Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Netanyahu rejects Palestinian state

This live page is now closed. Follow along with our ongoing coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

We will be closing the live blog soon. Here’s a recap of the day’s main developments.

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will not permit the creation of a Palestinian state after the end of the war in Gaza, shooting down recent statements from the Biden administration on pathways to Palestinian statehood.
• On the ground in Gaza, Israeli attacks continued, with a particular focus on central and southern Gaza. An ongoing telecommunications blackout has made it difficult for information to get out of the enclave.
• The death toll from Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7 is now more than 24,620.
• The Houthis claimed another attack against a US ship in the Red Sea, hours after US President Joe Biden said that strikes on Yemen have not stopped the group from conducting attacks, but US action will continue.
• Mexico, Chile referred Israel’s war in Gaza to the International Criminal Court over escalating violence against Palestinian civilians.
• Israel continued military raids in the occupied West Bank, tearing up roads, destroying homes, and detaining scores of Palestinians in the town of Tulkarem, where raids have gone on for 40 hours.
• Israeli anti-war demonstrators marched in Tel Aviv, demanding the return of the captives in Gaza and an end to the conflict.

The demonstrators – among them family members of captives held in Gaza – blocked a Tel Aviv highway near the Defence Ministry as they called on the government to do more to bring about the release of the captives.

Demonstrators spelt out the number ‘136’ in flames on the road.

“The time for the hostages is up,” the Hostages Family Forum said in a statement quoted by the Times of Israel. “If the government that abandoned them is not able to promote a deal immediately, let it be replaced by one that hasn’t.”

Many of the family members say the government is not doing enough, and that the stated goals of Israel’s war on Gaza – the destruction of Hamas and the release of the captives – are incompatible.

• Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici: “I condemn the remarks of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the rhetoric of Israel’s far-right government leaders who want to deny Palestinians the right to a state.”
• Congressman Don Beyer: “Prime Minister Netanyahu’s position as stated here is antithetical to American interests, the long-term security of Israel, the wellbeing of Palestinians, and hopes for peace in the region. I urge the administration to forcefully reject this.”

Israeli cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot has said that he convinced Israel’s war cabinet to pull back from plans to launch a preemptive attack on Hezbollah on October 7.

In an interview with Israeli outlet Channel 12, the former military chief said that he helped prevent “a grave strategic mistake” that could have kicked off a large-scale war with the Iran-backed group.

Eisenkot also said that another deal would be required to bring the remaining captives in Gaza home.

“It’s impossible to retrieve the hostages alive soon without a deal,” Eisenkot said, putting him at odds with statements from other cabinet members who say Israel’s offensive in Gaza is necessary to secure the release of the captives.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has commemorated the memory of the eight ambulance workers killed since the beginning of the war.

“They were martyred as a result of the occupation’s targeting while heroically performing their humanitarian duty of evacuating the wounded,” the medical group said in a social media post.

“Hatem, Khalil, Ahmad, Yusri, Yusef, Islam, Fu’ad, and Fadi. RIP to our beloved heroes. You will always be remembered.”

Semi-autonomous Kurdistan’s counterterrorism service has said that defence systems shot down an armed drone over Erbil Airport in northern Iraq, which hosts US and international forces.

The security agency said in a statement on Thursday that an armed drone launched by an “outlaw militia” was shot down at 11:06pm local time (21:06 GMT).

Israeli forces have raided the villages of Nahalin and Husan west of Bethlehem, the Palestinian state news agency Wafa reports.

The soldiers severely beat four young men, fired tear gas and forced store owners to close their shops in Husan, Wafa cited a local official as saying.

In Nahalin, Israeli forces searched several homes and stopped movement in the village, the report said.

Violence by Israeli soldiers and settlers has surged in the occupied West Bank since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, leading to the killing of hundreds of Palestinians.

A warning: This video contains images some may find distressing

Elizabeth Warren has rebuked the Israeli prime minister for rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state and called for conditions on US aid to Israel.

“The US supports a two-state solution. It’s the only way to ensure security, dignity, and peace for both Israelis and Palestinians,” Warren said in a social media post.

“Netanyahu’s saying the quiet part out loud — it’s dangerous and directly contradicts US policy. Aid must be conditioned on working toward peace.”

It’s 11pm (21:00 GMT) in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.

Here are some of the main developments:

• Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his stance against a future Palestinian state, undercutting US remarks that the end of the war in Gaza could be followed by a path to Palestinian statehood in exchange for normalisation between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
• US President Joe Biden said that strikes against the Houthis in Yemen have not stopped the group from carrying out attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, but will continue nonetheless.
• Mexico and Chile have referred the war in Gaza to the ICC, raising concerns about escalating violence against civilians.
• A doctor working with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says that conditions in Nasser hospital have become “unbearable” as Israel continued to bomb areas around the facility.
• Demonstrators in Tel Aviv are marching for the release of the captives in Gaza and an end to the war.

The Israeli army says they go into these camps and these areas in the occupied West Bank because they’re trying to root out militancy, they’re going after resistance fighters who are in those areas.

Palestinians who we speak with say that when Israeli forces go in there, they dole out a form of collective punishment. They have these armoured bulldozers that go in, that tear up the roads. They cut water lines and power lines – and these are the reports that we’re hearing coming out of Tulkarem.

The raid there has been going on for more than 41 hours, although there are signs that the Israeli army are starting to withdraw.

In the past two days, there have been at least eight Palestinians killed as a result of the raid. In fact, the Palestine Red Crescent Society says that they have still not been able to retrieve the body of the eighth Palestinian who was killed earlier today.

Conditions are dire in the camp, with reports of homes being destroyed, infrastructure being destroyed, and reports of Palestinian men, numbering perhaps in the hundreds, being detained and taken off-site to be interrogated.

Criminal charges against Stuart Seldowitz, who was filmed telling halal food vendors in New York that the killing of thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza “wasn’t enough”, will be dropped if he completes a 26-week anti-bias programme, a judge has ruled.

Seldowitz was facing charges of aggravated harassment and stalking as a hate crime over several Islamophobic rants that were caught on video.

The New York chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) slammed the legal deal that the district attorney’s office offered to Seldowitz.

“Seldowitz’s vile verbal abuse and harassment targeting an innocent street vendor were caught on video for all to see,” CAIR-NY Director Afaf Nasher said in a statement. “The sweetheart deal he received from the Manhattan DA’s office is a shameful affront of our justice system and wholly unfitting of his actions.”

UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese says Israel has broken international law with a “relentless” bombing campaign that has wiped out entire neighbourhoods and contributed to a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

Speaking at a news conference in Madrid, Albanese said Israel’s right to self-defence does not give it permission to discard principles such as proportionality and protection of civilians.

“Instead what has happened is over 100 days of relentless bombing – the first two weeks using 6,000 bombs per week, bombs of 2,000 pounds [907kg], in highly crowded areas,” she said.

“The number of kids who get amputated every day is shocking, one or two limbs. During the first two months of this [war] 1,000 kids were amputated without anaesthesia. It is a monstrosity,” she added.

The AFP news agency, citing comments from the Israeli military, says the army has reached the southernmost point in Gaza since their assault on the strip began on October 7.

In Khan Younis, the military said that the Givati Brigade was “fighting in the southernmost area that ground troops have operated in so far” and that Israeli forces have “eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters combat”.

The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad says it has bombarded the Gaza Strip in a “concentrated attack”.