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Netanyahu says there is ‘no way’ Israel halts the war in Gaza until Hamas is defeated

Netanyahu says there is ‘no way’ Israel halts the war in Gaza until Hamas is defeated
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there is “no way” Israel will halt its war in Gaza, even if a deal is reached to release more hostages. (Reuters/File)
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Updated 13 May 2025

Netanyahu says there is ‘no way’ Israel halts the war in Gaza until Hamas is defeated

Netanyahu says there is ‘no way’ Israel halts the war in Gaza until Hamas is defeated
  • Netanyahu said Israeli forces were just days away from a promised escalation of force
  • “There will be no way we will stop the war,” Netanyahu said

TEL AVIV: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there is “no way” Israel will halt its war in Gaza, even if a deal is reached to release more hostages.

His comments are likely to complicate talks on a new ceasefire that had seemed to gain momentum after Hamas released the last living American hostage on Monday in a gesture to US President Donald Trump, who is visiting the region but skipping Israel.

They pointed to a potentially widening rift between Netanyahu and Trump, who had expressed hope that Monday’s release of Israeli-American soldier Edan Alexander would be a step toward ending the 19-month war.

In comments released by his office Tuesday from a visit to wounded soldiers the previous day, Netanyahu said Israeli forces were just days away from a promised escalation of force and would enter Gaza “with great strength to complete the mission. ... It means destroying Hamas.”

Any ceasefire deal reached would be temporary, the prime minister said. If Hamas were to say they would release more hostages, “we’ll take them, and then we’ll go in. But there will be no way we will stop the war,” Netanyahu said. “We can make a ceasefire for a certain period of time, but we’re going to the end.”

Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The dispute over whether to end the conflict has been the main obstacle in negotiations going back more than a year.

Israel says 58 hostages remain in captivity, with as many as 23 of them said to be alive, although authorities have expressed concern about the condition of three of them. Many of the 250 hostages taken by Hamas-led militants in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that started the war were freed in ceasefire deals.


Gaza-bound activist convoy enters Libya from Tunisia

Gaza-bound activist convoy enters Libya from Tunisia
Updated 12 sec ago

Gaza-bound activist convoy enters Libya from Tunisia

Gaza-bound activist convoy enters Libya from Tunisia
  • Convoy members were heard chanting “Resistance, resistance” and “To Gaza we go by the millions” in a video posted on the organizing group’s official Facebook page

BEN GUERDANE, Tunisia: Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists taking part in a convoy crossed the Tunisian border on Tuesday into Libya, aiming to keep heading eastwards until they break Israel’s blockade on the Palestinian territory, organizers said.
This comes after Israel intercepted an aid ship attempting to breach its blockade on Gaza, which was carrying 12 people, including campaigner Greta Thunberg and European parliament member Franco-Palestinian Rima Hassan.
The “Soumoud” convoy, meaning “steadfastness” in Arabic, set off from Tunis on Monday morning, spokesman Ghassen Henchiri told Tunisian radio station Mosaique FM.
He said it includes 14 buses and around 100 other vehicles, carrying hundreds of people.
Convoy members were heard chanting “Resistance, resistance” and “To Gaza we go by the millions” in a video posted on the organizing group’s official Facebook page.
Henchiri also told Jawhara FM radio channel the convoy plans to remain in Libya for “three or four days at most” before crossing into Egypt and continuing on to Rafah.
Organizers have said Egyptian authorities have not yet provided passage to enter the country, but Henchiri said the convoy received “reassuring” information.
Organizers said the convoy was not bringing aid into Gaza, but rather aimed at carrying out a “symbolic act” by breaking the blockade on the territory described by the United Nations as “the hungriest place on Earth.”
Algerian, Mauritanian, Moroccan and Libyan activists were also among the group, which is set to travel along the Libyan coast.
After 21 months of war, Israel is facing mounting international pressure to allow more aid into Gaza to alleviate widespread shortages of food and basic supplies.
The Madleen aid boat, which set sail for Gaza from Italy on June 1, was halted by Israeli forces on Monday and towed to the port of Ashdod.
The 12 people on board were then transferred to Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, the foreign ministry said, adding that Thunberg had been deported.
Five French activists were taken into custody after they refused to leave Israel voluntarily.
 

 


Algeria man’s self-immolation investigated as ‘terrorism’

A general view shows the Justice Ministry in the Algerian capital, Algiers. (AFP file photo)
A general view shows the Justice Ministry in the Algerian capital, Algiers. (AFP file photo)
Updated 6 min 28 sec ago

Algeria man’s self-immolation investigated as ‘terrorism’

A general view shows the Justice Ministry in the Algerian capital, Algiers. (AFP file photo)
  • The charges include “endangering the lives and physical safety of others” and “publishing and promoting false and malicious news”

ALGIERS: Algerian authorities have launched a counterterrorism investigation after a man had set himself on fire, an act investigators suspect was part of coordinated plot with links abroad, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Faouzi Zegout was injured as a result of the self-immolation on June 1 outside the justice ministry to protest a case he was involved in.
A video of the incident in the capital Algiers circulated on social media, showing Zegout saying he had done it “because of a judge... who arbitrarily threatened me with a 10-year prison sentence.”
At an Algiers court on Tuesday, a prosecutor said that five people had been detained in the case, without specifying whether Zegout was one of them.
One of the five has been released under judicial supervision, and the case has been transferred to a counterterrorism division, the court heard.
According to the prosecutor, investigators had found that the act was orchestrated by an “organized criminal group” with suspected ties abroad.
The prosecutor said the group had allegedly plotted the act and assigned roles, including filming and publishing the self-immolation online, to “disturb public order and disrupt institutions.”
The charges include “endangering the lives and physical safety of others” and “publishing and promoting false and malicious news.”
The person who filmed the incident had “communicated with people abroad,” had “multiple bank accounts” and “received money transfers from people,” the prosecutor said, without specifying when the alleged transfers had occurred or who made them.
Zegout has said that he recently appeared in court for launching a fundraiser without official authorization to help cover medical costs for sick people.
A court in Frenda, his hometown about 340 kilometers (200 miles) west of Algiers, was scheduled to deliver its decision the same day he set himself on fire.
 


