Netanyahu rejects US 'attempt to impose' its plan, revealing rift: Updates

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it crystal clear Thursday he has no interest in the proposals by the United States, his country’s strongest supporter, for either paring down the Gaza offensive or the future after the war.

In a nationally televised news conference that exposed his growing rift with the Biden administration, Netanyahu seemed to dismiss the notion of a Palestinian state, a condition other Middle East nations have set for normalizing relations.

“In the future, the state of Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea,’’ Netanyahu said, referring partly to the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea that Palestinians envision as their future home.

“We obviously see it differently,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.

Netanyahu said he rejected the American “attempt to impose on us a reality that will jeopardize us.’’

He also rebuffed calls for scaling down a military operation that has killed more than 24,000 Palestinians in Gaza and left countless others on the verge of starvation as his forces pursue the Hamas militants responsible for the vicious Oct. 7 rampage that sparked the war

“We will not settle for anything short of an absolute victory,” Netanyahu said.

Developments:

◾ The Israeli military said it found and destroyed a "major site" of the Hamas manufacturing industry in the center of Gaza that included a network of tunnels and factories used to make weapons and rockets.

◾ The European Parliament approved a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire "provided that all hostages are immediately and unconditionally released and the terrorist organization Hamas is dismantled."

◾ Eight Palestinian gunmen were killed in a "counter-terror operation" in the West Bank’s Tulkarem refugee camp, the Israeli military said. Dozens of hidden explosives were found and 15 wanted Palestinians were arrested, the military said.

◾ Police agreed to allow an antiwar protest Saturday in Haifa's Paris Square. The protest, the city's first since the war began Oct. 7, will be limited to 700 demonstrators.

2 hostages were murdered after being featured in Hamas video, kibbutz says

'No security' without a Palestinian state, Palestinian Authority says

In response to Netanyahu's opposition to a Palestinian state, the Palestinian Authority said there would be "no security and stability" in the Middle East without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

"The entire region is on the verge of a volcanic eruption due to the aggressive policies pursued by the Israeli occupation authorities against the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights," said Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Rudeineh added that the U.S. "bears responsibility for the deterioration of security and stability in the region due to its bias and blind support for the Israeli occupation."

The U.S. has encouraged working toward a two-state solution, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that Israel would not achieve “genuine security’’ without a pathway for Palestinian statehood. Earlier this week, the White House also announced that it was the “right time” for Israel to lower the intensity of its military offensive in Gaza.

US strikes at Houthis for fifth time, destroys missiles

U.S. warplanes conducted strikes Thursday on two anti-ship missiles in Yemen that had been aimed into Red Sea shipping lanes, the Pentagon said after the fifth such attack by the U.S. and its allies against Iranian-backed Houthi militants in a week.

Commanders determined the missiles posed an “imminent threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region,” according to a statement from Central Command. “U.S. forces subsequently struck and destroyed the missiles in self-defense.”

Navy F-18 aircraft attacked the missile sites, Sabrina Singh, the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary, told reporters.

The Houthis have launched more than 30 attacks in the Red Sea since Nov. 19, disrupting commercial shipping in a critical corridor, in what they say is retaliation for Israel’s invasion of Gaza. After repeated warnings to stop, the U.S. led the first attack aimed at degrading their capabilities on Jan. 11 and has kept up the pressure since, including striking 14 missiles Wednesday.

The U.S. and its allies have also been targeted more than 100 times elsewhere in the Middle East since the Hamas rampage of Oct. 7. There have been 83 attacks, mostly by rocket and drone, in Syria, and 57 in Iraq, Singh said, adding that Iran’s “hand” is behind all of them.

The U.S. remains focused on preventing the fighting in Gaza from “spilling out” and intensifying elsewhere, she said.

− Tom Vanden Brook

'The US is next': Israeli says 'barbaric jihadists' oppose free world

Israel’s president dismissed the global outcry for peace in Gaza on Thursday, saying Israelis have lost trust in the peace process “because they see that terror is glorified” by neighboring countries.

President Isaac Herzog, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said Israelis are consumed by concerns they will be attacked from the north, south, or east.

“If you ask an average Israeli now about his mental state, nobody in his right mind is willing right now to think about what will be the solution of the peace agreements,” Herzog said. “Everybody wants to know, can we be promised real safety in the future?”

Most governments agree that lasting Israeli security will require recognition of a Palestinian state. Saudi Arabia said this week it’s willing to normalize relations with Israel in exchange for a pathway toward Palestinian statehood. Israel, unwilling to cede control of security in Gaza and the West Bank, has rejected such overtures. Herzog said Israel’s destructive effort to crush Hamas should be supported globally.

“We are fighting a war for the entire universe, for the free world,” Herzog said. “If Israel was not there, Europe will be next because these barbaric jihadists want to get all of us out of the region and want to get Europe out of its place as well. And the United States is next.”

Supporters mark 1st birthday for Kfir Bibas, seized in Hamas rampage

The extended family and supporters of Kfir Bibas gathered Thursday in Tel Aviv to mark his first birthday and demand the government work harder for a deal to free him and the other hostages. Hamas said in November that Kfir and his family were dead, but Israeli authorities have not confirmed the claim and the family clings to hope. A sea of orange balloons in homage to Kfir's ginger hair marked the event at so-called Hostages Square.

Kfir, his brother Ariel, 4, and parents, Shiri and Yarden, were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7 as the deadly, Hamas-led rampage into Israel was unfolding. About 1,200 people were killed and more than 240 hostages seized that day. More than 24,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since.

The Hostages and Missing Family's Forum, a sponsor of the event, posted a statement directed at Kfir saying it was "heartbroken" at the way the world has treated him.

"You deserve all the tenderness, warmth, and love there is in our world," the statement said. "Kfir, know that all of this beauty is waiting for you at home. The world has so much more than cruelty and fear to offer you. Free Kfir, save him and all the hostages before it's too late."

Pakistan launches retaliatory strike in Iran, killing 9

Pakistan’s air force launched retaliatory airstrikes in Iran on Thursday, killing at least nine people two days after Iran struck at separatist camps in Pakistan. Both attacks appeared to target two Baluch militant groups with similar separatist goals on both sides of the border, and each country has accused the other of providing safe haven to the militants. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry described its attack Thursday as “a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted, precision" strikes that were not directed at Iran itself.

“This action is a manifestation of Pakistan’s unflinching resolve to protect and defend its national security against all threats," the statement said.

The Baluch Liberation Army, an ethnic separatist group that's operated in the region since 2000, said in a statement the strikes targeted and killed its people. “Pakistan will have to pay a price for it," the group warned.

Iran has been facing domestic unrest while the proxies it supports in the region − Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi rebels in Yemen – are engaged in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Live Israel Hamas war updates: Netanyahu rejects US plan, showing rift