Israel-Hamas war latest: Israel will invade Rafah 'in next days', says Palestinian presidnet (2024)

Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the US House of Representatives, has said Benjamin Netanyahu “couldn’t have done things worse” with regard to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Speaking on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Pelosi said Mr Netanyahu “has never been an agent for peace” and she is “not a big fan” of the Israeli prime minister.

When asked for her opinion on the student protests against the war happening across the US, she said: “Israel has the right to defend itself – the manner in which they are doing it is really challenging because Netanyahu has never been an agent for peace.

“I’m not a big fan of his, but he couldn’t have done things worse than tens of thousands, whatever the figure may be, of people dying, children malnourished, and the uncertainty that is there, and that’s what people are speaking out about.”

Saudi Arabia has called for regional “stability”, warning of the effects of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war on global economic sentiment at the start of a summit attended by a host of Gaza mediators.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken, Palestinian leaders and high-ranking officials from other countries trying to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas are on the guest list for the summit in Riyadh, capital of the world’s biggest crude oil exporter.

The Gaza war along with conflicts in Ukraine and elsewhere put “a lot of pressure” on the economic “mood”, Saudi finance minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said at one of the first panel discussions of the two-day World Economic Forum special meeting.

“I think cool-headed countries and leaders and people need to prevail,” Jadaan said. “The region needs stability.”

A US presidential candidate has been arrested at a pro-Palestinian demonstration at Washington University as campus protests intensify across the country.

Jill Stein, a Green Party candidate, attended the St Louis protest to support students calling for the university to divest from Boeing military equipment over its sale of arms to Israel and boycott Israeli academic institutions.

“We’re going to stand here in line with the students who are standing up for democracy, standing up for human rights, standing up to end genocide,” Ms Stein said.

David Schwab, her communications director, said Ms Stein had attempted to de-escalate the situation between protestors and police Saturday afternoon, but that the police “were not responsive” and began arrests shortly afterward.

Her arrest comes as pro-Palestine protests sweep university campuses in the US. Demonstrators are calling for Israel to end the war in Gaza and for the US to sanction Israel.

At least 34,454 Palestinians have been killed and 77,575 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since Oct 7, the Hamas-run health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Some 66 have been killed and 138 others wounded over the past 24 hours, the ministry said.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Sunday said the United States is the only country capable of stopping an Israeli invasion of Rafah, saying it would be “the biggest disaster in the history of the Palestinian people”.

“We appeal to the United States of America to ask Israel to stop the Rafah operation because America is the only country capable of preventing Israel from committing this crime,” Mr Abbas said at a global economic summit in the Saudi capital.

Washington’s top diplomat will travel to Saudi Arabia on Sunday as the deadline approaches on a landmark – and, analysts say, long-shot – deal that would see the kingdom recognise Israel.

In September, before Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel sparked the war, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Fox News that “every day we get closer” to a deal that could also bolster the Washington-Riyadh security partnership.

However Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia’s 38-year-old de facto ruler, also said the Palestinian issue was “very important” for Riyadh, and Saudi officials have reiterated their insistence on recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

While it is no surprise Saudi Arabia would link ties with Israel to a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, “the price for normalisation, especially on the Palestinian front, has certainly gone up,” said Saudi analyst Aziz Alghashian.

The US State Department said that Blinken will discuss “a pathway to an independent Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel”, during talks in Riyadh on Monday and Tuesday.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed shooting down another of the US military’s MQ-9 Reaper drones.

The Houthis said they shot down the Reaper with a surface-to-air missile, part of a renewed series of assaults this week by the rebels after a relative lull in their pressure campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

A defense department spokesperson acknowledged to The Associated Press that “a US Air Force MQ-9 drone crashed in Yemen.” He said an investigation was underway, without elaborating.

Footage released by the Houthis included what they described as the missile launch targeting the drone, with a man off-camera reciting the Houthi’s slogan after it was hit: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”

The footage included several close-ups on parts of the drone that included the logo of General Atomics, which manufactures the drone, and serial numbers corresponding with known parts made by the company.

Since the Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the US military has lost at least five drones to the rebels counting the recent shootdown — in 2017, 2019, 2023 and this year.

France’s foreign minister said that he would make proposals to Lebanese officials on Sunday aimed at easing tensions between Hezbollah and Israel and preventing a war breaking out.

“If I look at the situation today if there was not a war in Gaza, we could be talking about a war in southern Lebanon given the number of strikes and the impact on the area,” Stephane Sejourne said after visiting the United Nations peace keeping force in Naqoura, southern Lebanon.

“I will pass messages and make proposals to the authorities here to stabilise this zone and avoid a war.”