Egypt will not oppose Israel's move into Rafah
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Egyptian officials have told Israel they will not oppose an operation in Rafah if Palestinian civilian casualties are avoided, Israel’s Army Radio reports.
Cairo told Israeli diplomats that while it will strongly criticise Israel’s assault on the densely populated city in southern Gaza, it would not take action to hinder the IDF’s operation as long as it was conducted in a way that avoided high civilian casualties.
It comes as Egypt on Sunday threatened to suspend its peace treaty with Israel if it launched a ground invasion of Rafah – saying that fighting there could force the closure of the territory’s main aid supply route.
The threat to suspend the Camp David Accords, a cornerstone of regional stability for nearly a half-century, came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said sending troops into Rafah was necessary to win the four-month-old war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said on Friday the army was preparing for the evacuation of Rafah ahead of a ground invasion, despite warnings from the US that doing so would be a humanitarian “disaster”.
On Sunday, Hamas-run Aqsa Television channel quoted a senior Hamas leader as saying the invasion would “blow up” the hostage exchange negotiations.
05:00 PM GMT
That's all for today. Thanks for following the Telegraph's live blog.
We’ll be back tomorrow with the latest updates on the war.
04:55 PM GMT
Palestinian President arrives in Doha
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Doha on Sunday for talks on securing a ceasefire in the Gaza war with the Qatari emir, whose country has been at the heart of mediation efforts and hosts political leaders of militant group Hamas.
Palestinian news agency WAFA said Abbas would meet emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Monday, but did not say if he would also meet leaders of Hamas, a group that has long been at odds with Abbas and his West Bank-based Fatah group.
The Palestinian ambassador to Qatar, Munir Ghannam, told Voice of Palestine Radio on Sunday that Abbas and the emir would discuss efforts to secure a Gaza ceasefire with Israel and ways to increase aid for the territory’s 2.3 million people.
04:41 PM GMT
Joe Biden to speak with Benjamin Netanyahu
US President Joe Biden will speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, two White House officials said, in what will be the two leaders’ first conversation since Mr Biden said Israel’s military response in Gaza has been “over the top.”
Mr Biden, who is spending the weekend at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, is slated to speak with Mr Netanyahu on Sunday morning, one of the officials said.
The Israeli prime minister told the “Fox News Sunday” program earlier on Sunday that he has not talked with Biden since his “over the top” comment on Thursday and did not know what the US leader meant by it.
04:16 PM GMT
Israel will push into Rafah despite international pushback
Israel will push into Rafah in southern Gaza despite widespread concerns over the potential toll, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a television interview on Sunday, vowing to provide “safe passage” for civilians out of the overcrowded city.
“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,” Mr Netanyahu told ABC News, in an extract of the “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” interview released Saturday evening.
Despite international alarm over the potential for carnage in a place crammed with more than half of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people, Mr Netanyahu said: “We’re going to do it while providing safe passage for the civilian population.”
03:49 PM GMT
War in pictures
03:09 PM GMT
Thousands in Iran chant 'Death to Israel'
Hundreds of thousands of people chanted “Death to Israel” in rallies across Iran to mark the Islamic Revolution’s 45th anniversary on Sunday, Reuters reports.
Demonstrators burned US and Israeli flags amid the ongoing war between Israel and Tehran-backed Hamas.
President Ebrahim Raisi, in a televised speech, accused Tehran’s arch-foe the United States and some Western countries of backing “the Zionist regime’s crimes against humanity in Gaza”.
02:44 PM GMT
Netanyahu hasn't spoken to Biden since he said war was 'over the top'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he has not spoken to US President Joe Biden since the president made remarks about Israel’s military response to Hamas being “over the top.”
Netanyahu was speaking in an interview on the “Fox News Sunday” program.
“I appreciate President Biden’s support for Israel since the beginning of the war. I don’t know exactly what he meant by that,” Netanyahu said in reference to the US leader’s comments in an interview aired on Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” program.
02:09 PM GMT
Rafah invasion will ‘blow up’ hostage negotiations, says Hamas
Any Israeli ground offensive in Rafah on the Gaza border will “blow up” the hostage exchange negotiations, a senior Hamas leader said.
Hamas kidnapped hundreds of people during its assault on Israel on October 7 and have since released some elderly hostages following negotiations with the Israeli government.
It is understood that 31 of the 136 hostages still being held in captivity in Gaza are dead.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said on Friday the army was preparing for the evacuation of Rafah ahead of a ground invasion, despite warnings from the US that doing so would be a humanitarian “disaster”.
On Sunday, Hamas-run Aqsa Television channel quoted a senior Hamas leader as saying the invasion would “blow up” the hostage negotiations.
01:20 PM GMT
US strikes missile sites in Yemen
US Central Command (Centcom) said on Sunday its forces on Feb. 10 had carried out strikes on two unmanned surface vessels (USVs) and three anti-ship cruise missiles north of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah that were threatening ships in the area.
“Centcom identified these USVs and missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined they presented an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region,” it added.
12:20 PM GMT
Israel’s ‘Q’ tests lasers that can shoot down incoming rockets
Even in a James Bond film, it might seem a little far-fetched: a laser that can shoot enemy missiles out of the sky, writes Robert Mendick.
But in a country at war, where self-preservation is the mother of invention, Israel’s military has successfully tested a new defence system that destroys incoming rockets using beams of light.
