Despite mediators' push, Israel PM not relenting on Gaza truce

Mediators attempting to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on Sunday called on both sides to agree to a truce and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden last week, even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted he will pursue the war raging until Hamas is destroyed and the captives are freed.

Netanyahu is under pressure from two sides. Protesters supporting the hostages, who rallied again in their tens of thousands in Tel Aviv on Saturday, are urging him to strike a truce deal - but right-wing extremist allies are threatening to bring down his fragile coalition government if he does.

Mediators - the United States, Qatar and Egypt - on Saturday said they "call on both Hamas and Israel to finalise the agreement". Biden said on Friday Israel's three-stage offer would begin with a six-week initial phase that would see Israeli forces withdraw from all populated areas of Gaza.


Netanyahu took issue with Biden's presentation, insisting that according to the "exact outline proposed by Israel" the transition from one stage to the next was "conditional" and crafted to allow it to maintain its war aims.

In Gaza, fighting continued overnight and Sunday, as the Israeli military reported more airstrikes and ground combat, and Palestinian officials reported more deaths.

Israeli Apache attack helicopters on Sunday opened fire on targets in central Rafah, a jet fired a missile at a house in the western Tel al-Sultan district and artillery shelling targeted the southern Brazil neighbourhood, witnesses said.

Elsewhere in Gaza, Israeli helicopters fired at targets in Gaza City's Zeitun and Sabra areas, and an air strike hit a house in the city's east, AFP reporters said.

Three people were killed including a woman and a child, when an airstrike hit a family apartment in Gaza City's Daraj neighbourhood, a hospital medic said. Artillery shelling also targeted areas of Deir al-Balah and the Bureij and Nuseirat camps, witnesses said.

In the occupied West Bank, two Palestinian teenagers were killed by Israeli gunfire, the Palestinian health ministry said Sunday. The ministry said a 16- and a 17-year-old were killed west of Aqabat Jaber refugee camp, near the West Bank city of Jericho.

Qatar, Saudi hit out
Meanwhile, Qatar and Saudi Arabia condemned Israel's bid to designate United Nations' Palestinian relief organization UNRWA as a "terrorist organisation".

The Israeli parliament passed a preliminary motion last week approving a bill designating UNRWA as such.