Middle East conflict live updates: Netanyahu vows to invade Rafah regardless of cease-fire deal; Blinken in region
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s position that its forces will launch an anticipated military operation in Rafah regardless of whether a cease-fire and hostage deal is reached with Hamas. He made the remark amid fresh optimism that new negotiations could lead to a halt in fighting. Secretary of State Antony Blinken continued his tour of the Middle East on Tuesday, heading to Jordan and Israel with a focus on getting more humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
Here’s what to know
- “We will enter Rafah, and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there — with or without a deal, in order to achieve the total victory,” Netanyahu said during a meeting with representatives of hostages’ and victims’ families in Jerusalem.
- More than a million displaced civilians have sought refuge in Rafah in southern Gaza; Israel says it is a remaining Hamas stronghold. President Biden has said the United States will not support a full-scale attack unless Israel has a plan to protect civilians.
- Blinken and his British counterpart, Foreign Secretary David Cameron, said there is a “generous” proposal before Hamas for a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages. Blinken said the deal awaits a green light from Hamas.
- At least 34,535 people have been killed and 77,704 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.
- Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 263 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza.
4:20 PM: Analysis from Adam Taylor, Foreign reporter who writes about a variety of subjects
The U.S. military is making progress on building a temporary pier to deliver food to Gaza, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“We expect that that pier should be ready to receive humanitarian goods in the coming days,” Kirby said, though he cautioned that the pier could not match the volume of aid delivered by land. “The trucks, that’s still the best way to do it,” he said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed Kirby’s comments in remarks to reporters in Amman Tuesday. “We have our maritime corridor that we’ve been working on that I’d say about a week from now will be ready to go,” Blinken said.
3:00 PM: U.S. campus protests spread to the Middle East and Europe
BEIRUT — Students across the Middle East and globally are downing their pens, ditching class and joining in with pro-Palestinian protests in solidarity with a wave of campus protests that have swept across the United States in recent weeks.
From Kuwait to Lebanon, in Egypt and Ramallah, students have occupied central locations on campuses and waved placards Monday and Tuesday calling for an end to the war in Gaza and divestment by their universities from companies that do business with Israel.
Similar protests have taken place at Sorbonne University in Paris and elsewhere, including Italy, Britain, Canada and Australia, as the global student demographic piles pressure on administrators and governments almost seven months into the war. Those protesting said they were directly inspired by U.S. students.
“Palestine wasn’t initially their thing, but now they are doing more than we are, and [we] felt ashamed and that we should do more,” Ali Tayyar, a student organizer at Lebanon’s American University of Beirut, said at a protest Tuesday. “We needed to at least show some support for our friends in the U.S.”
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By: Mohamad El Chamaa and Adela Suliman
2:59 PM: U.S. diplomat explains why she quit Biden administration over Gaza war
Middle East conflict live updates: Netanyahu vows to invade Rafah regardless of cease-fire deal; Blinken in region
Hala Rharrit was a veteran U.S. diplomat who had always operated in the corridors of power, not the limelight, when she opted for a change two years ago to become one of the faces of U.S. diplomacy for Arab media.
“I thought it would be quite thrilling,” Rharrit explained in one of her first interviews after resigning last week from her 18-year career at the State Department because, she said, she could not defend the Biden administration’s Gaza policy. “I did not anticipate this ending at all.”
Nearly seven months into the administration’s unstinting support for Israel in its war against Hamas, Rharrit became the first career diplomat to resign in protest of what she called a policy that will set back Washington’s interests in the Arab world for a generation. She told The Washington Post that she felt the continued flow of U.S. arms to Israel was enabling the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and inflaming anger toward Washington in the Arab world. Inside the State Department, she said, diplomats are afraid to express viewpoints contrary to official policy, unlike most other issues during her career, where robust discussion was the norm.
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By: Michael Birnbaum
1:20 PM: Israel lacks ‘execution’ to protect civilians in Rafah, Pentagon says
A protester is removed by a U.S. Capitol Police officer behind Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a House Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed concern to lawmakers about a lack of “execution” among Israeli preparations to safeguard civilians in Rafah ahead of a likely incursion there, he told lawmakers Tuesday, underlining growing frustration that Israel has not done more to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza.
The United States has seen some signs that Israeli forces have prepared to account for more than 1 million displaced people, Austin said, without offering specifics. But he said there is not a clear plan set forth by Israel to handle civilians in Rafah, many of whom are there because they fled areas where Israel fought Hamas militants.
Those preparations include provisions of health care, housing and safe transportation out of dangerous areas, Austin said.
There have been “far too many” civilian deaths already, Austin said, and he has impressed upon Israeli leaders the need to change course.
“You have to make sure you’re doing all you can to protect civilians,” Austin said, describing lessons learned from U.S. military mismanagement in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Because if you don’t, you’ll create a longer-term problem for yourself, as some of those civilians then turn against you.”
