Israel-Palestine live: Netanyahu rejects Hamas ceasefire proposal, vows ‘total victory’

Citing the Israeli army, Israel’s Channel 12 is reporting that at least 540 soldiers have been wounded in friendly fire incidents since 27 October.

The total Israeli army death toll since 7 October stands at 562.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society has released footage showing the aftermath of the Israeli attacks on its headquarters in Jabalia, northern Gaza.

The Palestinian foreign ministry has condemned “in the strongest terms” plans by Israel’s far-right minister of finance, Bezalel Smotrich, for promoting the deepening of Jewish settlements.

“Ending the occupation and the Palestinian people’s attainment of their national rights is the only way to achieve security and stability on the Palestinian and Israeli sides,” a ministry statement said.

“We call for the imposition of deterrent international sanctions on the leaders of the Israeli extreme right for boasting of violating international law and inciting violence."

Smotrich, who is also in charge of the Israeli governing body that operates in the West Bank, has been pushing for the approval of thousands of more settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Itochu Corp’s aviation unit will end its strategic cooperation with Israeli defence company Elbit Systems by the end of the month after the ICJ ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians and do more to help civilians.

Itochu Aviation, Elbit Systems, and Nippon Aircraft Supply (NAS) signed the strategic cooperation memorandum of understanding (MoU) in March. Itochu plans to end the collaboration after the World Court ordered Israel last month to prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians and do more to help civilians, Itochu chief financial officer Tsuyoshi Hachimura said.

"Taking into consideration the International Court of Justice's order on January 26, and that the Japanese government supports the role of the Court, we have already suspended new activities related to the MOU, and plan to end the MOU by the end of February," added Hachimura.

A senior official from Yemen's Houthis said in an interview published on Monday that Italy will become a target if it takes part in attacks against the country.

Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, head of the Houthi's supreme revolutionary committee, told daily La Repubblica that Italy must be neutral in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and put pressure on Israel to stop attacks on Gaza, adding that that would be the only way to achieve peace in the region.

Italy said on Friday it would provide the admiral in command of a European Union Red Sea naval mission it has joined to protect ships from attacks by Yemen's Houthi militia.

US President Joe Biden reportedly called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “bad fucking guy” amid tensions between the two leaders over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, according to a report by Politico on Sunday.

Politico cited White House officials on events surrounding Biden’s support for Israel in the war against Hamas and the political backlash with some in his party and amongst voters. 

The report says that Biden has "grown suspicious" of Netanyahu as the war continues, and says that Biden's fear is that "Netanyahu is eager to drag the US into a wider war in the Middle East."

Biden's spokesman Andrew Bates denied the report, replying that "the president did not say that, nor would he," and added that Biden and Netanyahu have "a decades-long relationship that is respectful in public and in private".

Defunding the sole UN agency that provides a lifeline for some 5.9 million Palestinians, including a besieged refugee population of over two million in Gaza currently facing a genocide, is egregious and aims to liquidate the Palestinian cause.

Since the United States announced on 26 January that it would suspend its funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa), other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Australia, and Germany, have followed suit.

The decision to defund Unrwa followed Israeli allegations that 12 of the agency’s 13,000 staff in Gaza (constituting 0.092 percent of Unrwa's local staff in Gaza) may have been involved in Hamas's Al-Aqsa Flood Operation of 7 October. 

Unrwa is funded almost entirely by voluntary financial contributions. Of the $1.17bn made in total pledges to Unrwa in 2022, the largest contributions came from the US ($343.9m) and Germany ($202m).

As a result of these funding suspensions, Unrwa will lose almost 60 percent of its funding, amid warnings of a rapidly approaching famine due to Israel's genocidal onslaught on the Gaza Strip. 

Read more:  Defunding Unrwa is a war against all Palestinians

The former commander of US Central Command, General Frank McKenzie, described Israel's success in its objectives in Gaza to date as "very limited".

"They set themselves a goal of removing the political echelon and the military leadership echelon of Hamas when they went in. They have not been successful to date at doing either," he told CBS's Face the Nation.

