Israel-Hamas war: Netanyahu pledges 'powerful' Rafah action

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Wednesday that an Israeli offensive into the city of Rafah would risk a "humanitarian catastrophe."

Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem after meeting with her Israeli counterpart Israel Katz, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Yair Lapid, Baerbock cautioned her hosts against going into the southern Gazan city which has become a refuge for over 1 million Palestinians.

"1.3 million people are waiting there in a very small space," Baerbock said. "They don't really have anywhere else to go right now."

Baerbock also urged the Israeli government to agree to a ceasefire given the worsening humanitarian situation of civilians in Gaza.

Israeli Foreign Minister Katz said  that the two discussed ways to ensure that humanitarian aid does not fall into the hands of Hamas.

"We have focused on the need to return all hostages and defeat the terrorist organization Hamas," he said.

On the subject of the West Bank, Baerbock said Germany was pushing the European Union to consider sanctions against extremist settlers who attack Palestinians in the occupied territory.

The United States, France and the United Kingdom have already imposed sanctions on violent settlers, but Baerbock said: "Let's agree on sanctions together in Europe. For this we need all 27 member states."

She added that, in the EU's Schengen free movement zone, national entry bans could only take effect if they are enacted by the entire bloc.

Baerbock is scheduled to meet with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday.

Ireland and Spain have sent a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urging her to "undertake an urgent review" of whether Israel is meeting its human rights obligations in Gaza.  

"Given the critical situation in Rafah, Ireland and Spain have just requested the European Commission urgently review whether Israel is complying with its obligations to respect human rights in Gaza," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on social media.

In the letter, Sanchez and Ireland's leader Leo Varadkar said the EU-Israel Association Agreement "makes respect for human rights and democratic principles an essential element of the relationship."

The European Commission should propose "appropriate measures" if Israel is found to be in breach of these obligations.

The European Commission confirmed it had received the letter and would "look into it."

EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Spokesperson Nabila Massrali did not immediately clarify how the request would be assessed but said there "must be accountability for any violation of international law."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his commitment to follow through with a military operation in Rafah, southern Gaza. 

"We will fight until complete victory and this includes a powerful action in Rafah as well, after we allow the civilians population to leave the battle zones," Netanyahu wrote in a post on X. 

Western countries, such as the US and France, have expressed concern about such an operation because of the more than 1 million Palestinians sheltering there.

Israel launched extensive military operations earlier in the war against Hamas in Gaza City in the north and Khan Yunis in the south. Rafah lies on the very southern part of Gaza, next to the Egyptian border.     

French President Emmanuel Macron told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the death toll in Gaza was "intolerable" during a phone call on Wednesday.

Macron's office said he expressed his "firm opposition" to an Israeli offensive in Rafah because it "could only lead to a humanitarian disaster of a new magnitude" and create a new risk of regional escalation.

He also reiterated calls for a cease-fire deal that would "guarantee the protection of all civilians and the massive inflow of emergency aid" as well as for creation of a Palestinian state.

Macron also reiterated France's solidarity with the Israeli people following the October 7 terrorist attack. He said it was a priority that the remaining Israeli hostages be freed by Hamas militants.

Hamas is classified as terrorist organization by the US, Germany, the EU and other governments.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country is ready to cooperate with Egypt to rebuild Gaza as he met with his Egyptian counterpart to focus mainly on the Israel-Hamas war.

Erdogan, visiting Egypt for the first time since 2012 after a spat, was holding a joint press conference with President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi in Cairo.

The Turkish leader said the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza topped the agenda of their talks.

Egypt is concerned that a ground assault on Rafah would push hundreds of thousands of people into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt, together with Qatar and the United States, a key Israel ally, have been seeking to broker a cease-fire.

"We agreed on the need for an immediate cease-fire [in Gaza] and the need to achieve calm in the West Bank" to relaunch peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, the Egyptian president said in the press conference.

The visit marks a major step toward rebuilding relations between the regional powers after they became strained over Egypt's 2013 military coup.

A woman and her two children have been killed in Israeli airstrikes that hit the village of Sawaneh in southern Lebanon, the Reuters and AFP news agencies reported, citing Lebanese security sources

AFP reported that the attacks also killed one person in the southern town of Adsheet.

At lease nine other people had been injured in southern Lebanon amid the Israeli airstrikes, the AFP reported.  Footage showed massive damage there. 

The Israeli army said earlier that it had begun an "extensive" wave of attacks on Lebanese territories. The military said it had responded to cross-border rocket fire from Lebanon. 

Earlier in Israel, a woman was killed by a rocket fired from across the border that hit the northern town of Safed, Israeli media reported, citing rescue services. Seven other people were also said to have been injured.

Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni Arab countries, while the EU lists its armed wing as a terrorist group.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has been welcomed by her Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz, for her fifth visit to the country since the October 7 Hamas terror attacks. 

The two, meeting in Jerusalem, were expected to talk about the Israeli army's announced ground offensive against Hamas in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.  Ahead of her visit, Baerbock called on Israel to provide protective corridors so that civilians in Rafah could reach safety.