By: Alex Horton
10:45 AM: Top U.N. court won’t intervene for now in German arms exports to Israel
Nicaraguan Ambassador to the Netherlands Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez and lawyer Alain Pellet attend the International Court of Justice at The Hague on April 30.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled Tuesday that it would not intervene for now in a case accusing Germany of “facilitating genocide” and violating its international law obligations by providing arms to Israel.
Nicaragua filed the case in March with the United Nations’ top court, arguing that Berlin knew its weapons would be used to bomb and kill thousands of Palestinians in Gaza. Germany, the second-largest arms provider to Israel after the United States, rejected the accusations.
Germany argued that since Oct. 7, it has approved only four licenses for arms exports to Israel, all for training or defense purposes. The court voted 15-1 against imposing “provisional measures,” but it also decided not to strike the case entirely despite German requests.
“The court remains deeply concerned about the catastrophic living conditions of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in particular in view of the prolonged and widespread deprivation of food and other basic necessities,” Judge Nawaf Salam told the court.
By: Kate Brady
10:07 AM: U.S. lawmakers warn of backlash if ICC issues Israeli arrest warrants
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Members of Congress are warning of a backlash if the International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for senior Israeli political figures in response to the war in Gaza.
The global court has not confirmed that it plans to take any such action, but Israeli media outlets have reported that arrest warrants for senior figures including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are imminent.
Netanyahu said Friday that what he called attempts by The Hague-based court to undermine Israel’s right to self-defense would never be accepted. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Tuesday that he “unequivocally” objects to “any attempt to abuse international legal institutions — including the ICC — to deny the state of Israel its basic rights,” which he said included its “duty to free our hostages and defend our citizens.”
Neither Israel nor the United States is an ICC member state, but if warrants are issued, Israeli officials would risk arrest in allied countries.
Avi Hyman, an Israeli government spokesman, said Tuesday that because Israel is not a member of the ICC, the only consequence of warrants “would be to defame Israel, in a serious manner … we’ve not seen anything of this nature before, of the ICC going after a democracy, going after an active prime minister in the middle of a war for our very survival.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called on the Biden administration Monday to “immediately and unequivocally demand that the ICC stand down,” adding that the United States “should use every available tool to prevent such an abomination.”
Rep. Ritchie Torres, a pro-Israel Democrat from the Bronx, said issuing arrest warrants for Israeli politicians “would represent the culmination of a long process of criminalizing the world’s only Jewish State.”
“The ICC’s abuse of power must be met with strong consequences from both Congress and the President,” he added in a post on X.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said it would be “a fatal blow to the judicial and moral standing of ICC to pursue this path against Israel” and called on the Biden administration to intervene.
Experts have said the ICC would be unlikely to issue any arrest warrants for Israeli officials without also targeting the Hamas militants who carried out the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
By: Rachel Pannett, Sarah Dadouch and Bryan Pietsch
9:15 AM: Netanyahu vows to invade Rafah ‘with or without’ a cease-fire deal
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Dec. 10.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s position that it will launch a military operation in Rafah regardless of whether it reaches a cease-fire and hostage deal with Hamas.
“We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there — with or without a deal, in order to achieve the total victory,” Netanyahu said during a meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday with representatives of hostages’ and victims’ families.
Netanyahu’s comment came as mediators in cease-fire talks in Cairo expressed optimism that Israel and Hamas were inching toward an agreement to halt fighting in Gaza and release dozens of Israeli hostages. The signs of optimism came after Israel presented terms to negotiators last week that softened its position, according to an Israeli official familiar with the deliberations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.
Israel is preparing for a ground offensive in Rafah, a southern city in Gaza that is home to more than 1 million people displaced by the war. Israel says the last remaining Hamas battalions are hiding in the city, and has argued that a major military campaign there is essential. Allies including the United States have warned Israeli authorities that such an assault will result in a civilian bloodbath, but Israel has signaled determination to push forward.
President Biden has said the United States will not support a full-scale attack unless Israel has a plan to protect civilians. Speaking in Saudi Arabia on Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “We have not yet seen a plan that gives us confidence that civilians can be effectively protected.”
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinians, said Tuesday that “there is an extraordinarily deep anxiety prevailing right now in Gaza” over the possibility of an Israeli military offensive in Rafah.
“People have not yet been asked to evacuate from Rafah, but there is a sense that if there is no deal this week, that this can happen at any time,” Lazzarini said.
By: Annabelle Timsit
6:53 AM: Construction of maritime pier for Gaza aid is ‘underway,’ U.S. says
A photo released Tuesday by U.S. Central Command shows construction of a floating pier in the Mediterranean Sea off the Gaza Strip.
