February 11, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

US President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday morning and “reaffirmed” his stance the Israel Defense Forces should not proceed with the military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah “without a credible and executable plan” to ensure the safety of civilians.

Biden also stressed the need capitalize on the progress in the negotiations to secure the release of the remaining hostages.

Some context: Netanyahu has directed the country’s military to plan for the “evacuation of the population” from Rafah, his office said in a statement on Friday, ahead of an anticipated ground assault on the southern Gaza city.

Many of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in tent camps in Rafah have already been displaced from elsewhere in the enclave and say they have nowhere to go.

The plan has sparked concern from many countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry warned of "very serious repercussions of storming and targeting" the city while the United Arab Emirates warned Israel's plan “threatens to cause the loss of more innocent life and exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.”

The key facilitator of negotiations between Israel and Hamas, Qatar has also condemned the plans, and the Egyptian foreign ministry said Sunday that it strongly rejects Israel's plan, warning of "dire consequences."

Hamas has warned that if the offensive into Rafah takes place, it would spell the end of hostage negotiations.

Responding to an inquiry from CNN on the killing of Palestine TV journalist Nafez Abdul Jawad, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it “takes all operationally feasible measures to mitigate harm civilians including journalists. The IDF has never, and will never, deliberately target journalists.”

Eyewitness and journalist Mohammad Al-Sawalhi told CNN on Thursday that Abdul Jawad was killed after an Israeli missile struck the Deir El-Balah house he was staying in. At least 14 people were killed, including 5 children, when the residential buildings were targeted, eyewitness, and journalist Tareq Al Hilou, who received information from health officials in Rafah, told CNN.

The IDF said it is not aware of any strikes at these coordinates.

It said it will continue to counter threats and “remaining in an active combat zone has inherent risks”, given the ongoing exchanges of fire.

Some context: As of January 8, at least 79 journalists have been killed in Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Monday. The deaths include 72 Palestinians, four Israelis, and three Lebanese, according to CPJ's data.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed President Joe Biden’s comments on Israel’s response in Gaza as being “over the top." 

“I appreciate Biden’s support for Israel since the beginning of the war, I don’t know exactly what he meant by that,” Netanyahu said in an interview with ABC News aired Sunday.

Netanyahu went on to say Israel has “responded in a way that goes after the terrorist and tries to minimize the civilian population.”

ABC's Jonathan Karl then reminded Netanyahu of the death toll reported by the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza that now tops 28,000. 

“I’d be cautious with the Hamas statistics, and I can tell you that according to warfare experts (…) we brought down the civilian to terrorist casualty ratio down below 1 to 1 which is considerably less than in any other theatre of similar warfare," Netanyahu said.

On Thursday, President Biden offered one of his sharpest rebukes to date on Israel’s military conduct in Gaza, saying the operation to go after Hamas had been “over the top.”

Echoing some of his other comments to ABC, in a separate interview with Fox News on Sunday, Netanyahu said those who say the military can’t go into the southern Gaza city of Rafah essentially want Israel to lose. The Israeli prime minister claimed there is “plenty of room” for Gaza’s civilians to evacuate to ahead of a ground assault on Rafah.

CNN's Lauren Izso contributed to this report.

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will talk on Sunday, according to a spokesman for the National Security Council.

A source familiar with the expected call says the focus will be on the hostages still held in Gaza. 

Over the last several months, United States has attempted to put more pressure on the Israeli government to support a “humanitarian pause.” But those efforts have so far yielded little success.

Earlier this week, Netanyahu called Hamas’ recent proposals for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza “delusional.”

The phone call comes a few days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials earlier this week that the civilian toll in Gaza “remains too high” as violence continues to escalate in the region.

“Nearly 2 million people have been displaced from their homes. Hundreds of thousands are experiencing acute hunger. Most have lost someone that they love. And day after day, more people are killed,” Blinken said at a news conference held earlier this week after meeting with top Israeli officials.