Later on Wednesday, Baerbock is expected to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Yair Lapid. She is due to meet Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday. 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has urged the militant group Hamas to conclude a Gaza cease-fire deal quickly to avoid "dire consequences," official Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

"We call on the Hamas movement to quickly complete a prisoner deal, to spare our Palestinian people from the calamity of another catastrophic event with dire consequences," Abbas said. 

The Palestinian leader said the situation was "no less dangerous than the Nakba of 1948," referring to the war accompanying the creation of Israel that saw 760,000 Palestinians flee or be forced to leave their homes.

The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority (PA)  is based in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, away from the fighting in Gaza. Hamas has been in power in Gaza since 2007 when Abbas loyalists were forced out.

The top US diplomat, Antony Blinken, said last month that Abbas was "committed" to reforming the PA "so that it can effectively take responsibility for Gaza, so that Gaza and the West Bank can be reunited under a Palestinian leadership."

A Hamas source told the AFP news agency that a delegation was headed to the Egyptian capital, Cairo, to meet Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Israeli negotiators held talks with mediators on Tuesday.

A woman was killed by a rocket fired from Lebanon that hit the northern town of Safed, Israeli media has reported, citing rescue services. 

Seven people were taken to the hospital with injuries.

The Israeli military had reported that there had been several rocket alerts in the northern part of the country, without being clear about where the attacks were coming from.

Since the war began between Israel and Hamas, there have been repeated clashes along Israel's border with Lebanon. They involved the Israeli army and Iranian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah or other militant groups. 

Nearly 200 Hezbollah fighters have died, according to the group. Civilians have also been killed on both sides of the border. 

Tens of thousands of people living near the border in both countries have left their homes amid the worst escalation of cross-border clashes since the second Lebanon war in 2006. 

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said at least 28,576 Palestinians, mainly women and children, have been killed, with another 68,291 injured in Israeli retaliatory strikes on the territory since October 7. 

The toll includes 103 people killed in the last 24 hours, the ministry added. Figures from the ministry officials are deemed largely accurate by the UN and others, but they do not differentiate between militants and civilians.

Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip came in response to the terror attacks by Hamas in the south of Israel in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed, mostly civilians, and some 240 people kidnapped.

Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the US, the EU, Germany and several other governments. 

Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian negotiators in Cairo failed to reach a deal to achieve a cease-fire in the Gaza war and to exchange more hostages, but are set to continue talks, according to media reports.

The Israeli delegation was on its way back from Cairo on Tuesday night, an official in the Prime Minister's Office told The Times of Israel.

Israeli intelligence chief David Barnea earlier met CIA Director William Burns in the Egyptian capital where they held Qatari-brokered talks to plan a temporary halt in the fighting in Gaza. 

The negotiations reportedly involved Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, and Egyptian officials who made an effort to secure a ceasefire before Israel launched a full-scale invasion into Rafah in southern Gaza. 

The Wall Street Journal, citing Egyptian officials, said Barnea's delegation had departed the Egyptian capital "without closing any of the major gaps in the negotiations".

Egyptian state-owned television channel Al Qahera said the talks would continue for another three days, citing a senior Egyptian official.

US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called the negotiations "constructive and moving in the right direction."

"Nothing is done until it is all done," he told reporters at the White House.

Israel, Egypt or Qatar have not yet released an official statement on the result of the talks. 

Dutch police did not find any explosives after an investigation at the residence of Israeli ambassador in The Hague at a time when security has been tightened in the city.

The ambassador's residence had been cordoned off late Tuesday with half a dozen ambulances, fire engines and police vehicles in the vicinity, AFP news agency reported.

However, the police later said that after an investigation by the military bomb squad, "it turns out not to have been an explosive."

"The area has been cleared," investigators said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The incident comes a month after a bomb squad in Sweden destroyed a "live" device at Israel's embassy in Stockholm, in what authorities described as a potential "terrorist crime."

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is set to visit Israel in what is her fifth trip to the country since the terrorist attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas, on October 7. 

Upon arrival in Jerusalem, she is scheduled to meet her counterpart Israel Katz followed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the afternoon. A meeting with President Isaac Herzog and opposition leader Yair Lapid is also planned. 

Baerbock's visit comes after Israel announced a ground offensive in Rafah — "the last bastion" according to Netanyahu. During her visit, the minister intends to speak about how Israeli hostages can be rescued without worsening the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, she said in a statement. 

"An offensive by the Israeli army on Rafah would bring the humanitarian situation to a breaking point. Because the people in Rafah cannot simply vanish into thin air," she said in a German-language statement. 

"They need safe places and safe corridors to avoid being caught in the crossfire even more. They need more humanitarian aid. And they need a cease-fire."

Baerbock condemned Hamas — designated as a terrorist group by the US, EU, Germany and several other countries — saying if they had a "shred of compassion for the Palestinian women, men and children suffering," they would "lay down their weapons."

"It is a question of how international pressure on Hamas can be increased so that the terrorists finally lay down their weapons," she said.

Israel has steadily expanded ground operations in Gaza toward the south, leaving Rafah as one of the last refuges for over half of the enclave's 2.3 million residents fleeing the violence. The city's population, which stood at circa 250,000 before the war, has ballooned to about 1.5 million, according to several UN agencies.

Many refugees live in makeshift camps and UN shelters there. 

mk/dj (AFP, dpa, Reuters, AP)