U.S. officials said construction of a floating pier off the coast of Gaza to facilitate aid deliveries into the besieged enclave is “underway” and on track to be completed by early May.
“Construction of the floating JLOTS pier in the Mediterranean is underway,” Central Command said on X late Monday, referring to the acronym for the operation, Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore.
The pier is a collaboration of the United States and other countries, including Israel. U.S. troops will build the pier, allowing aid to be transferred from container ships to smaller vessels that will offload it to a temporary causeway connected to Gaza’s shore, with security overseen by the Israel Defense Forces. Once operational, it will support the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza by the U.S. Agency for International Development and unspecified “humanitarian partners,” Centcom said.
President Biden announced plans to construct the temporary pier during his State of the Union address in early March. Construction will cost an estimated $320 million, Defense Department deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said Monday.
While U.S. troops will not be deployed inside Gaza, analysts have raised concern about security threats, The Washington Post reported. But Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed confidence that the risks can be mitigated through collaboration with Israeli military forces and other nations.
The start of construction comes as Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a trip to the Middle East, said not enough aid was getting into Gaza to meet the humanitarian need.
“We have seen measurable progress in the last few weeks,” he told members of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Monday, citing the opening of new border crossings into Gaza and progress on establishing a maritime route to deliver aid. “But it is not enough. We still need to get more aid in and around Gaza.”
By: Annabelle Timsit
5:07 AM: Arab states reticent as U.S. pushes postwar plan for Gaza
Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to a meeting with representatives from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinian Authority in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Monday. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/AP)
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to press ahead Monday with plans for securing and rebuilding Gaza once the Israel-Hamas war ends, but reticence among the Arab nations that U.S. officials envision will help oversee the devastated territory underscored the difficulty Washington faces in forging a “day after” blueprint.
Speaking at a World Economic Forum event here in the Saudi capital, Blinken said the Biden administration would continue its months-long pursuit of an arrangement for Gaza, which since 2007 has been controlled by Hamas. Israel has vowed to destroy the militant group and ensure it cannot strike again but has not signed on to any U.S.-backed plans for the future.
Arab nations’ reluctance to commit to providing troops or funding for Gaza was clear immediately after Blinken’s remarks, when the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia said that before they would agree to participate in any peacekeeping operation, there must be clarity on the pathway to a Palestinian state. They cited the scale of devastation in Gaza and the possibility that foreign forces would be seen as new occupiers without a viable plan for lasting peace.
“Whoever goes there, if they are seen or perceived to be there to consolidate the misery that this war has created, then they will be seen as the enemy,” said the Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman al-Safadi. “I think nobody would want to be part of that configuration.”
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By: Missy Ryan
1:51 AM: Blinken continues Middle East tour with stops in Jordan and Israel
Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, left, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, and other officials discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza during a meeting Monday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken continues his tour of the Middle East on Tuesday, heading to Jordan and Israel with a focus on getting more humanitarian aid to civilians in the embattled Gaza Strip.
In Jordan, Blinken is set to meet with Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman and Jordanian King Abdullah II — who has long pushed for increased humanitarian aid into Gaza and personally taken part in airdrops into the Palestinian enclave.
Blinken’s visit, his seventh to the region since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, comes amid fresh optimism that negotiations could lead to a cease-fire.
In Saudi Arabia on Monday, Blinken addressed the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying that the most effective way to “alleviate the suffering … is to get a cease-fire and the hostages home.” He added that the United States was pushing Israel to take steps to protect civilians, improve humanitarian conditions and keep aid workers safe.
Blinken described the latest cease-fire proposal as “extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel.” A former Egyptian official with knowledge of the talks said the initial truce would involve the release of 33 hostages. Israel had originally demanded the release of 40.
Missy Ryan and Steve Hendrix contributed to this report.
By: Rachel Pannett
1:51 AM: Parties see hope for a Gaza cease-fire: ‘Maybe this time it will work’
At the al-Najjar hospital in Rafah on Monday, Palestinians mourn relatives killed in an Israeli airstrike.
JERUSALEM — Mediators expressed hope Monday, once again, that Israel and Hamas were inching toward an agreement to halt fighting in Gaza and release dozens of Israeli hostages — a last, best chance to prevent a return to full-scale war.
The signs of optimism came after Israel presented terms to negotiators last week that softened its position and “broke new ground,” according to an Israeli official familiar with the deliberations. “There is hope,” a Hamas official in Turkey told The Washington Post, but he cautioned that key points require clarification. Like others quoted in this report, the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive and ongoing diplomacy.
Any final decision rests with the militant group’s leader, Yehiya Sinwar, who is believed to be in hiding in the tunnels beneath Gaza. Hamas negotiators are expected in Egypt on Monday. An Israeli official said the government is preparing to send its own negotiators after the Passover holiday.
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By: Steve Hendrix, Claire Parker and Loveday Morris