McKenzie also noted the larger issue in his opinion is that "you have to have a theory for what it's going to look like when it's over" - stressing that "you need a vision of an end state when you begin a military campaign because everything you do then subtracts or adds to your ability to get to that point."

Israeli occupation is "the least desirable of all outcomes," he added, going on to say that Arab states in the Middle East will need to assist efforts in post-war Gaza.

An emergency funding bill released by US senators on Sunday includes $14.1bn in military aid to Israel out of an overall $118.3bn of funding for national security and foreign aid.

The bill, which still needs to pass the Republican-controlled Senate, includes:

• $4bn for Israel’s “Iron Dome and David’s Sling defense systems to counter short-range rocket threats”
• $1.2bn for the “Iron Beam defense system to counter short-range rocket threats”
• $3.5bn “in foreign military financing to help Israel re-establish territorial security and deterrence”

The bill also provides $2.44bn for US operations in the Red Sea.

The US Secretary of State is due to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Monday, as he begins his fifth visit to the Middle East since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October.

Blinken will focus on “diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement that secures the release of all remaining hostages and includes a humanitarian pause” in Gaza, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement ahead of the visit.

The humanitarian pause will “allow for sustained, increased delivery of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza”, the statement added.

Blinken will also travel to Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the occupied West Bank.

Good morning readers of Middle East Eye,

We are on day 122 of the Israeli war on Gaza and the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since 7 October now stands at 27,365, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

In its latest update the Palestinian Health Ministry has said that  at least 66,630 have been wounded in attacks by the Israeli military.

Thousands more are believed to be dead and buried under the rubble. 

Here are the major developments from the last few hours: 

• Israeli forces are carrying out “significant destruction” of residential blocks across Gaza, particularly in the city of Khan Younis, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA reports
• An emergency funding bill released by US senators on Sunday includes $14.1bn in military aid to Israel, including $4bn for Israel’s Iron Dome and David’s Sling defence systems.
• US President Joe Biden’s approval ratings hit a record low, with his handling of Israel’s war on Gaza a big factor, according to new NBC polling data
• The Israeli military conducts raids across the occupied West Bank, arresting 11 Palestinians in Tulkarem, Ramallah and Halhul
   

Middle East Eye's live coverage of the war on Gaza will shortly be closing for the evening.

Here is a summary of the day's main developments.

The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said at least 127 people had been killed and 178 injured in Israeli strikes in the previous 24 hours in the territory. A total of 27,365 Palestinians have been killed and 66,630 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October

Battles raged in Gaza's south on Sunday ahead of another visit to the region by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a bid to secure a new truce as the Israel-Hamas war approaches its fifth month.

He is expected to begin his trip on Monday in Saudi Arabia before travelling to Israel, Egypt and Qatar. The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said humanitarian issues in Gaza would be a top priority for Blinken during the trip.

Earlier, Sullivan said in an interview with NBC that the US "intend to take additional strikes and additional action to continue to send a clear message that the US will respond when our forces are attacked and our people are killed".

He added: "We are prepared to deal with anything that any group or any country comes at us with," he said when asked about Iran's threats that US strikes will destabilise the region.

Iran criticised US and UK strikes on Yemen, saying that it "contradicts" their statements on avoiding a wider conflict in the Middle East.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Sunday that defunding Unrwa would be "both disproportionate and dangerous", adding that "such a disproportionate response would be difficult to conceive elsewhere". Funding to the UN Palestinian refugee agency has been suspended by countries including the US and UK after Israel claimed some of Unrwa's staff took part in the 7 October attack by Hamas. 

Also on Sunday, Unrwa's chief, Philippe Lazzarini, said that Israel had to date offered no evidence for its claims. Lazzarini said that he is still taking the allegations seriously and that an investigation is ongoing

Canada is set to impose sanctions on Israeli settlers who incite violence in the West Bank and introduce new sanctions on Hamas leaders, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Sunday, after the United States took similar action last week.

The mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, said police presence was being ramped up at places of worship and major infrastructure points following an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal headlined "Welcome to Dearborn, America's Jihad Capital", that he called "bigoted" and "Islamophobic".

