The order, which includes confiscating broadcast equipment, preventing the broadcast of the channel’s reports and blocking its websites, is believed to be the first time Israel has ever shut down a foreign news outlet.
Sunday’s crackdown on Al Jazeera came as Mr Netanyahu appeared to walk away from ceasefire talks after refusing to agree to Hamas’s demands to end the war in Gaza.
While Israeli officials did not send a delegation to Cairo, Mr Netanyahu said the state of Israel “cannot accept” such demands.
Speaking on Sunday, he said: “We are not prepared to accept a situation in which the Hamas brigades come out of their bunkers, take control of Gaza again, rebuild their military infrastructure, and return to threatening the citizens of Israel in the settlements surrounding the southern mountains, in all parts of the country.”
Benjamin Netanyahu said the state of Israel ‘cannot accept’ the demands of Hamas (AP)
In a statement released shortly after Mr Netanyahu’s, the Hamas chief said the group was still keen on reaching a comprehensive ceasefire that ends the Israeli “aggression”, guarantees Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, and achieves “a serious” deal to free Israelis being held hostage in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners.
(AFP via Getty Images)
Mr Haniyeh also blamed the Israeli prime minister for “the continuation of the aggression and the expansion of the circle of conflict, and sabotaging the efforts made through the mediators and various parties”.
Indicating that this round of talks may soon unwind, a Palestinian official said: “If Netanyahu doesn’t change his mind, there will be no reason to stay. They can always reconvene if that changes.”
In response to Hamas’s demands, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said: “We are observing worrying signs that Hamas does not intend to reach an agreement with us.
“This means strong military action in Rafah will begin in the very near future, and in the rest of the Strip.”
A house hit by an Israeli airstrike in Rafah (Reuters)
Palestinians stand in the ruins of a family home after an overnight Israeli attack (AP)
According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed, 29 of them in the past 24 hours, and more than 77,000 have been wounded in Israel’s assault on the besieged enclave since Hamas killed 1,200 people in a shock attack on 7 October.
A further blow to peace negotiations was struck on Sunday when Israel also closed the main crossing point for delivering desperately needed humanitarian aid for Gazans starving after almost seven months of war.
The Israeli military reported 10 projectiles were launched at the crossing in southern Israel and said its fighter jets later struck the source.
Hamas said it had been targeting Israeli soldiers in the area. Israel’s Channel 12 TV channel said 10 people were wounded, three seriously. It was unclear how long the crossing would be closed.
The attack came shortly after the head of the UN World Food Programme asserted there was a “full-blown famine” in devastated northern Gaza, one of the most prominent warnings yet of the toll of restrictions on food and other aid entering the territory.
Orthodox Easter services in Ukraine and Russia have taken on a political tone, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy asserted that God had a “Ukrainian flag on his shoulder” and Vladimir Putin attended a church service led by a staunch supporter of Moscow’s invasion.
Noting that Ukraine had now been fighting Russia for 802 days, Zelenskiy called on Ukrainians to pray for each other and the soldiers on the frontline. “And we believe: God has a chevron with the Ukrainian flag on his shoulder,” said the president, dressed in a traditional embroidered Ukrainian vyshyvanka shirt and khaki trousers. “So with such an ally, life will definitely win over death.”
Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter this weekend, while most western churches observed the holiday on 31 March.
In Moscow, Putin attended an Easter service led by the head of the country’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, a supporter of the Russian president.
Video of the service showed Putin, dressed in a dark suit and joined by Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, crossing himself several times during the service in Moscow’s gold-domed Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
The patriarch prayed for the protection of the “sacred borders” of Russia and expressed hope that God would halt the “internecine strife” between Russia and Ukraine, the Tass state news agency reported.
In his Easter message, Putin did not explicitly mention the war or what Russia refers to as a “special military operation”. Instead he thanked Kirill for “fruitful cooperation in the current difficult period, when it is so important for us to unite our efforts for the steady development and strengthening of the fatherland”.
Under Kirill’s watch the church has cracked down on internal dissent, with one priest facing expulsion for refusing to call on God to guide Russia to victory over Ukraine and another suspended for presiding over memorial services at the grave of Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader who died in an Arctic prison in February.
The sombre, politically tinged ceremonies took place as Russia launched a barrage of drones, injuring at least six people including a child, and officials said that a Russian rocket strike on Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region killed two people.