The project is the brainchild of Dr Danny Gold, Israel’s equivalent to MI6’s Q, the scientific genius behind the Iron Dome air-defence system that casts a protective shield over a country that is regularly bombarded by Hamas from the south and Hezbollah to the north.
Read the full piece here.
12:00 PM GMT
IMF: War has devastated economy of Gaza and West Bank
The Israel-Hamas war has devastated the economies of both the embattled Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, the International Monetary Fund’s chief said Sunday, adding that only “durable peace” would improve the outlook.
“The Palestinian economy’s dire outlook is worsening as the conflict persists,” managing director Kristalina Georgieva told the World Governments Summit in Dubai.
“Only a durable peace and political solution will fundamentally change it”.
“Economically, the impact of the conflict has been devastating,” Georgieva said.
11:30 AM GMT
US senate deliberates over aid package for Israel
A narrowly divided US Senate will try to move closer to passing a $95.34 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan on Sunday, while hoping to show enough bipartisan support to propel the measure all the way through Congress.
The legislation needs 60 votes to overcome a procedural hurdle and continue toward Senate passage in the coming days. It could move more quickly if Democrats and Republicans reach an agreement to fast-track the measure, though even then it will face stiff opposition in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
The money is viewed a crucial by Kyiv as it grinds toward the second anniversary of a Russian invasion. Democratic President Joe Biden, who has been seeking the aid for months on Friday said Congress would be guilty of “neglect” if it failed to pass the measure.
11:07 AM GMT
Iranians chant 'death to Israel' on anniversary of Islamic Revolution
Hundreds of thousands of people chanted “Death to Israel” in rallies across Iran to mark the Islamic Revolution’s 45th anniversary on Sunday, with some burning U.S. and Israeli flags amid the ongoing war between Israel and Tehran-backed Hamas.
President Ebrahim Raisi, in a televised speech, accused Tehran’s arch-foe the United States and some Western countries of backing “the Zionist regime’s (Israel) crimes against humanity in Gaza”.
State TV said millions had turned out at rallies and it showed large crowds chanting “Death to Israel, Death to America!”, a common practice during state-organised rallies on the anniversary of the 1979 revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed monarch.
State media published a picture of some marchers hanging an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by a noose.
10:49 AM GMT
Hamas official survives Israeli assassination attempt in Lebanon
A senior Hamas official survived an Israeli assassination attempt in Lebanon yesterday.
The official, a Hamas recruiter named by AFP as Basel Salah, was travelling in a car in the interior of Lebanon when it was struck by a drone.
Salah, who also managed members of Hamas, is believed to be an affiliate of Saleh Al Arouri, the deputy chairman of Hamas’ political arm who was killed in Beirut.
The drone strike was the second this week to target cars deep inside Lebanon, with the other one killing a Hezbollah operative.
10:25 AM GMT
Iran marks 45th anniversary of Islamic Revolution
Iran marked Sunday the 45th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution amid tensions gripping the wider Middle East over Israel’s continued war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Thousands of Iranians marched through major streets and squares decorated with flags, balloons and banners with revolutionary and religious slogans.
In Tehran, crowds waved Iranian flags, chanted slogans, and carried placards with the traditional “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” written on them. Some burned U.S. and Israeli flags, a common practice in pro-government rallies.
10:07 AM GMT
Hamas: Israeli invasion of Rafah will 'blow up' hostage negotiations
Any Israeli ground offensive in Rafah on the Gaza border will “blow up” the hostage exchange negotiations,” Hamas-run Aqsa Television channel quoted a senior Hamas leader as saying on Sunday.
It comes as Israel’s neighbors and key mediators warned Saturday of disaster and repercussions if its military launches a ground invasion in Rafah, where Israel says remaining Hamas strongholds are located — along with over half the besieged territory’s population.
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 44 Palestinians in Rafah, hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he asked the military to plan for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people ahead of an invasion. He gave no details or timeline.
09:49 AM GMT
UN maritime agency working to resolve Red Sea crisis
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is working “tirelessly” to solve the Red Sea crisis, which is severely disrupting the global transport of goods, its head Arsenio Dominguez told AFP.
Yemen’s Huthi rebels, supported by Iran, have launched dozens of attacks against ships in the Red Sea since November, targeting boats headed for Israel in an act of “solidarity” with inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, which is in the grip of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Despite retaliatory strikes by the US and UK, the rebels are still launching attacks, firing at US ship “Star Nasia” and UK vessel “Morning Tide” on Tuesday.
The IMO, the United Nations agency responsible for security at sea, is working to ensure that “parties continue to talk so that the situation does not degenerate any further, and we can return to a safe maritime environment,” Panama-born Secretary General Dominguez told AFP on Thursday.
09:17 AM GMT
Netanyahu promises safe passage to civilians in Rafah
The threat of an Israeli incursion into Gaza’s southernmost town of Rafah persisted Sunday, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised “safe passage” to civilians displaced there.
In an interview airing Sunday, Netanyahu reiterated his intention to extend Israel’s military operation against Hamas into Rafah.
Despite international alarm over the potential for carnage in a place crammed with more than half of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people, Netanyahu told ABC News: “We’re going to do it”.
“We’re going to do it while providing safe passage for the civilian population so they can leave,” he said, according to published extracts of the interview.
