Israeli army says it killed Palestinian teenager after 'attempted attack' in West Bank

RAFAH, Palestinian Territories: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he was “firmly opposed” to ending the war in Gaza, before his war cabinet met amid intense diplomacy to conclude a truce and an agreement on the release of the hostages.

Meanwhile, deadly fighting rocked the Gaza Strip and Hamas militants fired a salvo of rockets at Israel's Tel Aviv mall for the first time in months, forcing people to rush to get to work. the shelter.
Netanyahu has long rejected Hamas's demand in negotiations for a permanent end to the fighting, which was sparked by the Palestinian militant group's attack on Oct. 7 and left large areas of besieged Gaza in ruins.
A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, earlier told AFP that “the war cabinet is expected to meet (…) this evening at 9:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. GMT) to discuss an agreement on the release of the hostages.
A statement released by Netanyahu's office before the meeting said Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya, “Sinwar continues to demand an end to the war, the withdrawal of the IDF (army) from the Gaza Strip and the continuation of Hamas in place, so that it can commit the atrocities of October 7 again and again,” referring to the attack that started the war.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu strongly opposes this,” the statement said.
A member of Hamas's political leadership, Izzat Al-Rishq, accused Netanyahu earlier Sunday of “trying to gain more time to continue the aggression.”
In Brussels, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters before meeting Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa that a strong Palestinian Authority (PA) was in Israel's interests.
EU members Ireland and Spain, along with Norway, said they would recognize the state of Palestine from Tuesday, sparking furious Israeli condemnation.
“A functioning Palestinian Authority is also in Israel's interest, because to achieve peace we need a strong Palestinian Authority, not a weaker Palestinian Authority,” Borrell said.
Mustafa, whose government is based in the occupied West Bank, said the “first priority” was to support the people of Gaza, including through a ceasefire, and then to “rebuild the institutions of the Palestinian Authority” after Hamas seized it from the Palestinian Authority in 2017. 2007.
US President Joe Biden has called for new international efforts to end the war, now in its eighth month.
The Israeli official said on Saturday that “there was an intention to resume these talks this week” after the impasse in early May in negotiations involving American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
However, Rishq said on Sunday that so far, “we have not received anything from the mediators.”
He emphasized Hamas' long-standing demand for a permanent cessation of hostilities as the “foundation and starting point of everything.”

Netanyahu repeatedly vowed to destroy Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack, but he also faced growing domestic and international criticism.
The attack on southern Israel left more than 1,170 dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli figures.
The militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, 37 of whom died according to the army.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,984 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-controlled territory's health ministry.
The army announced the death of a soldier in northern Gaza on Sunday, bringing to 289 the number of soldiers killed since Israel began its ground offensive at the end of October.
As the war continues, families of hostages still held by Palestinian militants have pressured Netanyahu to reach a deal to release them.
Washington has also taken a tougher line on its close ally, as outrage over the war and US support for Israel has become a major issue for Biden, who is seeking re-election in the battle against Donald Trump.
With more strikes reported across Gaza on Sunday, the Israeli military said that in the past 24 hours it had destroyed “more than 50 terrorist targets.”
Fighting has focused on the city of Rafah, in the far south of the country, where Israel launched a ground operation in early May despite widespread opposition sparked by concerns about civilians sheltering there.
Moaz Abu Taha, 29, a resident of Rafah, told AFP of “constant ground and air bombardments, which destroyed many houses”.
Gaza's civil defense agency said it had recovered six bodies after a house was targeted in eastern Rafah.

Hamas' military wing said it targeted Tel Aviv “with a significant barrage of rockets in response to Zionist (Israeli) massacres of civilians.”
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a televised press briefing that “Hamas terrorists in Gaza fired eight rockets into central Israel from Rafah.”
“Hamas launched these rockets from near two mosques in Rafah,” Hagari said. “Hamas is holding our hostages in Rafah, which is why we are carrying out a specific operation there.”
Analyst Neomi Neumann said the militants were not trying to “cause damage to Israel, but to maintain continuity of fire.”
They “fire relatively few rockets per barrage from their dwindling arsenal and choose when to focus their efforts,” said Neumann, a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank.
The UN has warned of imminent famine in the besieged territory, where most hospitals are no longer functioning.
Amid the bloodiest war ever seen in Gaza, Israel has faced a growing global outcry over rising civilian deaths and historic measures last week in two international courts.
Last Monday, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced that he was seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defense minister as well as three senior Hamas officials.
And on Friday, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to end its offensive on Rafah or any other operation likely to result in “the physical destruction” of the Palestinians.