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Hope for Israel-Hamas war truce tempered by growing rift between Netanyahu and his U.S. and European allies
There was growing optimism Monday around talks of a possible new cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, with both Israel and Hamas returning to the table to discuss a truce that would see more Israeli hostages released in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners.
CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan said the Biden administration is hoping to leverage a possible six-week cessation of violence into a longer-term pause, and it has been pushing Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to scale-down plans for an all-out ground offensive in the packed southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Israel’s handling of the war, which was sparked by Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7 terrorist attack that saw the militants kill some 1,200 people and kidnap about 240 others across southern Israel, has created a rift between the U.S. and Netanyahu’s government.
The European Union has also sharply criticized Netanyahu, with the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell saying at a humanitarian conference over the weekend that Gaza was “no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people.”
Starvation, Borrell said, “is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine.”
Israeli Foreign minister Yisrael Katz responded with a social media post insisting that “Israel allows extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air, and sea for anyone willing to help.”
Katz also reiterated an Israeli allegation that Hamas militants have been “violently disrupting aid convoys” — a charge U.S. officials said recently that they had no evidence to back up.
The Hamas-run Ministry of Health says more than 31,500 people have been killed in Gaza since the war started. It does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, but with tens of thousands of people dying in Gaza from both the fighting and from hunger, some senior U.S. leaders appeared to lose their patience last week, and the tension between Israel and its closest ally only seemed to grow over the weekend.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, America’s highest-ranking Jewish elected official, stunned Israel late last week by calling for the country to hold new elections and saying Netanyahu had “lost his way.”
The veteran Israeli politician fired back, telling Fox News over the weekend blasting Schumer’s remarks as “wholly inappropriate.”
“We’re not a banana republic,” Netanyahu protested. “The people of Israel will choose when they’ll have elections, who they elect, and it’s not something that will be foisted upon us.”
The Biden administration, along with many other Western governments and international aid organizations, has repeatedly warned Israel against launching its promised full-scale offensive in Rafah. The city, a longtime Hamas stronghold on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, has over the last five months of war become a refuge to an estimated 1.5 million people, most of them displaced from elsewhere in the decimated Palestinian territory.
Despite the heavy international pressure against sending forces into the city, Netanyahu refused to back down over the weekend, at least publicly.
“We’re within reach. We should do it. We’re going to do it while we enable the civilian population in Rafah to leave, as we’ve done up to now,” he told Fox News. “But we have to finish the job.”
On Monday morning, meanwhile, in an ongoing operation, Israel said it had captured more than 80 fighters at Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital, which was the scene of fierce battles earlier in the war. Sources on the ground told CBS News that some 30,000 displaced people were sheltering at the hospital complex, plus dozens of patients and medical teams.
Harrowing images emerged from the scene of a purported Israeli strike near the hospital, with the body of a small child seen laying on the rubble of a destroyed building with dust still hanging in the air.
The humanitarian cost of the war, and the failure of Netanyahu’s government to free the more than 100 hostages still believed to be captives in Gaza, has all been too much to tolerate for some Israelis, including dozens who staged another protest over the weekend, and who appeared to share the growing sense of international frustration with the war.
Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty
“This says: ‘Elections now,'” protester Ori Orman said of the sign he was carrying. “I believe that after such a disaster… even if you don’t think Benjamin Netanyahu is directly responsible, because of the fact that he is the prime minister, I think he should step down.”
That doesn’t mean the entire Israeli public is against the war. Most Israelis still say they support the fight against Hamas. What many don’t still support, however, is Netanyahu and the way he’s prosecuting that war.
The Oct. 7 massacre and kidnappings happened on his watch, and for that, many people say he, too, has blood on his hands.
NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were attacked in New York City on Friday night, authorities said.
The incident occurred just before 9 p.m. on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on the Upper East Side, according to the New York City Police Department.
Police said officers were sent to the scene after an assault was reported. When officers arrived, police say they found a 20-year-old man suffering from facial injuries and a 70-year-old man who had head pain. Both victims were taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the former governor said the two were attacked while “taking a walk around the block near their home by some individuals that had a previous interaction with his stepson.”
The spokesperson said that they were injured “but were able to fight off their attackers.”
Both were taken to Cornell Hospital “as a precaution,” he added.
Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The 70-year-old Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010, stepping into the post after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer following his prostitution scandal. He made history at the time as the state’s first-ever Black and legally blind governor.
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A 17-year-old boy was critically injured and a person is in custody after a gunman opened fire on a SEPTA bus in North Philadelphia Friday evening, police said.
At around 6:15 p.m., Philadelphia police were notified about a shooting on a SEPTA bus traveling on Allegheny Avenue near 3rd and 4th streets in North Philadelphia, Inspector D F Pace told CBS News Philadelphia.
There were an estimated 30 people on the bus at the time of the shooting, Pace said, but only the 17-year-old boy was believed to have been shot. Investigators said they believe it was a targeted attack on the teenager and that he was shot in the back of the bus at close range.
According to Pace, the SEPTA bus driver alerted a control center about the shooting, which then relayed the message to Philadelphia police, who responded to the scene shortly.
Officers arrived at the scene and found at least one spent shell casing and blood on the bus, but no shooting victim, Pace said. Investigators later discovered the 17-year-old had been taken to Temple University Hospital where he is said to be in critical condition, according to police.
CBS Philadelphia
Through their preliminary investigation, police learned those involved in the SEPTA shooting may have fled in a silver-colored Kia.
Authorities then found a car matching the description of the Kia speeding in the area and a pursuit began, Pace said. Police got help from a PPD helicopter as they followed the Kia, which ended up crashing at 5th and Greenwood streets in East Mount Airy. Pace said the Kia crashed into a parked car.
The driver of the crashed car ran away but police were still able to take them into custody, Pace said.
Investigators believe there was a second person involved in the shooting who ran from the car before it crashed. Police said they believe this person escaped near Allegheny Avenue and 4th Street, leaving a coat behind.
According to Pace, police also found a gun and a group of spent shell casings believed to be involved in the shooting in the same area.
“It’s very possible that there may have been a shooting inside the bus and also shots fired from outside of the bus toward the bus,” Pace said, “We’re still trying to piece all that together at this time.”
This is an active investigation and police are reviewing surveillance footage from the SEPTA bus.