Gaza live: Concerns about all-out regional war rise following Golan Heights deadly attack
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US President Joe Biden pressed for a ceasefire in the nine-month-old war in Gaza during talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.
"We've got a lot to talk about," Biden said, welcoming Netanyahu to the Oval Office.
"I want to thank you for 50 years of public service and 50 years of support for the state of Israel," Netanyahu told Biden.
“We are closer now than we've been before,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby reportedly said, referring to the prospect of a ceasefire.
Gaps in a Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas can be overcome, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday while US President Joe Biden met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss prospects for a ceasefire.
"We need to get there soon," Kirby said
The bodies of five Israeli hostages retrieved this week from the Gaza Strip had been held in a tunnel underground, according to reports by Israel’s military on Thursday.
The retrieval operation, which reportedly took place in the city of Khan Younis, was carried out using intelligence gathered and analysed in recent weeks, said military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.
The hostages’ bodies were hidden “in a branched tunnel about 200 meters long and about 20 metres underground”, Hagari added.
US Air Force General Charles Quinton Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Thursday that he still has not seen much from Israel regarding its "day after" planning once the war with Hamas ends.
"As far as the day after, we have talked to the Israelis about this, how to make a transition. We've talked to them a number of times. There's not a lot of detail that I've been able to see from a plan from them. This is something that we'll continue to work with them on," Brown told a news conference at the Pentagon.
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will reportedly have separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday regarding a potential ceasefire in Gaza.
Biden’s meeting with Netanyahu - set to take place at 1pm local time at the White House - will be the first face-to-face talk since Biden travelled to Israel days after 7 October to pledge American support.
The meeting with Harris, who was the first top US official to call for a ceasefire, will be closely watched for signs of how she could shift US policy towards Israel if she becomes president.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said that Israeli forces opened fire on an ambulance that was evacuating an injured person in Khan Younis.
The Israeli military has launched a new ground invasion of the southern Gaza city, killing at least 129 people in the last 48 hours.
The UK is likely to introduce restrictions on arms sales to Israel, Middle East Eye can reveal. It is also expected to drop its objection to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant for senior Israeli leaders.
Well-informed sources within the Labour Party told Middle East Eye that in the coming days the government is likely to introduce some restrictions on arms sales but not suspend sales entirely.
The development comes after Foreign Secretary David Lammy said last week that he requested a comprehensive review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law on his first day in office.
Sources told MEE that the announced restrictions are likely to be on the sale of offensive weapons. The foreign secretary told MPs last week that given the attacks by the Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas on Israel, it would “not be right to have a blanket ban between our countries”.
He suggested he was looking at offensive weapons Israel could use in Gaza as part of the review he had ordered.
READ MORE: Exclusive: UK likely to restrict arms sales to Israel and drop ICC objection
Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi has said that the group's attacks on Israel will continue and not be deterred by Israeli air strikes near Yemen's Hodeidah port.
Houthi made the comments in a televised address on Thursday.
Reporting by Reuters
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum has released a statement accusing the Israeli government of "deliberately sabotaging" efforts to return hostages.
The statement, timed for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington, demanded an urgent meeting with Israel's ceasefire team, citing a "crisis of trust".
It added that the team's "foot-dragging" is stalling ceasefire negotiations and the release of hostages.
"It effectively undermines the negotiations and indicates a serious moral failure," the statement read.
Ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has urged for a quick end to Israel's war on Gaza and a return of hostages.
He added that Israel need to better manage its "public relations".
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, has said that Israel's attacks and its repeated evacuation orders "continue to further devastate Gaza's health system".
“People can’t access essential healthcare services, particularly ones suffering from chronic diseases," the agency said in a post on X. "Hospitals are stretched beyond their capacity."
The Gaza government media office reported that 129 individuals have been killed by Israeli strikes in Khan Younis over the past 48 hours.
Frequent evacuation orders and relentless hostilities continue to further devastate #Gaza’s health system. People can't access essential healthcare services, particularly ones suffering from chronic diseases.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 25, 2024
Hospitals are stretched way beyond their capacity. #CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/rFZvwBzahG
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) have said in their latest update on situation in Khan Younis that thousands continue to flee the ongoing Israeli assault on the southern Gaza city.
In a post on X the organisation said that the so-called "safe zone" in Mawasi, where Palestinians sheltering in Khan Younis were instructed to flee, is so overwhelmed with people that "there is no space even for a single tent".
It added that Israeli forces are preventing displaced Palestinians from north Gaza from returning to their homes.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to withdraw objections to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s pursuit of an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, according to two individuals briefed on the government's deliberations, reported the New York Times.
Earlier this month it was reported that Britain would not withdraw its objection to the ICC prosecutor's application for arrest warrants, after promising it would do so.
The Israeli newspaper Maariv said British Foreign Secretary David Lammy had given assurances that the UK will maintain its objection to the application that was initially raised by the former Conservative government in Downing Street.
Since the 7 October Hamas-led attack, Israel's government and army have been adamant that the best method to free the Israelis taken captive by Palestinian fighters is intense military pressure.
Around 240 people were taken to Gaza during the raids on southern Israeli communities. An exchange deal with Hamas saw 100 of those freed in November.
But despite a number of high-profile Israeli raids to free the captives, many of them have died, with every confirmed death piling pressure from their relatives on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ratcheting up calls for an immediate ceasefire deal.
About 50 captives have been confirmed dead in nine months of war. Israel has said the majority were killed by their captors, or in the case of five captives announced dead on Wednesday, slain in the fighting on 7 October.
Read more: The captives that may have been killed by Israel's offensive
At least 39,175 Palestinians have been killed and over 90,403 wounded by Israel in its ongoing onslaught on Gaza since 7 October, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
