🔴 Live: Netanyahu says Israel has no plans to reoccupy Gaza

Issued on: 10/11/2023 – 01:52Modified: 10/11/2023 – 04:32

4 min

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country has no desire to reoccupy Gaza. He also told Fox News that Israel’s military is performing “exceptionally well” in its offensive on the Gaza Strip.
• Israel has agreed to daily four-hour military pauses in northern Gaza, the White House said Thursday, even as President Joe Biden said there was no chance of a full ceasefire.
• The Palestinian Health Ministry says Israel’s retaliation has killed more than 10,800 people, mostly civilians and many of them children.
• Speaking at a humanitarian aid conference for Gaza on Thursday in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron said that there must be a humanitarian pause in the fighting in the Gaza Strip and that countries must “work for a ceasefire” in the Israel-Hamas war.

• The Israeli military said its latest hypersonic ballistic missile interceptor had for the first time Thursday destroyed a “target” headed toward Israel from the Red Sea, highlighting potential attacks from Yemen. The announcement of the landmark launch of the Arrow 3 interceptor came shortly after Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels said they had fired “a barrage of ballistic missiles” at Israel. Separately, a drone hit a school in the southern Israeli resort of Eilat, at the tip of the Red Sea.

• The French foreign ministry accused Russian online networks of attempting to “exploit international crises to sow confusion” in France and in Europe by sharing photos of the Stars of David appearing around Paris, graffiti that has been widely suspected of being an anti-Semitic statement. 

4:28am: Poll shows 46% of Democrats disapprove of Biden’s response to war

Nearly half of Democrats disapprove of how President Joe Biden is handling the Israel-Hamas conflict , according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research – showing a deep divide within his party over the war . The poll found 50% of Democrats approve of how Biden has navigated the conflict while 46% disapprove – and the two groups diverge substantially in their views of U.S. support for Israel.

Nearly 7 in 10 Democrats approving of Biden’s management of the conflict think the U.S. provides the right amount of support to Israel currently. Of those who disapprove, 65% say the U.S. is too supportive of Israel. That gap between Democrats who approve and those who disapprove has widened substantially since the poll conducted in August.

2:18am: Netanyahu: We don’t seek to govern Gaza

Israel’s military is performing “exceptionally well” in its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday, stressing Israel does not plan to reoccupy the Palestinian territory.

“I think the Israeli army is performing exceptionally well,” he told Fox News, adding: “We don’t seek to govern Gaza. We don’t seek to occupy it, but we seek to give it and us a better future.”

1:51am: Media workers stage sit-in at New York Times headquarters to call for ceasefire in Gaza

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupied the lobby of The New York Times on Thursday, accusing the media of betraying a bias toward Israel in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war and demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the publication’s Manhattan headquarters. Many entered the building’s atrium for a sit-in and vigil that lasted more than an hour.

Led by a group of media workers calling themselves “Writers Bloc,” demonstrators read off the names of thousands of Palestinians killed in Gaza, including at least 36 journalists whose deaths have been confirmed since the war began.

They scattered editions of a mock newspaper – “The New York War Crimes” – that charged the media with “complicity in laundering genocide” and called on the Times’ editorial board to publicly back a ceasefire.

12:11am: Israel says ballistic missile destroyer hits first ‘target’

The Israeli military said its latest hypersonic ballistic missile interceptor had for the first time Thursday destroyed a “target” headed toward Israel from the Red Sea, highlighting potential attacks from Yemen.

The announcement of the landmark launch of the Arrow 3 interceptor came shortly after Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels said they had fired “a barrage of ballistic missiles” at Israel.

Separately, a drone hit a school in the southern Israeli resort of Eilat, at the tip of the Red Sea.

12:11am: Biden says humanitarian ‘pauses’ ‘a step in the right direction’

Israel has agreed to humanitarian “pauses” in its offensive on Hamas in Gaza after pressure from the United States, President Joe Biden said on Thursday.

Biden said they were a “step in the right direction” that would help civilians flee the fighting and get more aid into stricken areas.

The White House said there would be daily, four-hour pauses in northern Gaza, with warning given three hours beforehand.

Biden has been pushing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for longer breaks in the fighting after more than a month of war sparked by the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

 

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and Reuters)