Netanyahu pushes back against pressure to end war after call with Biden
The Israeli leader opposes proposals being discussed in world capitals to recognize a Palestinian state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against growing international pressure to bring the four-month-old war in the Gaza Strip to an end as Palestinian doctors in the embattled enclave struggled to save patients in a major hospital that was raided by the Israeli military.
After speaking by phone with President Biden, Netanyahu said Friday that he is opposed to proposals being discussed in world capitals to officially recognize a Palestinian state as part of a coordinated diplomatic effort to end the war—a move that would give Palestinian leaders a long-sought symbolic victory.
Netanyahu said any such effort would be seen as a reward for Hamas militants who carried out the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that his government says killed around 1,200 people in the most deadly such assault in the nation’s history.
“Israel will continue to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state," Netanyahu wrote on X.
Netanyahu and his right-wing government have resisted growing international pressure to work with world leaders and bring the fighting in Gaza to a quick end. On Wednesday, Netanyahu rebuffed French President Emmanuel Macron’s calls for Israel to hold back from an assault on Rafah, saying Hamas must be eliminated from the city on the southern border of the strip, where more than 1.3 million Palestinians are now sheltering.
“We will fight until complete victory and this includes a powerful action also in Rafah after we allow the civilian population to leave the battle zones," he said on X.
More than 28,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed since Israel launched the war in response to the Oct. 7 attack, according to Gaza health officials. The figure doesn’t distinguish between combatants and militants. At least 235 Israeli soldiers have died since the military launched its ground assault in Gaza in late October.
Israeli soldiers have been fighting to bring an end to 17 years of Hamas rule in Gaza and secure the release of about 130 hostages captured on Oct. 7 who are believed to be held by Palestinian militants in the enclave. Israel privately estimates as many as 50 of the hostages could be dead.
As part of the search for captives, Israeli forces raided the main hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, after Israel said it had intelligence indicating that hostages kidnapped by Hamas had been held there and that the bodies of some of them could be on the hospital grounds.
Gaza health officials said Friday that the 350-bed Nasser Hospital had lost power and that four patients had died as a result of the cut in power and oxygen supplies. The Gaza Health Ministry said that the power cut endangered the lives of six other patients in the intensive care unit and three infants in the neonatal unit. The Israeli military didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Israeli military said Friday that it was carrying out a “precise and limited" operation at the hospital that led to the detention of 20 militants who took part in the Oct. 7 attack, though it didn’t say how it linked the Palestinians to the October assault. The military released a photograph of several mortar rounds and grenades it said it found inside the hospital compound. It released no information to support its contention that the hospital had been used to hold hostages.
The raid at Nasser Hospital comes as international efforts to bring the war to an end have stalled. The U.S. is trying to reinvigorate negotiations to secure the release of the hostages held in Gaza in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons and a halt to fighting in Gaza.
On Thursday, Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns met with Netanyahu and David Barnea, the director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, in Israel in an effort to break the deadlock, according to people familiar with the matter.
The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza are stepping up pressure on Netanyahu to secure a deal to win their loved ones’ freedom.
“Only through a deal and through diplomatic efforts can we achieve the release of all the hostages," said Nadav Rudaeff, whose father is believed to be held in Gaza. “I only want my dad back and all the other hostages."
Netanyahu has called Hamas’s demands in the talks “delusional," dampening hopes for an agreement. In an effort to put pressure on Hamas, Israel is preparing for a major military assault on Rafah, the enclave’s southernmost city, where more than one million Palestinians have taken refuge.
In his call with Netanyahu, Biden reiterated his view that Israel shouldn’t launch the ground assault until it takes steps to move civilians out of harm’s way. The Israeli government is floating plans to move civilians from Rafah to central Gaza, where they propose the creation of new tent cities. Israel is seeking support from the U.S. and Arab nations for the plan.
Saleh Al-Batati contributed to this article.
Write to Dion Nissenbaum at dion.nissenbaum@wsj.com
