jewish students in Cornell’s kosher and multicultural dining room, which was targeted with antisemitic threats.

“Emhoff offered messages of hope and resilience, while stressing the importance of keeping students safe from violence and hateful rhetoric on college campuses,” the White House readout says, adding that the Jewish second gentleman also discussed the Biden administration’s strategies to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia

On Monday, Emhoff will travel to Los Angeles to deliver remarks at a conference organized by the local Jewish Federation, the White House adds.

UN says 50,000 Gazans fled through corridor set up by IDF, municipal wells shut down

Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip along Salah al-Din Street in Bureij, designated as a humanitarian corridor by the IDF to escape Gaza's north, November 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Fifty thousand Palestinians have fled from northern to southern Gaza through the humanitarian corridors set up by Israel, the UN Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says.

The evacuation was enabled thanks to a formalized humanitarian pause in the fighting that the IDF implemented in several neighborhoods in northern Gaza for the first time following pressure from the Biden administration.

It was the sixth consecutive day in which the IDF allowed civilians to evacuate south through the Salah a Din humanitarian corridor, with 50,000 evacuating over the course of seven hours.

“Hundreds of thousands of people remaining in the north [of Gaza] are struggling to secure the minimum amounts of water and food to survive,” OCHA says in its daily update.

The UN office says just 65 trucks of humanitarian aid entered Gaza on Thursday after two days in a row in which the number was closer to the initial US goal of 100. OCHA called Thursday’s figure “wholly inadequate.”

An unconfirmed number of foreign nationals evacuated Gaza through Egypt’s Rafah crossing along with a handful of wounded people who will be treated on the other side of the border, OCHA says.

Thursday saw all municipal water wells shut down due to lack of fuel, after several days of limited operation, OCHA adds. As a result, the trucking and pumping of brackish water for non-drinking domestic uses came to a halt.

One of the two desalination plants in southern Gaza also shut down due to a lack of fuel, while the other operated at roughly five percent capacity.

As of Thursday, no bakeries were active, due to the lack of fuel, water and wheat flour as well as the damage sustained by many in the fighting, OCHA says.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says that the death toll in Gaza climbed to 10,818, though that figure cannot be verified and is believed to include civilians killed by errant Palestinian rockets as well as combatants killed by Israel.

Progressive senator filmed holding up Israeli flag in front of detained pro-Palestinian protesters

Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania holds up an Israeli flag as he walks by a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators being arrested for rowdily protesting for a ceasefire in Gaza, outside the US Capitol in Washington on November 9, 2023. (Screen capture/X)

Progressive Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was filmed earlier this evening holding up an Israeli flag as he walked by a group of rowdy pro-Palestinian demonstrators being arrested for rowdily protesting for a Gaza ceasefire outside of the Capitol.

Fetterman has won accolades among Israel supporters for his decision to display the photos of all 239 people currently being held in Gaza outside his office.

Senator John Fetterman walks past ceasefire advocates getting arrested while he waves the Israeli flag.

In the past month, Fetterman has come under fire from leftists and progressives who supported his candidacy. pic.twitter.com/mRucy0XXgD

— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) November 10, 2023

Palestinian supporters occupy lobby of NY Times, claiming its biased toward Israel

NEW YORK – Pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupy the lobby of The New York Times, accusing the media of betraying a bias toward Israel in its coverage of the war and demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Hundreds of protesters led by a group of media workers calling themselves “Writers Bloc” gather outside the publication’s Manhattan headquarters, with many of them entering the building’s atrium for a sit-in and vigil that lasts more than an hour.

It isn’t immediately clear if anyone was arrested during the sit-in. An email sent to New York Times staffers obtained by The Associated Press describes the protest as “peaceful.”

The sit-in follows a series of actions at high-profile locations in New York, including the Statue of Liberty and Grand Central Terminal, intended to bring attention to the growing death toll in Gaza.

The protest disbanded after three hours at 6pm. Asked why the anger towards the New York Times, protesters said the paper is betraying its “mainstream liberal readers” by “printing the propagandised narrative put out by the Israeli state”. https://t.co/PyA936pB4B

— Jack Morphet (@JackMorphet) November 9, 2023

UN Security Council to meet again on Friday to deliberate Israel-Hamas war

United Nations Security Council vote on a US resolution on the Israel-Hamas war, which was vetoed with Russia voting against, October 25, 2023, at UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

The UN Security Council will hold another emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the Israel-Hamas war.