Ahead of a looming ground offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushed off mounting criticism of plans to enter the city, saying telling Israel not to enter the southern Gazan city was like telling the country to lose the war.

Netanyahu directed his military to prepare to evacuate an estimated 1.3 million people in the city — many of whom were already displaced from other parts of the enclave and say they have nowhere to go.

On Saturday, an Israeli official told CNN that Netanyahu wants the Rafah operation completed by the start of Ramadan on March 10.

But Netanyahu's plans have come under heavy criticism: such a ground offensive would mean the end of hostage negotiations, Hamas-run television channel Al-Aqsa quoted a source as saying Sunday.

Here's what to know today:

Lengthy inspections, rejected humanitarian aid and Israeli bombs raining down. Those are some of the hurdles to relief reaching the 2.2 million Palestinians in war-torn Gaza.

The United Nations’ Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, Martin Griffiths, has described the process as “in all practical terms, impossible.”

Gaza was placed under a complete Israeli siege on October 9, when Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he would halt the supply of electricity, food, water and fuel to the enclave after Hamas attacked his country, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Israel has since begun allowing some aid to enter.

Getting any form of relief into Gaza is a long and arduous process, aid workers and the UN say.

An average of 95 aid trucks per day entered Gaza between October 10 and February 1, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, down from 500 commercial and aid trucks a day before the war, when Palestinians weren’t facing mass displacement and starvation. Some 2 million Gazans are dependent on UN aid now.

Relief operations are expected to be further hampered after the United States and other top donors suspend funding for UNRWA, the main agency responsible for aid distribution in Gaza. The donors pulled their funding over allegations by Israel that some of its staff were involved in the Hamas attacks.

Read more on why aid is slow to get into Gaza.

An Israeli ground offensive in the city of Rafah would mean the end of hostage negotiations, Hamas-run television channel Al-Aqsa reported Sunday, quoting a leadership source in Hamas. 

According to Al-Aqsa TV, a Hamas leadership source said that an assault on Rafah would mean the “destruction” of negotiations that have been ongoing for weeks.

In a statement on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it had directed the military to plan for the “evacuation of the population” from Rafah in anticipation of a ground assault on the southern Gaza city.

In an interview with ABC releasing Sunday, Netanyahu called Rafah the “last bastion” of Hamas and said Israel was “working out a detailed plan” to secure “safe passage” for civilians but offered few details. 

More than one million people live in Rafah, which is the last major area of Gaza the Israeli military is yet to enter.

Qatar on Sunday condemned “in the strongest terms” Israel’s plans for a ground offensive in the city of Rafah, urging the UN’s Security Council to “prevent” Israel from committing what it described as “genocide." 

The Gulf nation called on the Security Council “to take urgent action to prevent the Israeli occupation forces from invading Rafah and committing genocide, and to provide full protection to civilians under international law and international humanitarian law,” the statement read. 

The ministry said it “affirms Qatar’s categorical rejection of attempts to forcibly displace the Palestinian people from Gaza Strip.”

Qatar has been a key player in talks between Israel and Hamas, mediating a potential truce agreement between the two sides involving the release of hostages. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed the country’s military to plan for the evacuation of the more than 1 million people living in Rafah, his office said in a statement on Friday, ahead of an anticipated ground assault on the southern Gaza city.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that the Israeli military would soon launch an operation into Rafah and pledged to provide safe passage to civilians, but offered few details.

"Victory is within reach. We're going to do it. We're going to get the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions in Rafah, which is the last bastion, but we're going to do it," Netanyahu told ABC News' Jonathan Karl in an interview releasing Sunday.

"We're going to do it while providing safe passage for the civilian population so they can leave," he said.

When asked where Palestinians are expected to go, Netanyahu said "we're working out a detailed plan."

The prime minister has directed his military to prepare to evacuate an estimated 1.3 million people in the city. Many have already been displaced from other parts of the enclave and say they have nowhere to go.

The US has warned carrying out such an operation without thorough planning "would be a disaster" while the United Nations, other aid organizations, and several other countries have expressed concern over the impact on civilians.��