Israel may have ‘security responsibility’ for Gaza for ‘indefinite period’ after war ends, Netanyahu says
Israel may govern Gaza for an “indefinite period”, after the war ends, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested in an interview with the US’ ABC broadcaster.
Noting that US President Joe Biden had previously said it would be a “mistake” for Israel to occupy Gaza, interviewer David Muir asked Netanyahu who should govern the territory when the fighting ends.
The prime minister suggested Israel would have a role to play for an “indefinite period.”
Those who don’t want to continue the way of Hamas … It certainly is not – I think Israel will, for an indefinite period will have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it. When we don’t have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine.
Last month, Israel defence minister Yoav Gallant said one key objective of Israel’s military campaign was to sever “Israel’s responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip” and establish a “new security reality for the citizens of Israel.”
The US has also suggested the Palestinian Authority, which administers the West Bank, could take charge in Gaza while others have suggested a consortium of Arab states could take responsibility.
Key events
This blog is closing. You can follow the Guardian’s new live blog on the Israel-Hamas war here.
An investigation has been launched in Los Angeles after a 69-year-old man died as a result of injuries sustained during a physical altercation between rival pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters, Ventura County Sheriff’s Office have said.
In a statement identifying the man as Paul Kessler, the sheriff’s office said they had “not ruled out the possibility of a hate crime”.
It said that police were called to the City of Thousands Oaks on Monday afternoon after reports of a physical altercation during which Kessler fell back and struck his head on the ground. He died in hospital of his injuries.
It said an autopsy had been performed and the cause of death determined to be “blunt force head injury and the manner of death homicide” but also said the incident “appears to be isolated and not part of a large effort.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles said he was an “elderly Jewish man” who was “struck in the head by a megaphone wielded by a pro-Palestinian protestor in Westlake Village.”
It said it was the fourth “major antisemitic crime” committed in Los Angeles this year and added: “Violence against our people has no place in civilized society. We demand safety.”
National security council spokesperson John Kirby has commented on the role Israel intends to have in Gaza after the war is over.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested in an interview with the US’ ABC broadcaster that Israel may govern Gaza for an “indefinite period”, after the war ends.
The broadcaster reports Kirby reacted to the line saying:
What we support is that Hamas can’t be in control of Gaza any more.
We are having conversations with our Israeli counterparts about what governance in Gaza should look like post-conflict and I don’t believe that any solutions have been settled upon one way or the other.
In light of Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments that Israel may govern Gaza indefinitely after the war has ended, take a look at Patrick Wintour’s piece from yesterday about what will happen in Gaza after the war has ended.
The Guardian’s diplomatic editor looked at the various scenarios being floated, who supports them and the hurdles and opposition they face. Here’s a taster:
In a recent interview with the Guardian, the Palestinian Authority’s prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, ruled out going into Gaza to replace Hamas without a comprehensive agreement that includes the West Bank and the birth of a Palestinian state.
Fatah fears that if it took over Gaza without a clear political horizon it would be seen as complicit in Israeli and US violence, once again being seen as Israel’s security sub-contractor.
Brian Katulis, from the Middle East Institute, has suggested that some of the exercises for constructing a “day after” regional security partnership to go into Gaza “sound like fantasy land because currently Arab states simply do not see eye to eye with America due to its support for the way the war is being conducted”.
The eventual realistic options available to the international community for the future governance of Gaza will depend in part on how Israeli politics responds to its trauma. Polls have shown personal support for Netanyahu draining away, with the main split over whether he should resign immediately or later.
Read on here:
It’s expected Israeli forces are preparing to move in on Gaza City. Associated Press reports that intense airstrikes on the strip are taking place before an expected push into the city’s dense confines. Here are some images ahead of that move.
Maanvi Singh
An Arab Muslim student at Stanford University has been hospitalized after being struck in a hit-and-run that authorities are investigating as a hate crime, amid rising threats against Arab and Muslim people across the US.
The student, Abdulwahab Omira, was treated for non-life-threatening injuries after being struck by an SUV.
“The driver is reported to have made eye contact with the victim, accelerated and struck the victim and then driven away while shouting ‘fuck you and your people’ out the lowered window of the vehicle,” according to the university’s department of public safety.
Omira called on others to “collectively denounce hatred, bigotry, and violence”, while also denouncing a slow response from the university.
Axios is reporting that the US will allow Israel to buy thousands of M16 rifles from US defense companies only after assurances the weapons won’t go to civilian teams in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli news outlet Haaretz also quotes White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby as saying “We received a commitment from the Israelis that these weapons will only end up in the hands of Israeli police units. The US state department did its homework and this is the commitment we received.”