Other news included:

• A Palestinian doctor says Israeli forces in Gaza detained him when they attacked a hospital and subjected him to abuse during 45 days of captivity, including sleep deprivation and constant shackling and blindfolding before releasing him last week.
• Two Israelis, one a 17-year-old, were arrested on Saturday evening on suspicion of spitting and cursing at a Christian abbot in Jerusalem. Video footage shared online shows the two individuals spitting at Nikodemus Schnabel near Jerusalem's Old City.
• Israeli forces arrested two Palestinian imams in the city of Lod, known as Lydd to Palestinians, on Sunday, according to Haaretz. The imams were arrested "on suspicion of emitting especially high volume from their mosque's public address system".

The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Sunday that defunding Unrwa would be "both disproportionate and dangerous".

A string of countries, including the United States, Britain and Italy, have paused funding to the aid agency, which has opened an investigation into several of its thousands of employees and severed ties with those people.

Unrwa on Thursday said its entire operations in the Middle East, not only in Gaza, would likely be forced to shut down by the end of February if its funding remains suspended.

Writing on the European Union’s diplomatic service website, Borrell wrote that "while the emotions prompting suspensions of funding are understandable, political responsibility has to look beyond emotions and consider the consequences of such a step. Defunding Unrwa would be both disproportionate and dangerous… [it is] an irreplaceable supplier of lifesaving aid to the Palestinians".

While acknowledging the need for a full investigation into Israel's claims that some of the UN Palestinian refugee agency's staff took part in the 7 October attack by Hamas, Borrell said that it was inconceivable other organisations would be defunded entirely based on the alleged behaviour of individuals.

"Such a disproportionate response would be difficult to conceive elsewhere. If some doctors in a European hospital were involved in criminal activities, there would be a thorough investigation and all appropriate actions would be taken," he wrote.

"However, no government would ever stop funding the health service, as this would primarily punish the people who receive these services. The wrongdoing of individuals should never lead to the collective punishment of an entire population."

He added: "Advocating for the end of Unrwa often confuses cause with consequence. The agency's continued existence, since it was established in 1949, is the direct consequence of the fact that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has never been resolved.

"We should concentrate all our efforts on addressing this deeper cause and finally implementing the two-state solution advocated by the international community and all EU member states. Unrwa's mission will automatically end once a sovereign Palestinian state, living peacefully side-by-side with Israel, has been established."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday Israel was not ready to accept a deal at any price to release hostages held by Hamas amid rifts in his coalition over a US push to get more aid into Gaza.

The comments came during the latest episode in a rumbling coalition row between religious nationalist parties opposed to any concessions to the Palestinians and a centrist group including former army generals, Reuters reported.

"The efforts to free the hostages are continuing at all times," Netanyahu said in comments ahead of a cabinet meeting that were released to the media. "As I also emphasised in the security cabinet - we will not agree to every deal, and not at any price."

He also appeared to deliver a rebuke to his far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who wants Jewish settlers to return to Gaza, and who criticised US President Joe Biden, Israel's staunchest ally, for pressing for humanitarian aid deliveries to the enclave.

"Instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel [to Gaza], which goes to Hamas," Ben-Gvir said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, during which he openly backed Donald Trump, Biden's likely rival in the November US presidential election.

"If Trump was in power, the US conduct would be completely different," he said.

Without naming Ben-Gvir directly, Netanyahu, who has had a sometimes tense relationship with Biden, rejected the comment, which came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to the region.

"I am not in need of any assistance in navigating our relations with the US and the international community, while steadfastly upholding our national interests," he said at Sunday's cabinet meeting.

Israel's government said on Sunday that it would bring in 65,000 foreign workers from India, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan to resume construction stalled since 7 October when Palestinian workers were sent home in the wake of the attack on Israel by Hamas.

Some 72,000 Palestinian workers were employed on construction sites in Israel before the attack, which prompted the government to lay them off and exclude them from Israel for security reasons, reports Reuters.

Some 20,000 foreign workers remain but almost half the country's building sites have been closed down due to the labour shortage.

A housing ministry spokesperson said new groups of foreign workers were expected to arrive in the coming weeks as the government seeks to avoid a blockage in supply that would risk reigniting real estate prices as interest rates start to fall.