Israel-Palestine live: Netanyahu rejects Hamas ceasefire proposal, vows ‘total victory’
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Several Palestinian news outlets are reporting that an Israeli aircraft bombed a residence in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, killing at least 11 Palestinians.
US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Brian Schatz have sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling on the Biden administration to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change course and promote a Palestinian state.
The letter comes after Netanyahu has repeatedly opposed the creation of a Palestinian state as a part of a long-term solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We have serious concerns that the Netanyahu government’s public and repeated rejection of a two-state solution” — the long-envisioned plan for Israeli and Palestinian states to live side-by-side — “fundamentally threatens regional security and undermines any path to a durable peace,” the senators wrote in the letter, obtained by the Huffington Post.
Disguised as Palestinian medics, patients and civilians, a group of Israeli undercover agents descended upon Jenin's Ibn Sina Hospital on Tuesday and killed three people.
The special forces involved were the latest in a long history of undercover Israeli agents pretending to be Palestinian.
The agents are known in Arabic as mustaribeen, which means to "dress and act like an Arab", and in Hebrew as mistaarivim, a derivative of the Arabic word.
Their existence goes as far back as the British Mandate of Palestine in the first half of the 20th century, during which British authorities worked with Zionist militias to infiltrate Arab populations in the region.
"Mistaarivim started as an undercover unit in the Palmach division, which was part of the terrorist militia of Haganah, the core of the Israeli army," Emad Moussa, a researcher specialising in political psychology in Israel and Palestine, told Middle East Eye.
To read the full story, click below.
Mustaribeen: The Israeli undercover agents with a history of dressing like Palestinians
John Kirby, the White House National Security Council spokesperson, said that Washington could have a tiered response that includes multiple actions in response to the drone attack that killed three US troops in Jordan on Sunday.
Kirby added that the Biden administration sees the potential of an extended pause in Israel’s war in Gaza. White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan met on Tuesday with visiting officials from Qatar to further discuss a possible deal between Israel and Hamas.
Speaking on the phone with his Jordanian counterpart, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, condemned the Sunday attack on a US military outpost in Jordan that killed three American troops.
Hussein and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi stressed the need to distance Baghdad and Amman from military threats by any party or group, as reported by Iraqi state media.
After the Israeli military denied reports that it stormed al-Amal Hospital, the Palestine Red Crescent Society provided an update on the situation.
It says Israeli tanks are stationed at the hospital's front yard and are firing live ammunition and smoke grenades at staff members and displaced Palestinians. The group added that fires have broken out.
Israel's military said that it has been able to destroy some Hamas tunnels in Gaza by flooding them.
"During the war, the IDF has implemented new capabilities to neutralise underground terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip by channelling large volumes of water into the tunnels," the military said in a statement.
A CNN report on Monday said that it was unable to verify an Israeli military claim that there was a Hamas tunnel located under a cemetery, which Israeli forces destroyed.
Reuters reported that an Israeli military spokesperson is denying that its forces stormed al-Amal Hospital.
“There’s no storming of the hospital, entry into it or any ordering of people to leave at gunpoint,” the spokesperson said.
Earlier, the Palestine Red Crescent Society, which operates at the hospital, said that Israeli soldiers stormed the hospital and were forcing people to evacuate at gunpoint.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported that it remains out of contact with the rescue crew sent to rescue a six-year-old child trapped in a car in northern Gaza.
The crew was sent over 24 hours ago to rescue the young girl, Hind, who was in a car with the bodies of her family members killed by Israeli solders.
When PCRS was alerted about her situation, the girl was surrounded by Israeli tanks, and Israel had blocked off the area making it difficult for ambulance crews to perform a rescue operation.
When asked if he made a decision on how to respond to a drone attack that killed three US soldiers in Jordan, US President Joe Biden said "yes".
He further said that he holds Iran responsible for the attack "in the sense that they're supplying the weapons to the people who did it".
"I don't think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That's not what I'm looking for," he added.
Israeli military forces have stormed the courtyard of al-Amal hospital, where the Palestine Red Crescent Society operates.
“What will create antisemitism is Zionism itself.”
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) January 30, 2024
Bennett, a Jewish-American man from New York who has been selling anti-war buttons since the Vietnam War, explains why he is now selling pro-Palestinian buttons at a protest in solidarity with Gaza. pic.twitter.com/VWnOT7XpiI
Yemen's Houthi movement says it is ready for a long-term conflict with the US despite Washington intervening militarily to stop its blockade of Israel-linked maritime traffic into the Red Sea.
Mohamed al-Atifi, the commander of the movement's armed forces, doubled down on his group's stance in comments reported by the Reuters news agency.
"We are prepared for a long-term confrontation with the forces of tyranny. The Americans, the British, and those who coordinated with them must realise the power of the sovereign Yemeni decision and that there is no debate or dispute over it," he said.
Many shipping companies have stopped moving through Yemen's Bab al-Mandab strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.
Yair Lapid told the Times of Israel that Ofer Cassif does not belong in Israel's parliament after backing South Africa's accusation of genocide against Palestinians at the ICJ.
Cassif, a leftist from the Hadash list, has been an outspoken critic of Israel's ongoing war on Gaza, which has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians in the besieged territory.
But not everyone in Lapid's Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party is happy with the attempts to impeach Cassif.
Meirav Cohen, a MK with Lapid's party said: “It is not the role of Knesset members to depose other Knesset members.”
לעולם לא עוד זה לעולם לא עוד לאף אחד ובשום מקום! 27.1 יום הזיכרון הבינלאומי לשואה.
— Ofer Cassif עופר כסיף عوفر كسيف (@ofercass) January 27, 2024
למרבה הזוועה – השנאה, הגזענות ואף חלק מן הפשעים שאפיינו את השואה לא נעלמו מהעולם וממשיכים לרדוף אוכלוסיות שונות, בעיקר מיעוטים. לכל פשעי השנאה והגזענות חייבים לשים סוף - כי כולנו בני אדם ולכולנו… pic.twitter.com/P2uOELoMZ2
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated his goal of "eliminating Hamas", amid rumours of truce negotiations between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Egypt and Qatar.
According to reports, a deal would involve the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli captives held by armed groups in Gaza.
The Israeli leader, however, insists that the Israeli army will not withdraw from Gaza, signalling that it will be there for the long haul.
#BREAKING: Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu on a hostage deal: We Will not agree to remove the IDF from the Gaza Strip and we will not release thousands of terrorists. None of this will happen. What will happen? Absolute victory! And the elimination of Hamas
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) January 30, 2024