The assurances come in the wake of the Biden administration expressing growing concern in recent weeks over a rise in settler-led violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The UN security council has once again failed to agree on a resolution on the conflict, with the US calling for “humanitarian pauses” and many others demanding a “humanitarian ceasefire”.
The Associated Press reported that after two hours of closed-door discussions differences still remained:
“We talked about humanitarian pauses and we’re interested in pursuing language on that score,” US deputy ambassador Robert Wood told reporters after the meeting. “But there are disagreements within the council about whether that’s acceptable.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier Monday told reporters he wanted an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza and a halt to the “spiral of escalation” already taking place from the occupied West Bank, Lebanon and Syria to Iraq and Yemen.
Guterres said international humanitarian law, which demands protection of civilians and infrastructure essential for their lives, is clearly being violated and stressed that “no party to an armed conflict is above” these laws. He called for the immediate unconditional release of the hostages Hamas took from Israel to Gaza in its 7 October attack.
China, which holds the Security Council presidency this month, and the United Arab Emirates, the Arab representative on the council, called Monday’s meeting because of the “crisis of humanity” in Gaza, where more than 10,000 civilians have been killed in less than a month.
UAE ambassador Lana Nusseibeh said all 15 council members “are fully engaged” and efforts will continue to try to narrow the gaps and reach agreement on a resolution.
Israel may have ‘security responsibility’ for Gaza for ‘indefinite period’ after war ends, Netanyahu says
Israel may govern Gaza for an “indefinite period”, after the war ends, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested in an interview with the US’ ABC broadcaster.
Noting that US President Joe Biden had previously said it would be a “mistake” for Israel to occupy Gaza, interviewer David Muir asked Netanyahu who should govern the territory when the fighting ends.
The prime minister suggested Israel would have a role to play for an “indefinite period.”
Those who don’t want to continue the way of Hamas … It certainly is not – I think Israel will, for an indefinite period will have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it. When we don’t have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine.
Last month, Israel defence minister Yoav Gallant said one key objective of Israel’s military campaign was to sever “Israel’s responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip” and establish a “new security reality for the citizens of Israel.”
The US has also suggested the Palestinian Authority, which administers the West Bank, could take charge in Gaza while others have suggested a consortium of Arab states could take responsibility.
US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has hit back at criticism for a video she posted over the weekend that was deemed offensive to the Jewish community by some, saying her critics should focus less on the words she used than on saving civilian lives in the Middle East.
In the video posted last week, the Michigan Democrat accused Joe Biden of supporting the “genocide of the Palestinian people” and included a warning that she believes his stance on the war will hurt his re-election chances in 2024, as her state has a significant Arab American population.
In a statement sent to the Associated Press on Monday, she said:
My colleagues are much more focused on silencing me – the only Palestinian American voice in Congress – than they are on ending the horrific attacks on civilians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank right now. Instead of attacking me and distorting my words, they should listen to their constituents and call for a cease-fire to save innocent lives.
The video also included a clip of demonstrators chanting “from the river to the sea,” a chant that many Jews and Israelis view as calling for the eradication of Israel, though others say it can have a multitude of meanings.
The spat is the latest example of a public rift dividing Democrats in Michigan.
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have blocked traffic at the Port of Tacoma, south of Seattle, where a military supply ship had recently arrived. Associated Press reports:
Organisers say they were targeting the Cape Orlando vessel on Tuesday based on confidential information that it was to be loaded with weapons bound for Israel to be used in the war. Those claims could not immediately be corroborated. In an emailed statement, Air Force Lt. Col. Bryon J. McGarry, a spokesperson for the department of defense, confirmed that the vessel is under the control of the US navy’s military sealift command and is supporting the movement of US military cargo.
“Due to operations security, DoD does not provide transit or movement details or information regarding the cargo embarked on vessels of this kind,” McGarry said.
The Cape Orlando vessel drew similar protests in Oakland, California, on Friday before it sailed to Tacoma.
In Jerusalem, Israelis have been holding a vigil to mark 30 days since the Hamas attack on Israel in which 1,400 people were killed, with a candle lit for each victim.
Relatives of the dead gathered at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall to mark a month of mourning. The holy site is considered the most sacred place Jews can worship. Prayers were held marking the first month of grief, in line with Jewish tradition. Agence France Press reported:
“We don’t have other ways to commemorate them except with prayers, lighting candles, and having them in our heart,” said Yossi Rivlin, who lost two brothers at a music festival massacre during the Hamas attack.