In Pokrovsk, about 35 miles (56km) from Donetsk city, the Russian-held capital of the region, which Moscow claims to have annexed, “rocket attacks killed two people and damaged a house”, Vadym Filashkin, Ukraine’s governor of the eastern Donetsk region, said in a Telegram post.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had fired 24 Iranian-style Shahed drones at its territory overnight, 23 of which were shot down. “A house and outbuildings were burned down as a result of ‘Shahed’ attacks. Six people were injured, among them a girl born in 2015,” the governor of Kharkiv, Oleg Synegubov, said on Telegram.
Since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, tens of thousands have been killed and millions more driven from their homes. In both Russia and Ukraine, leaders have sought to use religion and the church to rally society behind the war effort.
In a video message published on Sunday from Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral, where an exhibition features religious icons painted on ammunition boxes, Zelenskiy, who is Jewish, called on Ukrainians to pray for the safe return of soldiers celebrating Easter in the trenches. He also called on Ukrainians to pray for the land and people, whose spirit “cannot be broken” and who he said would see Ukraine free one day.
“Ukrainians kneel only in prayer,” said Zelenskiy. “And never before invaders and occupiers.”
With contributions from Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has hardened his rejection of Hamas demands for an end to the Gaza war in exchange for the freeing of hostages, saying that would keep the Palestinian militant group in power and pose a threat to Israel’s security.
Netanyahu said:
But while Israel has shown willingness, Hamas remains entrenched in its extreme positions, first among them the demand to remove all our forces from the Gaza Strip, end the war, and leave Hamas in power. Israel cannot accept that.
Hamas would be able to achieve its promise of carrying out again and again and again its massacres, rapes and kidnapping.
Netanyahu did, however, say that Israel was willing to pause fighting in Gaza in order to secure the release of hostages still being held by Hamas, believed to number more than 130. The statement came as a Hamas delegation met with mediators in Egypt for talks on a possible truce deal in the war.
Negotiators have consistently struggled to reconcile Hamas’s demand for a lasting ceasefire which would allow the militant group to claim a victory, with the apparent determination of Netanyahu to force Hamas from power, kill or capture its leadership and destroy all its military capabilities.
Amid the truce talks, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the Palestinian militant group was keen on reaching a comprehensive ceasefire that would end Israeli “aggression”, guarantee Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, and achieve a serious hostage-swap deal.
Haniyeh, in his statement, blamed Netanyahu for “the continuation of the aggression and the expansion of the circle of conflict, and sabotaging the efforts made through the mediators and various parties”.
Hamas leaders held a second day of truce talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators on Sunday, with no apparent progress reported. One Palestinian official, close to the mediation effort, told Reuters that the Hamas delegation had arrived in Cairo with a determination to reach a deal “but not at any price”. One of the main sticking points seems to be whether the deal would be temporary or permanent. Israel wants a deal to free at least some of the about 130 hostages held by Hamas, which has said it wants a lasting ceasefire.
Speaking as negotiations were being held in the Egyptian capital, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, hardened his rejection of Hamas demands for an end to the Gaza war in exchange for the freeing of hostages, saying that would keep the Palestinian militant group in power and pose a threat to Israel’s security.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the Palestinian militant group was keen on reaching a comprehensive ceasefire that would end Israeli “aggression”, guarantee Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, and achieve a serious hostage-swap deal. Haniyeh, in his statement, blamed Netanyahu for “the continuation of the aggression and the expansion of the circle of conflict, and sabotaging the efforts made through the mediators and various parties”.
Netanyahu’s cabinet voted unanimously to close Qatari television network Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, according to a government statement. The statement did not specify when the closure would take place. The cabinet vote came after Israel’s parliament passed a law allowing the temporary closure in Israel of foreign broadcasters considered to be a threat to national security during the war in Gaza.
A local official in southern Lebanon said an Israeli strike on a village on Sunday killed a couple and their child, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. “The dad, the mother and their little son were martyred”, according to the Mays al-Jabal municipality chief Abdelmoneim Chukair. Lebanon’s state-run National news agency said the strike killed “three civilians” and injured several others.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has hardened his rejection of Hamas demands for an end to the Gaza war in exchange for the freeing of hostages, saying that would keep the Palestinian militant group in power and pose a threat to Israel’s security.
Netanyahu said:
But while Israel has shown willingness, Hamas remains entrenched in its extreme positions, first among them the demand to remove all our forces from the Gaza Strip, end the war, and leave Hamas in power. Israel cannot accept that.
Hamas would be able to achieve its promise of carrying out again and again and again its massacres, rapes and kidnapping.
