Israeli PM vows to invade Gaza’s Rafah

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday to send ground forces into Gaza's southern Rafah city despite international fears for the fate of Palestinian civilians sheltering there. 

The right-wing premier, whose security and war cabinets were also due to discuss latest international efforts towards a truce deal, stressed that "no amount of international pressure will stop us from realising all the goals of the war".

"To do this, we will operate in Rafah. This will take several weeks, and it will happen," he said, without clarifying if he meant the assault would last for weeks or would begin in weeks.

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• Death toll in the enclave now 31,645

Israel's allies have repeatedly urged Netanyahu not to attack Rafah, where more than a million displaced people from other parts of the devastated enclave have sought shelter, without a plan to protect civilians.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in Jordan before a planned visit to Israel, said an assault on Rafah would make regional peace "very difficult" and that efforts now were "about ensuring we come to a long-lasting ceasefire".

Netanyahu hit out at the pressure from allies, saying: "Are your memories that short? Have you so quickly forgotten October 7, the most horrific massacre of Jews since the Holocaust? Are you so quick to deny Israel the right to defend itself against the Hamas monsters?"

UN World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged Israel "in the name of humanity" not to launch a Rafah invasion, warning that "this humanitarian catastrophe must not be allowed to worsen".

Washington, which provides Israel with billions of dollars in military assistance, has said it cannot support a Rafah operation without a "credible, achievable, executable plan" to shelter civilians.

As tensions have risen with Washington, Netanyahu also criticised the US Senate leader for urging the Israeli government to hold new elections, calling the comments "totally inappropriate."

"We're not a banana republic," Netanyahu told CNN, blasting the remarks by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking elected Jewish American in history.

Schumer, who visited Israel after October 7, had also called Netanyahu an obstacle to peace.

Meanwhile, international envoys were planning to meet in Qatar soon to revive stalled talks for a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

A Hamas proposal calls for an Israeli withdrawal from "all cities and populated areas" in Gaza during a six-week truce and for more humanitarian aid, according to an official from the Palestinian group.

Israel plans to attend the talks, with cabinet members due to "decide on the mandate of the delegation in charge of the negotiations before its departure for Doha", Netanyahu's office said, without giving a date for when they would leave.

There has been no letup in the fighting, and at least 92 people were killed over the previous 24 hours, the health ministry in Gaza said yesterday.

The dead included 12 members of the same family whose house was hit in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza.

Since October 7, Israel's relentless bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 31,645 people, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry.

Shelling and clashes were reported in south Gaza's main city of Khan Yunis and elsewhere, and the Israeli army said its forces had killed "approximately 18 terrorists" in central Gaza since Saturday.

More than five months of war and an Israeli siege have led to dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, where the United Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine for the coastal territory's 2.4 million people.

Humanitarians have cited Israeli restrictions as among the obstacles they face in reaching the needy.

A second ship was due to depart from Cyprus along a new maritime corridor to bring food and relief goods, officials of the Mediterranean nation said.

On Saturday the US charity World Central Kitchen said its team had finished unloading supplies from a barge towed by Spanish aid vessel Open Arms which had pioneered the sea route.

Jordan on Sunday announced the latest aid airdrop over northern Gaza together with German, United States and Egyptian aircraft.

Meanwhile, according to the NBC news, US President Joe Biden began to shout and swear after learning that his poll numbers in the battleground states of Michigan and Georgia had dropped over his handling of the Gaza war.

The report cited a lawmaker familiar with the private meeting at the White House in January where the scene played out.

He believed he had been doing what was right, despite the political fallout, Biden told the group, according to the lawmaker.