“This unity of the Israeli nation, we feel it not only in our house but all around the country. Too bad we had to wait for this moment,” the 26-year-old added.
“It’s a terrible time. I just hope we won’t forget and return to our routine.”
Standing before a giant Israeli flag, army chief cantor Shai Abramson gave a prayer for the departed, modified to include a blessing for security forces who “paid with their lives for the protection of Israeli land”.
The ceremony was the first religious commemoration organised at the Wailing Wall since 7 October.
It was attended by Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet formed by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of the attack, the deadliest the nation has suffered since its founding in 1948.
This is Helen Livingstone, taking over from my colleague Leonie Chao-Fong.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 2am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where things stand:
More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza since 7 October, according to figures released by the health authority in the territory. The total number of deaths now stands at 10,022, including 4,104 children. The number of casualties in Gaza has not been independently verified.
The deaths of scores of aid workers in airstrikes on Gaza over the past month has made the conflict the deadliest ever for UN workers. At least 88 people who worked for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, have been killed since 7 October, and 47 of its buildings have been damaged. Separately, at least 150 health workers have been killed in Gaza – 16 while on duty – and 18 emergency-service workers for Gaza’s civil defence, according to the UN. More than 100 health facilities have been damaged.
The Israeli military says it has completely encircled Gaza City after over a week of heavy fighting, in effect severing the territory into two, as Israeli ground troops appeared poised to enter the dense urban sprawl from the south. “Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza,” Rear Adm Daniel Hagari told reporters, calling it a “significant stage” in Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group ruling the territory. Residents in Gaza have said Sunday night was one of the heaviest bombardments since Israel began its bombing campaign.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said it is carrying out airstrikes against sites belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The IDF said it had identified about 30 launches from Lebanon towards northern Israel earlier on Monday, and that it was “responding with artillery fire toward the origin of the launches”.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they launched a fresh drone attack against Israel which they claimed temporarily halted activity at Israeli military bases and airports. Last week, the Houthis declared they had fired drones and missiles at Israel, adding that there would be more such attacks to come “to help the Palestinians to victory”.
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces on Monday in the West Bank city of Tulkarm has risen to four, the Palestinian health ministry said. Previous reports said three people were killed and a fourth injured during an exchange with Israeli forces in the occupied territory.
A Hamas commander believed to be among those who ordered the 7 October attacks in Israel was killed overnight in an airstrike, according to reports. The reports named him as Wael Asefa, commander of Hamas’s Deir al-Balah battalion of the group’s central camps brigade.
UN-run shelters in Gaza are so crowded that it is impossible to count the people needing food, water, medicine and other basics, administrators have told the Guardian.
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu discussed “the possibility of tactical pauses” in Israel’s military operations in Gaza to facilitate humanitarian aid, according to a readout of a call between the leaders on Friday. According to the White House, the US president told Israel’s prime minister that the US was “steadfast” in its support of Israel.
The US is planning a $320m (£259m) transfer of precision bombs for Israel, according to reports. The Biden administration has informed congressional leaders of the planned transfer of spice family gliding bomb assemblies, a type of precision guided weapon fired by warplanes, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has ended his tour of the Middle East admitting that his efforts to secure a sustained humanitarian pause and greater constraint in Israel’s assault on Gaza was still “a work in progress”.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said the protection of civilians “must be paramount” in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, warning that the Gaza Strip was becoming “a graveyard for children”. Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, responded by saying: “Shame on you.”
Fuel reserves for generators powering the al-Quds hospital in Gaza City are at a critical level and will run out within 48 hours, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society warned on Friday. Meanwhile the head of al-Awda hospital in the northern Gaza Strip also warned on Friday that it could completely shut down by Wednesday night due to the lack of fuel.
More than half a million people in northern Gaza face death by starvation as food supplies run “perilously” low, an international charity has warned.
About 80 dual nationals and 17 medical evacuees had left Gaza to Egypt through the Rafah crossing by early Monday evening, Reuters reported, citing Egyptian security sources, after evacuations were suspended for two days after an ambulance was hit by an Israeli strike in Gaza on Friday.
The European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the EU was increasing its humanitarian aid to Gaza by another €25m, bringing total aid to €100m ($107m or £86.5m).
South Africa is recalling diplomats from Israel to assess its relationship with the country, its foreign minister has said, saying that Israel was involved in the “collective punishment” of Palestinians.