Netanyahu did, however, say that Israel was willing to pause fighting in Gaza in order to secure the release of hostages still being held by Hamas, believed to number more than 130. The statement came as a Hamas delegation met with mediators in Egypt for talks on a possible truce deal in the war.
Negotiators have consistently struggled to reconcile Hamas’s demand for a lasting ceasefire which would allow the militant group to claim a victory, with the apparent determination of Netanyahu to force Hamas from power, kill or capture its leadership and destroy all its military capabilities.
Amid the truce talks, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the Palestinian militant group was keen on reaching a comprehensive ceasefire that would end Israeli “aggression”, guarantee Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, and achieve a serious hostage-swap deal.
Haniyeh, in his statement, blamed Netanyahu for “the continuation of the aggression and the expansion of the circle of conflict, and sabotaging the efforts made through the mediators and various parties”.
In the tented camps and crowded streets of Rafah, the pro-Palestine campus protests in the US have been followed closely.
“We hear a lot of news about students’ demonstrations in American universities … When I saw that, I was very happy that there are still those who stand beside us and in support of us,” said Nevin Abu Shahma, 39, who fled to Rafah from northern Gaza early in the war.
Pro-Palestine protests that have fanned across US universities for weeks are now more muted after a series of clashes with police, mass arrests and a stern White House directive to restore order.
But similar demonstrations have spread in some form to campuses in Britain, France, Australia and elsewhere, and on Saturday students waved Palestinian flags and chanted anti-war slogans during a ceremony at the University of Michigan.
You can read the full story by Malak A Tantesh here:
In a pre-recorded report, Al Jazeera correspondent Imran Khan added a bit of detail about what Israel’s ban on the channel would mean.
Khan said Al Jazeera’s website would be banned, “including anything that has the option of entering or accessing the website” and “any device used for providing content”, which would include mobile phones of their staff members.
“If I use that for any kind of news gathering, then the Israelis can simply confiscate it.”
He added that the website’s internet provider could also be targeted for possible fines if it hosts site and all offices in Israel would also have to shutdown.
A local official in southern Lebanon said an Israeli strike on a village on Sunday killed a couple and their child, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
“The dad, the mother and their little son were martyred”, according to the Mays al-Jabal municipality chief Abdelmoneim Chukair.
Lebanon’s state-run National news agency said the strike killed “three civilians” and injured several others.
Hezbollah had on Saturday evening said it fired on military positions in northern Israel.
The Lebanese movement has repeatedly declared that only a ceasefire in Gaza will put an end to its attacks on Israel.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet has voted unanimously to close Qatari television network Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, according to a government statement.
The statement did not specify when the closure would take place.
The cabinet vote came after Israel’s parliament passed a law allowing the temporary closure in Israel of foreign broadcasters considered to be a threat to national security during the war in Gaza.
Israel has frequently clashed with Al Jazeera, which maintains offices in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Israeli officials have accused the network of anti-Israeli bias, a charge the network denies.
With foreign journalists banned from entering Gaza, Al Jazeera staff based in the Gaza Strip have been among the few reporters able to cover the war on the ground.
The network has vowed to persist in its reporting with “boldness and professionalism”.
At least 34,683 Palestinian people have been killed and 78,018 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Most of the casualties have been women and children, the health ministry has said, and thousands more bodies are likely to remain uncounted under rubble across Gaza.
An AFP correspondent and witnesses have today reported shelling and gunfire in the Gaza City area, helicopter fire in central and southern Gaza, and a missile strike on a house in the Rafah area.
As we have been reporting, negotiators have resumed long-running ceasefire talks in Cairo – brokered by Egypt and Qatar – on pausing Israel’s war in return for freeing hostages.
Reuters is reporting that Israel has given a preliminary nod to terms that one source said included the return of between 20 and 33 hostages in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and a truce of several weeks.
That would leave about 100 hostages in Gaza, some of whom Israel says have died in captivity. The source told Reuters their return may require an additional deal.
A Palestinian official, close to the ceasefire talks, has said the Hamas delegation had arrived in Cairo with a determination to reach a deal “but not at any price”.
“A deal must end the war and get Israeli forces out of Gaza and Israel hasn’t yet committed it was willing to do so,” the official told Reuters.
Another Palestinian official told Reuters the negotiations are “facing challenges because the occupation (Israel) refuses to commit to a comprehensive ceasefire”.
The official added that the Hamas delegation was still in the Egyptian capital in the hope mediators could press Israel to change its position.
