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Netanyahu pressed on 2-state solution for Israel-Hamas war as southern Gaza hit with relentless shelling
Editor’s note: This article includes an image of a dead child which some readers may find disturbing.
Gaza Strip — Gazans sheltered Monday from intense bombing and shooting in the city of Khan Younis, as pressure built on Israel for an eventual two-state solution involving statehood long sought by Palestinians. Witnesses reported deadly strikes and fierce fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants overnight in the southern city which has become the latest epicenter of the war.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza reported on Monday that more than 120 people had been killed in the previous 24 hours.
“Artillery shelling has not stopped since 5:00 am,” said Yunis Abdel Razek, 52, sheltering with his family at the city’s Al-Aqsa University.
STAFF/REUTERS
Mahdi Antar, 21, had sought refuge at Al-Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. “The situation is terrifying. Tonight and today are very difficult, bombing and shooting. I do not know what to do. I think they will storm the hospital,” he said.
Victims of the latest Israeli strikes were brought to the hospital, at least one on a hand-pulled cart.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces were “besieging” their ambulance center “and targeting anyone attempting to move in the area.”
At one building that had been hit, men walked over broken concrete with only flashlights casting a dusty light to help them search in the darkness for survivors.
Netanyahu defies U.S., rejects 2-state solution
The strikes came as European Union foreign ministers held meetings in Brussels with top diplomats from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and key Arab states. The 27 EU ministers first met Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz before sitting down separately with the Palestinian Authority’s top diplomat, Riyad al-Maliki.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told Israel “peace and stability cannot be built only by military means.”
“Which are the other solutions they have in mind? To make all the Palestinians leave? To kill off them?” Borrell said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has drawn condemnation from the United Nations and defied the United States, which provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid, by rejecting calls to enter negotiations on the creation of a Palestinian state. The U.S. government has long advocated the elusive two-state solution as the only way to defuse the long-standing conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
The Israeli leader reaffirmed and defended his rejection of the concept in a video statement broadcast Sunday evening, saying his “insistence is what has prevented, over the years, the establishment of a Palestinian state that would have constituted an existential danger to Israel. As long as I am prime minister, I will continue to strongly insist on this.”
On Monday, Maliki demanded the EU call for an immediate cease-fire and urged the bloc to consider sanctions against Netanyahu for “destroying the chances for a two-state solution.”
Jehad Alshrafi/Anadolu/Getty
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said “the whole world” sees a two-state solution as “the only way out of this misery.”
Katz told reporters he was in Brussels to discuss the need “to bring back our hostages and restore security for the citizens of Israel.”
Hamas calls its terror attack a “defensive act”
The talks came a day after Hamas issued a 16-page report, in Arabic and English, explaining the background to the group’s unprecedented Oct. 7 terror attack on southern Israel, which sparked the current war.
Hamas, long designated a terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union, called the attacks a “defensive act” and “necessary step” against Israeli occupation, “reclaiming the Palestinian rights and on the way for liberation and independence like all peoples.”
Israeli officials say Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, and seized about 240 others as hostages. About half have been freed, but some 132 people are still believed to be held captive in Gaza by Hamas or other groups.
In response, Israel has carried out a relentless offensive that has killed at least 25,295 people in Gaza, around 70% of them women and children, according to the latest toll issued by Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Hostage families storm Israeli government meeting
U.S. intelligence agencies estimate that the Israeli offensive has killed 20% to 30% of the Hamas fighters in Gaza, and is still far from its stated goal of destroying the group entirely, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
In a video statement issued after the Hamas report, Netanyahu said Israel’s soldiers would “have fallen in vain” and security would not be guaranteed if his government were to accept Hamas’ demands for the release of the remaining hostages. Those include ending the war immediately, withdrawing Israeli forces from Gaza, releasing Palestinian prisoners and guaranteeing that Hamas remains in power, Netanyahu said.
The Israeli leader is under intense pressure to return the captives and account for security failings surrounding the Oct. 7 attacks.
Relatives and supporters of the captives have held regular rallies and on Monday upped the pressure by storming a parliamentary finance committee meeting, where they shouted and brandished signs.
“Shame on you!” shouted one of the protesters at the Israel lawmakers. “They are your brothers as well. Get up!”
Reuters/Knesset Channel
“Yesterday the prime minister comes up and says there won’t be a deal? On the back of whom will there not be a deal? What right does he have not to negotiate a deal?” demanded another.