The UK’s Labour party has issued its most direct criticism of the Israeli government since the Hamas attacks on 7 October, criticising the remarks of rightwing Israeli ministers over the West Bank and saying they have been responsible for “unacceptable and offensive rhetoric about Palestinians”.
Hundreds of protestors staged a sit-in demonstration at New York’s Statue of Liberty on Monday afternoon demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. Protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have gathered pace in recent days. On Saturday, tens of thousands attended a pro-Palestinian rally in Washington DC, while others marched in New York, Seattle and several other cities.
The Metropolitan police appeared to be on the brink of banning Saturday’s planned pro-Palestine march through London after claiming that a protest on Remembrance Day would be inappropriate and risked violence.
The head of al-Awda hospital in the northern Gaza Strip has warned that it could completely shut down by Wednesday night due to the lack of fuel.
Ahmed Muhanna, the director of the hospital, told Al Jazeera that there are 60 patients residing at the hospital, some of whom are in serious condition.
Some 80% of the patients in al-Awda – one of Gaza’s biggest hospitals – were women and children, he said. Muhanna added:
We are doing the impossible to continue working in the hospital, but we have no choice after the fuel runs out.
US state department employees have signed a dissent memo arguing that the Biden administration should be willing to publicly criticise the Israeli government, according to a report.
The memo, obtained by Politico, suggests a growing loss of confidence among US diplomats in Joe Biden’s approach to the Middle East crisis, the outlet writes.
The memo has two key requests: that the US support a ceasefire, and that it balance its private and public messaging toward Israel, including airing criticisms of Israeli military tactics and treatment of Palestinians that the US generally prefers to keep private.
The document argues that the US’s private and public messaging “contributes to regional public perceptions” that it is a “biased and dishonest actor, which … at worst harms US interests worldwide”. It goes on:
We must publicly criticize Israel’s violations of international norms such as failure to limit offensive operations to legitimate military targets. When Israel supports settler violence and illegal land seizures or employs excessive use of force against Palestinians, we must communicate publicly that this goes against our American values so that Israel does not act with impunity.
Politico said it was unclear how many people had signed the memo, or if and when it was submitted to the department’s dissent channel.
The United Arab Emirates has announced it will establish a fully equipped field hospital in the Gaza Strip to treat wounded Palestinians, according to state media.
The state news agency reported that five aircraft carrying the equipment and requirements necessary for the establishment and operation of the field hospital departed from Abu Dhabi on Monday, heading to al-Arish airport in Egypt.
The agency said the hospital would have a capacity of 150 beds. There was no mention of whether the UAE had reached an agreement on the initiative with Israel.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has once again rejected the idea of a ceasefire in Gaza unless hostages are released, but suggested a series of ‘tactical little pauses’ may be possible.
In an interview with ABC News, Netanyahu was asked about the Biden administration’s calls for temporary “humanitarian” pauses in the fighting to allow more aid into Gaza and for civilians to evacuate. Netanyahu said:
Well, there’ll be no ceasefire, general ceasefire, in Gaza without the release of our hostages. As far as tactical little pauses, an hour here, an hour there. We’ve had them before, I suppose, will check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods to come in, or our hostages, individual hostages to leave. But I don’t think there’s going to be a general ceasefire.
He said he believed a ceasefire “will hamper the war effort” and hamper the effort to get the hostages out “because the only thing that works on these criminals in Hamas is the military pressure that we’re exerting”.
Asked if he would agree to a ceasefire if Hamas agrees to the release of hostages, Netanyahu replied:
There will be a ceasefire for that purpose.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim new drone attack on Israeli targets in ‘occupied territories’
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they launched a fresh drone attack against Israel which they claimed temporarily halted activity at Israeli military bases and airports.
A Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said on social media that Yemeni armed forces “launched a batch of drones during the past hours at various sensitive targets of the Israeli enemy in the occupied territories”, AFP reported. He added:
As a result of the operation, the activity at the targeted bases and airports stopped for several hours.
Israeli authorities did not immediately confirm the attack.
The Houthis are part of the Iran-aligned regional alliance hostile to Israel and the US, which includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran-backed militias in Iraq, Reuters reported.
Last week, the Houthis declared they had fired drones and missiles at Israel. In a televised statement on Tuesday, Saree said the group had launched a “large number” of ballistic missiles and drones towards Israel, and there would be more such attacks to come “to help the Palestinians to victory”.
He added it was the Houthis’ third attack on Israel since the start of the conflict
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