No resolution is expected to come out of the meeting as the top UN body remains divided, with the US making clear that it will veto drafts calling for a ceasefire, which it says will benefit Hamas and therefore cannot support.

Tomorrow’s session will focus on “the spiraling health crisis amidst continued attacks on hospitals,” says a spokesperson for the UAE’s Mission to the UN, which called the meeting along with France.

Members will be briefed by World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

PM swats down any notion of tension with Biden over humanitarian pauses in Gaza

US President Joe Biden (left) with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023. (Haim Zach / GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplays talk of disagreement between him and Joe Biden after the US president told reporters that “it’s taken a little longer than [he] had hoped” to coax the Israeli premier to agree to a days-long humanitarian pause.

“Well, it’s taken a little longer than I had hoped,” Netanyahu responds after being played a clip of Biden’s remarks during a Fox News interview.

“I hoped we could do it very fast, but we have battled conditions on the ground, the safety of our own forces, the hostages we want to get out and the humanitarian corridors we want to [operate] — which as I said, Hamas is preventing by using its own fire… preventing Palestinian civilians from leaving,” Netanyahu says.

“It’s taken a little while, but I think we share a common goal, and I very much appreciate the support that President Biden has shown, the administration has shown, the American people have shown and Congress on both sides of the aisle,” he adds.

Netanyahu: Prospects for normalization with Saudis ‘will be even riper’ after Hamas defeated

FILE - Saudi special forces salute in front of a screen displaying images of Saudi King Salman, right, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after a military parade in preparation for the annual Hajj pilgrimage in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, July 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says conditions for a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia “will be even riper” after Israel accomplishes its war aim of destroying Hamas.

“I think there’s a test now for the forces of civilization and progress against the forces of medievalism who want to take us back to the Dark Ages,” he tells Fox News.

Netanyahu says Israel is committed to victory against Hamas and asserts it would be a victory for the US and the “moderate Arab states” as well.

“Once we achieve that, that promise of peace that we first [saw] in the Abraham Accords and were about to expand further with peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia, I think it will be a reality,” the premier says. “I think conditions will be ripe. In fact, after a victory, I think they’ll be even riper.”

Netanyahu says Israel not seeking to displace Gazans or rule enclave

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is interviewed by Fox News on November 9, 2023. (Screenshot X, Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly states for the first time that Israel does not seek to displace Palestinians in the war against Hamas, after a growing number of regional leaders expressed fears that this was Jerusalem’s ulterior motive.

“We don’t seek to displace anyone,” Netanyahu tells Fox News.

“What we’re trying to do is get the Gazans in the northern part of the Gaza Strip where the fighting has taken place to move one to four miles south where we have established a safe zone,” the prime minister continues. “We want to see field hospitals. We’re encouraging and enabling humanitarian help to go there. That’s how we’re fighting this war.”

He also provides new details regarding Israel’s vision for what Gaza will look like after the war.

“What we have to see is Gaza demilitarized, deradicalized and rebuilt. All of that can be achieved,” Netanyahu says.

“We don’t seek to conquer Gaza. We don’t seek to occupy Gaza. And we don’t seek to govern Gaza,” the premier adds, falling in line with the stance expressed by the Biden administration, which has expressed its desire for the Palestinian Authority to return to governing Gaza in a manner that will reunite the territory with the West Bank politically and pave the way toward a two-state solution.

Netanyahu does not go as far, as his government continues its acrimonious relationship with the PA. The premier says, however, “We’ll have to find a civilian government that will be there.”

He then adds that “In the foreseeable future… We have to have a credible force that if necessary, will enter Gaza and kill the killers. That’s what will prevent the emergence of another Hamas-like entity.”

This appears to be a new variation of what Netanyahu told ABC News on Monday, when he said Israel will have “overall security responsibility” over the Gaza Strip “for an indefinite period” after the war against Hamas ends.

“But what I expect to see is a rebuilt Gaza for the Gazans,” Netanyahu tells Fox News.

It is the second interview Netanyahu has given to American media this week, after he avoided any interviews for much of the first month of the war.

The prime minister previously went on a media blitz to various American media outlets to try to soothe criticism of his government’s now-frozen judicial overhaul, but has blackballed mainstream Israeli media since taking office last December, a strategy which has largely shielded him from having to answer critics.

Rocket sirens sound in kibbutzim along Gaza border

Rocket warning sirens are activated in several kibbutzim near the border with the Gaza Strip.