In a bid to secure a new hostage exchange deal, U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News that White House coordinator for the Middle East Brett McGurk was traveling to the region Monday to meet top officials in Cairo, followed by a trip to Qatar. The three countries helped broker a one-week truce in late November that saw 80 hostages freed in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
Rising tensions and violence across the Middle East i—nvolving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen – have stoked fears of a wider conflagration.
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
Getty Images
Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
In their final meeting, China’s leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Biden that his nation was “ready to work with a new administration,” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take over.
The two leaders gathered Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Mr. Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. It marked their first in-person meeting since they met in Northern California last November.
Without mentioning Trump’s name, Xi appeared to signal his concern that the incoming president’s protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail could send the U.S.-China relationship into another valley.
“China is ready to work with a new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi said through an interpreter.
LEAH MILLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Mr. Biden, meanwhile, spoke in broader brushstrokes about where the relationship has gone and reflected not just on the past four years, but on their long relationship.
“Over the past four years, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but with the two of us at the helm, we have also engaged in fruitful dialogues and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,” he said.
Mr. Biden and Xi, with top aides surrounding them, gathered around a long rectangle of tables in an expansive conference room at Lima’s Defines Hotel and Conference Center.
There’s much uncertainty about what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levy 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.
Bobby Djavaheri, president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware Appliances — which manufactures its products in China — told CBS News in an interview this week that such tariffs “would decimate our business, but not only our business. It would decimate all small businesses that rely on importing.”
Trump has also proposed revoking China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, phasing out all imports of essential goods from China and banning China from buying U.S. farmland.
Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by as much as 45% next year.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden administration officials will advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing will likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge they will face.
It’s a big moment for Mr. Biden as he wraps up more than 50 years in politics. He saw his relationship with Xi as among the most consequential on the international stage and put much effort into cultivating that relationship.
Mr. Biden and Xi first got to know each other on travels across the U.S. and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both have said left a lasting impression.
“For over a decade, you and I have spent many hours together, both here and in China and in between. And I think we’ve spent a long time dealing with these issues,” Mr. Biden said Saturday.
But the last four years have presented a steady stream of difficult moments.
The FBI this week offered new details of a federal investigation into Chinese government efforts to hack into U.S. telecommunications networks. The initial findings have revealed a “broad and significant” cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing information from Americans who work in government and politics.
U.S. intelligence officials also have assessed China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine.
And tensions flared last year after Mr. Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States.
President-elect Donald Trump has selected Chris Wright, a campaign donor and fossil fuel executive, to serve as energy secretary in his upcoming, second administration.
CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Wright is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking, a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market.
Trump also said in a statement Saturday that Wright will serve on the newly-created National Energy Council, which will be chaired by North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s selection for secretary of the Interior.
Burgum will oversee a panel that crosses all executive branch agencies involved in energy permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation, Trump said in a previous statement.
Wright has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change and could give fossil fuels a boost, including quick action to end a year-long pause on natural gas export approvals by the Biden administration.
Wright also has criticized what he calls a “top-down” approach to climate by liberal and left-wing groups and said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.”
Consideration of Wright to head the administration’s energy department won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm.
Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term.
Hamm helped organize an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in April where Trump reportedly asked industry leaders and lobbyists to donate $1 billion to Trump’s campaign, with the expectation that Trump would curtail environmental regulations if re-elected.
The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. The agency is in charge of maintaining the country’s nuclear weapons, oversees 17 national research laboratories and approves natural gas exports, as well as ensuring environmental cleanup of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. It also promotes scientific and technological research.
Republican Sen. John Barrasso, who is expected to become chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Trump promised bold choices for his Cabinet, and Wright’s nomination delivers.
“He’s s an energy innovator who laid the foundation for America’s fracking boom. After four years of America last energy policy, our country is desperate for a secretary (of energy) who understands how important American energy is to our economy and our national security,″ Barrasso said of Wright, adding: “Wright will help ensure America remains committed to an all-of-the-above energy policy that puts American families first.”
Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, a conservative group that supports fossil fuels, said Wright would be “an excellent choice” for Energy secretary. Pyle led Trump’s Energy Department’s transition team in 2016.
Liberty is a major energy industry service provider, with a focus on technology. Wright, who grew up in Colorado, earned undergraduate degree at MIT and did graduate work in electrical engineering at the University of California-Berkeley and MIT. In 1992, he founded Pinnacle Technologies, which helped launch commercial shale gas production through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
He later served as chairman of Stroud Energy, an early shale gas producer, before founding Liberty Resources in 2010.
