“Israel Will Do It Alone” Netanyahu Snubs US On Rafah; Russia-China Veto “Hypocritical” Gaza Truce
Israel PM Netanyahu told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israeli troops will go into Gaza’s Rafah even without US support. Blinken warned Israel that if it does not come up with a plan for the “day after” Hamas, Israel will be stuck in Gaza for years. Blinken also said that the US and Saudi Arabia have made “good progress” in talks on normalising ties between the kingdom and Israel. The UN Security Council failed to pass a resolution calling for an “immediate and sustained ceasefire” in Gaza after Russia and China vetoed the proposal. Israel has announced the seizure of 800 hectares of land in the occupied West Bank, the largest action of its kind in decades.