Israel-Hamas war latest: Netanyahu says ‘intense fighting’ phase ending in Gaza but war not over

We’ve more detail to bring you now on Benjamin Netanyahu’s interview with Israel’s Channel 14, where he said the phase of “intense fighting” against Hamas in Gaza is coming to an end but vowed the war would continue (more in 19.46 post).

“After the intense phase is finished, we will have the possibility to move part of the forces north. And we will do this. First and foremost for defensive purposes. And secondly, to bring our [evacuated] residents home,” the Israeli prime minister said.

Mr Netanyahu said Israel would attempt to carry this out “diplomatically” but would “do it another way” if unsuccessful.

“But we will bring [the residents] home,” he said. 

Thousands of Israelis have evacuated from northern Israel after months of cross-border clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants. Many in southern Lebanon have also been displaced.

The IDF says it is continuing to attack Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon amid escalating tensions on the border.

The military said in the past few hours, warplanes targeted a military building and a Hezbollah observation point in the area of Khiam, which borders northwestern Israel.

Israeli aircraft also “raided” a Hezbollah military building in Ramieh, southern Lebanon, it said.

“IDF forces also bombed with artillery [in] the Alma al Shaab area,” it added.

Benjamin Netanyahu has said the phase of “intense fighting” against Hamas is coming to an end.

But he cautioned that this didn’t mean an end to the war in Gaza, saying it would only end when the militant group no longer controls the region.

The Israeli prime minister told Israel’s Channel 14 an end to the “intense” fighting in Gaza will allow for the deployment of forces to the northern border with Lebanon, where rising tensions between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militant group have sparked fears of an all-out war.

Mr Netanyahu also said he would not give up on his goal of freeing the remaining hostages.

Washington will not “keep responding” to statements by Benjamin Netanyahu that there has been a reduction in US arms to Israel, a US official has told Israeli news site Haaretz.

The official said the US had made its position “clear on this repeatedly, and we aren’t going to keep responding to the prime minister’s political statements”.

They added that they were looking forward to “constructive consultations with defence minister [Yoav] Gallant in Washington this week”.

Mr Netanyahu doubled down on his claim that there has been “dramatic drop” in the supply of weapons from the US during a cabinet meeting earlier today.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the US was “perplexed” by Mr Netanyahu’s claims, while press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “We generally do not know what he’s talking about” (more in 15.45 post).

Democrats are weighing up whether to attend Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to US Congress next month.

The AP news agency reports that many are divided on the issue, torn between the US’s historic support for Israel and their views on Israel’s actions in Gaza since the 7 October attacks.

Mr Netanyahu is set to address US politicians on 24 July – but some Democrats have already indicated they’ll be absent.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, recently told CNN that he wished the Israeli president “would be a statesman and do what is right for Israel”.

She said she thought his Congress address would “invite more of what we have seen in terms of discontent among our own”.

Politico cited unnamed officials as saying the White House was concerned Mr Netanyahu could use the upcoming address to criticise Joe Biden for not being robust enough in his support for Israel.

The Israeli military says it has struck a building previously used by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees in a “precise strike” after learning it was being used as a base by militant groups.

The IDF said the infrastructure – allegedly the former headquarters of UNRWA – was being used as a “shield for terrorist activities”.

“Precautionary measures” including aerial surveillance were taken prior to the strike in order to protect civilians, the IDF said.

“This is another example of Hamas’s systematic exploitation of civilian infrastructure and the civilian population,” it said in a post on social media.

The military did not say where the strike took place.

Earlier witnesses reported that eight Palestinians had been killed by an Israeli airstrike which hit part of an industrial college run by UNRWA near Gaza City (see 15.05 post). It’s unclear if the IDF is referring to this incident.

The EU’s foreign affairs chief has called for an end to the “cycle of suffering and destruction” following “one of the deadliest days” in the region since October.

In a series of posts to X, Josep Borrell highlighted a deteriorating situation with hostages still in Hamas captivity, the “real” risk of a “full-blown” conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and a “looming” economic collapse in the West Bank, where violence is “intensifying”.

Mr Borrell said yesterday was “one of the deadliest days” since last year, with at least 100 Palestinians reportedly killed.

He also said he was “dismayed” by reports from the World Food Programme and the World Health Organisation that humanitarian access to Gaza is still “hindered”.

“We urge all parties once again to stop this cycle of suffering and destruction,” he wrote.

Thousands of fighters from Iran-backed militant groups across the Middle East are prepared to travel to Lebanon and support Hezbollah if a new front opens on the border with Israel, according to Iran-backed factions and analysts. 

Near-daily exchanges of fire on the Lebanese-Israeli border have become deeper in territory and longer in range, raising fears of an all-out war in the region.

