1h ago
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Lunchtime summary
An aide to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu
confirmed on Sunday that Israel had accepted a framework deal for winding down
the Gaza war now being advanced by US president Joe Biden, though he described
it as flawed and in need of much more work. In an interview with The Sunday
Times, Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy advisor to Netanyahu, said Biden’s
proposal was “a deal we agreed to … it’s not a good deal but we dearly want the
hostages released, all of them”.
Two Palestinian teenagers were killed by Israeli
gunfire in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on
Sunday. The Israeli military did not confirm the deaths but said two suspects
hurled explosives towards a local community, endangering civilians, and troops
responded with live fire, Reuters reported. “Hits were identified,” the
military said in a statement.
Iran’s hard-line former president Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad has registered as a possible candidate for the presidential
election, seeking to regain the country’s top political position after a
helicopter crash killed the nation’s president. The populist former leader’s
registration puts pressure on supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, AP
reported. In office, Ahmadinejad openly challenged the 85-year-old cleric, and
his attempt to run in 2021 was barred by authorities.
US forces on Saturday destroyed one Iran-backed
Houthi uncrewed aerial system in the southern Red Sea and saw two others crash
into Red Sea, US Central Command said. The Central Command forces also
destroyed two Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles fired in direction of the USS
Gravely, it said. No injuries or damage were reported by US, coalition or
commercial ships, it said.
Two far-right Israeli ministers have threatened
to quit prime minister Benjamin Netanyhau’s government if he goes ahead with a
ceasefire and hostage-release deal outlined by Joe Biden. The US president said
on Friday that Israel had offered a new roadmap towards a full ceasefire
including the release of hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza.
Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza strip has
killed at least 36,439 Palestinians and wounded 82,627 since 7 October, the
Palestinian health ministry said on Sunday. There have been 60 Palestinians
killed and 220 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry statement added.
United Arab Emirates president Sheikh Mohammed
bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani discussed
in Abu Dhabi proposals for a ceasefire deal in Gaza that were laid out on
Friday by US president Joe Biden, the UAE state news agency (WAM) reported on
Sunday. The two leaders expressed support for all “serious initiatives and
efforts” toward a lasting peace in the region, it said.
Dozens of students protesting Israel’s ongoing
military strikes in Gaza walked out of the University of Chicago’s commencement
on Saturday as the school withheld the diplomas of four seniors over their
involvement with a pro-Palestinian encampment. The disruption to the rainy
two-hour outdoor ceremony was brief, with shouts, boos and calls to “stop
genocide”. A crowd of students walked out in between speeches and a
demonstration followed the official ceremony. Some chanted as they held
Palestinian flags while others donned traditional keffiyehs, black-and-white
checkered scarves that represent Palestinian solidarity, over their robes.
Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday there could
be no permanent ceasefire in Gaza until Hamas was destroyed, casting doubt on a
key part of a truce proposal that Joe Biden said Israel itself had made. The US
president said the previous day that Israel had proposed a deal involving an
initial six-week truce with a partial Israeli military withdrawal and the
release of some hostages while the two sides negotiated “a permanent end to
hostilities”. However, the Israeli prime minister’s statement said any notion
that Israel would agree a permanent ceasefire before “the destruction of Hamas’
military and governing capabilities” was “a non-starter”.
The families of some Israeli hostages held by
Hamas called for all parties to immediately accept the ceasefire proposal.
Israel’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, and the French president, Emmanuel
Macron, also said Netanyahu should accept the deal.
Residents reported tank fire in the Tal al-Sultan
neighbourhood in west Rafah, while witnesses in the east and centre of Gaza’s
southernmost city described intense artillery shelling. “From the early hours
of the night until this morning, the aerial and artillery bombardment has not
stopped for a single moment,” a resident from west Rafah told Agence
France-Presse.
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