Israel cancels waiver allowing Israeli and Palestinian banks to work together

Israel cancels waiver allowing Israeli and Palestinian banks to work together
Updated 10 June 2025

Israel cancels waiver allowing Israeli and Palestinian banks to work together

Israel cancels waiver allowing Israeli and Palestinian banks to work together

JERUSALEM: Israel canceled a waiver on Tuesday that had allowed Israeli banks to work with Palestinian ones, threatening to paralyze Palestinian financial institutions, Israel’s finance ministry said in a statement.
“Against the backdrop of the Palestinian Authority’s delegitimization campaign against the State of Israel internationally, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has instructed Accountant General CPA Yahli Rotenberg to cancel the indemnity provided to correspondent banks dealing with banks operating in Palestinian Authority territories,” the ministry said.
Smotrich had threatened in May 2024 to cut the vital connection between Israel and Palestinian banks in the occupied West Bank in retaliation for the recognition of the State of Palestine by three European countries.
The Palestinian financial and banking system is dependent on the regular renewal of the Israeli waiver.
It protects Israeli banks from potential legal action relating to transactions with their Palestinian counterparts, for instance in relation to financing terror.
In July, G7 countries urged Israel to “take necessary action” to ensure the continuity of Palestinian financial systems.
It came after US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that “to cut Palestinian banks from Israeli counterparts would create a humanitarian crisis.”
The overwhelming majority of exchanges in the West Bank are in shekels, Israel’s national currency, because the Palestinian Authority does not have a central bank that would allow it to print its own currency.
 


Medical charity shuts South Sudan hospital after attacks

MSF teams during the distribution of mosquito nets in Renk, Upper Nile State. (Supplied)
MSF teams during the distribution of mosquito nets in Renk, Upper Nile State. (Supplied)
Updated 10 June 2025

Medical charity shuts South Sudan hospital after attacks

MSF teams during the distribution of mosquito nets in Renk, Upper Nile State. (Supplied)
  • South Sudan has descended into renewed conflict in recent months as a power-sharing agreement between rival generals, President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar, has collapsed

NAIROBI: Doctors Without Borders, known as MSF, said it was forced to shut a hospital in South Sudan after violent looting, leaving a remote and conflict-plagued county without a major health facility.
MSF said its hospital in Ulang, Upper Nile State, was “completely destroyed” after armed individuals stormed the facility in April, threatened staff, and looted medicine worth $150,000.
The attack left the facility “in ruins and unable to function,” it said in a statement.
South Sudan has descended into renewed conflict in recent months as a power-sharing agreement between rival generals, President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar, has collapsed.
“The extensive losses from the looting have left us without the necessary resources to continue operations. We have no other option but to make the difficult decision to close the hospital,” MSF head of mission for South Sudan, Zakaria Mwatia, said.
MSF said it has also withdrawn support from 13 primary health facilities in the county, adding that the move leaves the area “without any secondary health care facility,” with the nearest one more than 200 km away.
In May, another MSF hospital in Old Fangak in northern South Sudan was bombed, destroying its pharmacy and all its medical supplies.
The incident came after the army threatened to attack the region in response to a number of boats and barges being “hijacked” which it blamed on Machar’s allies.
South Sudan has been plagued by instability since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011.

 


Israel’s Netanyahu says significant progress made in talks to release hostages

Israel’s Netanyahu says significant progress made in talks to release hostages
Updated 10 June 2025

Israel’s Netanyahu says significant progress made in talks to release hostages

Israel’s Netanyahu says significant progress made in talks to release hostages
  • Netanyahu said in a video statement that there had been progress, without providing details
  • Two Hamas sources told Reuters they had no knowledge of any new ceasefire offers

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that there had been “significant progress” in efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, but that it was “too soon” to raise hopes that a deal would be reached.

Despite efforts by the United States, Egypt and Qatar to restore a ceasefire in Gaza, neither Israel nor Hamas has shown willingness to back down on core demands, with each side blaming the other for the failure to reach a deal.
Netanyahu, who has come under pressure from within his right-wing coalition to continue the war and block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, said in a video statement shared by his office that there had been progress, without providing details.
A source familiar with the negotiations said that Washington had been giving Hamas more assurances, in the form of steps that would lead to an end to the war, but said it was US officials who were optimistic, not Israeli ones. The source said there was pressure from Washington to have a deal done as soon as possible.
“There is a deal on the table. Hamas must stop acting recklessly and accept it,” a State Department official said when asked whether the US agreed with Netanyahu’s statement on the progress in talks.
“President Trump has made clear the consequences Hamas will face if it continues to hold the hostages, including the bodies of two Americans,” the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Two Hamas sources told Reuters they had no knowledge of any new ceasefire offers.