US makes urgent push to secure cease-fire as Rafah assault nears
Secretary Antony Blinken made a final push for Hamas to take the cease-fire deal laid out as Israeli officials threaten an attack on Rafah, Gaza.
Arab media giant Al Jazeera said Sunday it would “pursue every legal step” to continue operations in Israel, hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted to shut down the Qatari-based global outlet until the war in Gaza ends.
Netanyahu, who has long accused Al Jazeera of bias toward Hamas, said the cabinet determined the outlet was a threat to national security.
“Al Jazeera correspondents have harmed the security of Israel and incited against (Israeli) soldiers,” Netanyahu said. “The time has come to eject Hamas’s mouthpiece from our country.”
Al Jazeera rejected those claims as a “dangerous and ridiculous lie” that puts its journalists at risk. The network is funded by the Qatari government, which has been a key mediator in cease-fire talks. Like many media outlets around the world, however, Al Jazeera has been critical of Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
“The Israeli PM and his military… wanted everything to happen and be concealed without anybody reporting or talking about it,” said Al Jazeera reporter Hani Mahmoud.
Parts of Gaza in ‘full-blown famine’: World Food Program director Cindy McCain says crisis worsening
Developments:
∎ Hamas called the Israeli decision on Al Jazeera a “blatant violation of freedom of the press, and a repressive and retaliatory measure against Al Jazeera’s professional role in exposing the crimes of the occupation.”
∎ Pro-Palestinian rallies and protests continued to sweep across the U.S., with dozens of arrests and sometimes violent clashes with counterdemonstrators.
∎ Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said signs indicate Hamas won’t accept the latest hostage deal and that the military will launch its offensive into the southern Gaza city of Rafah in “the near future,” the Times of Israel reported. The U.S. is among scores of nations urging Israel not to invade the city, packed with more than 1 million Palestinians who have fled the fighting elsewhere in Gaza.
∎ Israel shut down humanitarian aid shipments through the Karem Abu Salem border crossing after a nearby rocket attack injured several people, Israeli officials said. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
Pro-Palestinian protests stretch on after arrests, police crackdowns: Latest updates
Netanyahu warned that Israel will make no deal that would free hostages in exchange for ending the war, saying that would keep Hamas in power and pose a threat to Israel. Israel is willing to pause fighting in Gaza in order to secure the release of hostages still being held by Hamas-led militants, he 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,” Netanyahu said. “Israel cannot accept that.”
Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh said the militants remain committed to a “comprehensive” cease-fire that guarantees Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. He 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.”
World Food Program director Cindy McCain parts of Gaza in ‘full-blown famine’
Gaza, which has dealth with tens of thousands of war deaths along with the destruction of much of its infrasture, now has “full blown famine” to contend with, says Cindy McCain, director of the World Food Program. Her remarks are not an official declaration of famine, which is a technical designation spearheaded by the United Nations. The U.N. has said famine is “imminent” in Gaza since mid-March. But McCain, in an interview airing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press, joinied Samantha Power, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, in making the claim. Power was the first to make the claim during congressional testimony last month.
“There is famine – full-blown famine – in the north and it’s moving its way south,” McCain said. “It’s horror. It’s so hard to look at and it’s so hard to hear.”
− Riley Beggin
Turkey cuts $7 billion in Israel trade over ‘uncompromising attitude’ in Gaza war
Contributing: Reuters
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