The situation deteriorated further this month after a senior Hezbollah military commander was killed in an Israeli strike. The militant group responded by firing into northern Israel.

Officials from Lebanese and Iraqi groups backed by Iran said fighters from across the region from could join forces with Hezbollah if a war erupts.

“We will be [fighting] shoulder to shoulder with Hezbollah” if such a situation occurred, one official with an Iran-backed group in Iraq told the AP news agency in Baghdad.

A different official from a Lebanese Iran-backed group said fighters from Yemen’s Houthis, Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, Afghanistan’s Fatimiyoun and Pakistan’s Zeinabiyoun could also come to Lebanon.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari warned last week that “increasing aggression” by Hezbollah had brought the military “to the brink of what could be a wider escalation”.

Hezbollah has said it wants to avoid an all-out war but is ready if it were to happen.

By Alistair Bunkall, Middle East correspondent in Jerusalem

Only a few weeks ago, the United Nations released a statement condemning what it described as “day after day of unprecedented bloodshed” against Palestinians in the West Bank.

With global eyes mostly focussed on Gaza and increasingly the tense Israeli Lebanese border, life in the West Bank has dramatically deteriorated for Palestinians living there.

Since the Hamas attacks, the Israeli security forces have worked to prevent the West Bank becoming another front in the war, although there is evidence that their draconian approach is actually pushing the West Bank closer to collapse.

2023 was already the most violent year in the West Bank for decades, even before 7 October, and more than 500 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied territories since those attacks.

The IDF regularly launches raids into Palestinian towns, especially Jenin and Tulkarm, to arrest or kill wanted militants. These raids often lead to the deaths of civilians too. Increased military checkpoints have disrupted movement around the region for Palestinians leading to damaging consequences for the local economy.

Airstrikes, which the IDF hadn’t used as a tactic for twenty years, are now relatively commonplace – almost 50 have been carried out in the West Bank since 7 October.

In the last eight-and-a-half months, Israeli security officials have also arrested more than 9,000 Palestinians, including hundreds of children, around half of them held on what is known as administrative detention – without charge and indefinitely.

So crammed are Israel’s prisons, it’s been reported the IDF and police have been forced to cancel arrest operations because there is no room left.

The frequency of violence by extremist Israeli settlers on Palestinians has led the US to label some of them terror attacks and impose sanctions against a number of them.

More than 1,000 Palestinians, mainly from herding communities, have been displaced as a result of settler violence.

It’s not one-sided – 24 Israelis, some of them soldiers, were killed by Palestinians in 2023, a 15-year high. The West Bank has also been the origin for a number of terror attacks since 7 October, some thwarted before they were launched, and Israel accuses Iran or funnelling money into the West Bank to incite further violence against Israelis. 

Only this weekend an Israeli man was shot and killed in the Palestinian town of Qalqilya.

But the current hard-right Israeli coalition government has taken an unforgiving approach to Palestinians and is looking to take advantage of the current period of conflict. Approval was given earlier this year for 3,400 new settlement homes to be built – Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.

Recently Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself, was recorded outlining his plans to transfer authority of the West Bank from military to civilian control, effectively annexing it and denying any future possibility of a Palestinian state. Smotrich said his plans were privately supported by Benjamin Netanyahu.

Smotrich has also withheld collected tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority, leaving the PA unable to pay many of its workers and on the brink of financial collapse.

With a ceasefire in Gaza still looking unlikely in the near future, and Netanyahu still refusing to consider a “day after” plan, the prospects for Palestinians in the West Bank are bleak as international attention remains elsewhere. 

We reported earlier on comments made by Benjamin Netanyahu who said there has been a “dramatic drop” in US weapons deliveries for Israel’s war.

The spat highlights how high tensions have surged between Israel and Washington over the war, particularly surrounding the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza.

So what has been happening with US weapons?

Joe Biden has delayed delivering certain heavy bombs since May over concerns about Israel’s military conduct.

This week Mr Netanyahu released a video after weeks of unsuccessful pleas with American officials to speed up deliveries saying he had told US secretary of state Antony Blinken it was “inconceivable” Washington was withholding weapons.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the US was “perplexed” by Mr Netanyahu’s claims, while press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “We generally do not know what he’s talking about.”

Mr Biden has felt pressure from Democrats to take a tougher line against Israel, and he has sharpened his warnings to Mr Netanyahu over military tactics in Gaza.

But after threatening to impose a more sweeping ban on arms transfers over an assault on Rafah, the administration has avoided any suggestion that Israel’s expanding push into the southern Gaza city has crossed a red line.

During an election year, Mr Biden is also facing critics on the right who say he has moderated his support for an essential ally in the Middle East.