Negotiators have consistently struggled to reconcile Hamas’s demand for a lasting ceasefire which would allow the militant group to claim a victory, with the apparent determination of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to force Hamas from power, kill or capture its leadership and destroy all its military capabilities.
Netanyahu’s ministers have publicly sparred on whether to go forward with a truce proposal: far-right members of his coalition have threatened to quit the government if Israel is seen to “surrender” to Hamas’s demands, while centrists have said they will quit if a hostage deal isn’t struck.
Hamas seized about 250 hostages during the surprise attack into southern Israel in October. About half are still held in Gaza, with many thought to be in or under Rafah.
Several dozen House Democrats have signed a letter asking the US president, Joe Biden, warning him that there is evidence to show that Israel has violated US law by restricting humanitarian aid flows into Gaza.
A letter to Biden signed by 86 Democrats said Israel’s aid restrictions “call into question” its assurances that it was complying with a US Foreign Assistance Act provision requiring recipients of US-funded arms to uphold international humanitarian law and allow free flows of US assistance.
The lawmakers said the Israeli government had resisted repeated US requests to open enough sea and land routes for aid to Gaza, and cited reports that it failed to allow in enough food to avert famine, enforced “arbitrary restrictions” on aid and imposed an inspection system that impeded supplies. Israel denies violating international law and limiting aid in its war in Gaza.
“We expect the administration to ensure (Israel’s) compliance with existing law and to take all conceivable steps to prevent further humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” the lawmakers wrote.
The letter comes as the chief of the UN’s food programme warned of a “full-blown famine” in northern Gaza despite the improvements, and reiterated calls for a ceasefire.
“There is famine, full-blown famine, in the north, and it’s moving its way south,” said Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Programme.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes since 7 October, with the majority being women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Israeli strikes early on Saturday on Gaza killed at least six people, officials said. Three bodies were recovered from the rubble of a building in Rafah and taken to Yousef al-Najjar hospital.
A strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza also killed three people, according to hospital officials.
Thousands of Israelis protested on Saturday, demanding the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accept a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that would see the remaining Israeli hostages brought home from Gaza.
Reuters reports that at a rally in Tel Aviv that took place as Hamas officials were meeting Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, relatives and supporters of the more than 130 hostages still in captivity said anything possible had to be done to bring them home.
“I’m here today to support a deal now, yesterday,” said Natalie Eldor.
We need to bring them back. We need to bring all the hostages back, the live ones, the dead ones. We got to bring them back. We got to switch this government. This has got to end.
The protests, ahead of the Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls this year on 6 May, came as the war in Gaza nears the end of its seventh month amid growing international pressure to stop the fighting.
“The only thing that keeps us going is the hope that Bar is alive and surviving,” said Ora Rubinstein, the aunt of Bar Kupershtein, who was seized along with more than 250 others when Hamas-led gunmen rampaged through Israeli communities near Gaza on 7 October.
Many of those taken hostage are believed to be dead but families want all of those taken to be brought back.
“Everyone must be returned. We will not abandon them as the Jews were abandoned during the Holocaust,” said Hanna Cohen, an aunt of 27-year-old Inbar Haiman, who was initially believed to have been taken hostage on 7 October but was subsequently found to have been killed. Her body is still believed to be being held by Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s government has insisted that it will not stop the war until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are returned but intensive efforts are under way to secure a halt to the fighting that might lead to a full ceasefire.
However, Netanyahu faces pressure from nationalist religious parties in his coalition to refuse a deal with Hamas and go ahead with the long promised offensive against the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Welcome to our latest live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and the wider Middle East crisis. Here’s a rundown on some of the key developments to bring you up to speed.
Thousands of Israelis protested around the country on Saturday, demanding the government accept a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that would see the remaining Israeli hostages brought home from Gaza.
Protesters in Tel Aviv chanted “war is not holy, life is”, with some people accusing the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of aiming to prolong the war.
At a rally in Tel Aviv, that took place as Hamas officials were meeting Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, relatives and supporters of the more than 130 hostages still in captivity said anything possible had to be done to bring them home.
The protests, ahead of the Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, came as the war in Gaza nears the end of its seventh month amid growing international pressure to stop the fighting.
In other developments in the war:
Hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza rose as a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Saturday to continue indirect talks, with what is believed to be a response to a new proposal, reportedly agreed by Israel to halt fighting for an initial 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners. Egyptian and US mediators have reported signs of compromise in recent days and Egyptian state news channel Al-Qahera said on Saturday that a consensus had been reached in the indirect talks over many of the disputed points. But many analysts remain pessimistic after talks over five months that have frequently broken down. A senior Hamas source close to the negotiations told AFP there would be “a new round” of talks on Sunday.
Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in a raid in a village near the city of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry and the Israeli military said on Saturday. Hamas confirmed that four of the men killed during the raid in Deir al-Ghusun village were from its al-Qassam armed wing. The Palestinian health ministry said their bodies had been taken by the Israeli military. The Israeli military said an officer from a special police unit was wounded in the operation it claimed targeted a Hamas cell responsible for numerous shooting and car bombing attacks.
Israel this week briefed the Joe Biden administration officials on a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of a potential operation in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has sought shelter from Israeli bombardment elsewhere. The officials told the Associated Press that the plan detailed by the Israelis did not change the US administration’s view that moving forward with an operation in the southern Gaza city would put too many Palestinian civilians at risk.
Media in Lebanon reported several Israeli attacks in southern areas in the country, including ad-Dhahira and Kafr Kila, Al Jazeera reported.
Police have shot dead a 16-year-old boy after he stabbed a man in the back in Australia in a possible terrorist attack.
The boy called police in Perth on Saturday night to say he was going to commit violence but didn't say where or who he was.
A man in his 30s was stabbed with a kitchen knife, with police alerted to the attack in a car park by a member of the public.
Three officers arrived and fired Tasers at the boy, but it failed to subdue him.
He was killed by a single shot when he rushed at officers.
"There are indications he had been radicalized online," said Western Australia premier Roger Cook, adding that the attacker appeared to have acted alone.
Police Commissioner Col Blanch said members of the Muslim community had previously raised concerns about the boy.
More on Australia
Related Topics:
The victim is in a serious but stable condition in hospital.
Police and intelligence agencies believe there is no ongoing threat, said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
"We are a peace-loving nation and there is no place for violent extremism in Australia," he wrote on X.
Image:Western Australian premier Roger Cook said it's believed the attacker was radicalised online. Pic: AP
The incident comes after a 16-year-old boy and six others were charged last month with terror-related offences following the stabbing of a bishop during a sermon in Sydney.
That attack came only days after a mass stabbing in the Sydney suburb of Bondi killed six people.
Thousands of Israelis protested on Saturday, demanding the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accept a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that would see the remaining Israeli hostages brought home from Gaza.
Reuters reports that at a rally in Tel Aviv that took place as Hamas officials were meeting Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, relatives and supporters of the more than 130 hostages still in captivity said anything possible had to be done to bring them home.
“I’m here today to support a deal now, yesterday,” said Natalie Eldor.
We need to bring them back. We need to bring all the hostages back, the live ones, the dead ones. We got to bring them back. We got to switch this government. This has got to end.
The protests, ahead of the Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls this year on 6 May, came as the war in Gaza nears the end of its seventh month amid growing international pressure to stop the fighting.
“The only thing that keeps us going is the hope that Bar is alive and surviving,” said Ora Rubinstein, the aunt of Bar Kupershtein, who was seized along with more than 250 others when Hamas-led gunmen rampaged through Israeli communities near Gaza on 7 October.
Many of those taken hostage are believed to be dead but families want all of those taken to be brought back.
“Everyone must be returned. We will not abandon them as the Jews were abandoned during the Holocaust,” said Hanna Cohen, an aunt of 27-year-old Inbar Haiman, who was initially believed to have been taken hostage on 7 October but was subsequently found to have been killed. Her body is still believed to be being held by Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s government has insisted that it will not stop the war until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are returned but intensive efforts are under way to secure a halt to the fighting that might lead to a full ceasefire.
However, Netanyahu faces pressure from nationalist religious parties in his coalition to refuse a deal with Hamas and go ahead with the long promised offensive against the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Israeli strikes early on Saturday on Gaza killed at least six people, officials said. Three bodies were recovered from the rubble of a building in Rafah and taken to Yousef al-Najjar hospital.
A strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza also killed three people, according to hospital officials.
Thousands of Israelis protested on Saturday, demanding the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accept a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that would see the remaining Israeli hostages brought home from Gaza.
Reuters reports that at a rally in Tel Aviv that took place as Hamas officials were meeting Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, relatives and supporters of the more than 130 hostages still in captivity said anything possible had to be done to bring them home.
“I’m here today to support a deal now, yesterday,” said Natalie Eldor.
We need to bring them back. We need to bring all the hostages back, the live ones, the dead ones. We got to bring them back. We got to switch this government. This has got to end.
The protests, ahead of the Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls this year on 6 May, came as the war in Gaza nears the end of its seventh month amid growing international pressure to stop the fighting.
“The only thing that keeps us going is the hope that Bar is alive and surviving,” said Ora Rubinstein, the aunt of Bar Kupershtein, who was seized along with more than 250 others when Hamas-led gunmen rampaged through Israeli communities near Gaza on 7 October.
Many of those taken hostage are believed to be dead but families want all of those taken to be brought back.
“Everyone must be returned. We will not abandon them as the Jews were abandoned during the Holocaust,” said Hanna Cohen, an aunt of 27-year-old Inbar Haiman, who was initially believed to have been taken hostage on 7 October but was subsequently found to have been killed. Her body is still believed to be being held by Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s government has insisted that it will not stop the war until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are returned but intensive efforts are under way to secure a halt to the fighting that might lead to a full ceasefire.
However, Netanyahu faces pressure from nationalist religious parties in his coalition to refuse a deal with Hamas and go ahead with the long promised offensive against the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Welcome to our latest live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and the wider Middle East crisis. Here’s a rundown on some of the key developments to bring you up to speed.
Thousands of Israelis protested around the country on Saturday, demanding the government accept a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that would see the remaining Israeli hostages brought home from Gaza.
Protesters in Tel Aviv chanted “war is not holy, life is”, with some people accusing the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of aiming to prolong the war.
At a rally in Tel Aviv, that took place as Hamas officials were meeting Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, relatives and supporters of the more than 130 hostages still in captivity said anything possible had to be done to bring them home.
The protests, ahead of the Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, came as the war in Gaza nears the end of its seventh month amid growing international pressure to stop the fighting.
In other developments in the war:
Hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza rose as a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Saturday to continue indirect talks, with what is believed to be a response to a new proposal, reportedly agreed by Israel to halt fighting for an initial 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners. Egyptian and US mediators have reported signs of compromise in recent days and Egyptian state news channel Al-Qahera said on Saturday that a consensus had been reached in the indirect talks over many of the disputed points. But many analysts remain pessimistic after talks over five months that have frequently broken down. A senior Hamas source close to the negotiations told AFP there would be “a new round” of talks on Sunday.
Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in a raid in a village near the city of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry and the Israeli military said on Saturday. Hamas confirmed that four of the men killed during the raid in Deir al-Ghusun village were from its al-Qassam armed wing. The Palestinian health ministry said their bodies had been taken by the Israeli military. The Israeli military said an officer from a special police unit was wounded in the operation it claimed targeted a Hamas cell responsible for numerous shooting and car bombing attacks.
Israel this week briefed the Joe Biden administration officials on a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of a potential operation in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has sought shelter from Israeli bombardment elsewhere. The officials told the Associated Press that the plan detailed by the Israelis did not change the US administration’s view that moving forward with an operation in the southern Gaza city would put too many Palestinian civilians at risk.
Media in Lebanon reported several Israeli attacks in southern areas in the country, including ad-Dhahira and Kafr Kila, Al Jazeera reported.
Police have shot dead a 16-year-old boy after he stabbed a man in the back in Australia in a possible terrorist attack.
The boy called police on Saturday night to say he was going to commit violence but didn't say where or who he was, said Sky News Australia reporter Crystal Wu.
A man in his 30s was stabbed with a kitchen knife, with police alerted to the attack in a car park by a member of the public.
Three officers arrived and fired Tasers at the boy, but it failed to subdue him.
It's understood he was shot when he refused to put the knife down and rushed at officers.
The victim is in a serious but stable condition in hospital.
Local reports indicate the attacker was known to police and had mental health issues and was in a deradicalisation programme.
More on Australia
Related Topics:
Members of the local Muslim community had raised concerns about the boy with police before the attack, said Western Australian Police Commissioner Col Blanch.
Regional premier Roger Cook said "at this stage it appears that he acted solely and alone".
Image:PM Anthony Albanese has said 'there is no place for violent extremism in Australia'. Pic: AP
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said police and intelligence agencies had advised there was no ongoing threat.
"We are a peace-loving nation and there is no place for violent extremism in Australia," Mr Albanese wrote on X.
The incident comes after a 16-year-old boy and six others were charged last month with terror-related offences following the stabbing of a bishop during a sermon in Sydney.
That attack came only days after a mass stabbing in the Sydney suburb of Bondi killed six people.
