Netanyahu says Israel ‘will not succumb’ to pressure to stop war in Gaza

Israel “cannot and will not succumb” to international pressure to stop its military campaign in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a government meeting Sunday, amid growing U.S. frustrations toward his government’s conduct of the war.

“In the international community, there are those who are trying to stop the war now, before all of its goals have been achieved,” he said. “They are doing so by means of an effort to bring about elections now, at the height of the war. They are doing this because they know that elections now will halt the war and paralyze the country for at least six months.”

“If we stop the war now, before all of its goals are achieved, this means that Israel will have lost the war, and this we will not allow,” he continued.

While Netanyahu did not say where the pressure was coming from, the comments came after Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) – the highest-ranking Jewish official in the United States and a staunch ally of Israel – said Thursday that Israel risks becoming a “pariah” under Netanyahu and called for elections. President Biden later praised Schumer for a “good speech.”

Netanyahu also promised Sunday to press on with his military’s plan to attack Rafah, the southern Gazan city where over half of the enclave’s population is sheltering.

“We will operate in Rafah,” Netanyahu said. He said it was the “only way” to “eliminate” Hamas and to free the remaining hostages – the country’s two stated goals for its war in Gaza.

Last week, Israel’s military said it intends to direct a “significant” portion of Rafah’s population of 1.4 million toward “humanitarian islands” in central Gaza ahead of the offensive, which Biden has warned would cross a “red line.” Netanyahu’s office said Friday that he approved a plan for military operations in Rafah, without providing details.

On Sunday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told ABC’s “This Week” that the U.S. would not support a Rafah operation “unless or until (Israel) can accommodate the 1.5 million refugees that are there and preserve their safety and security.”

Aid groups are also pleading for restraint. On Saturday, the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was “gravely concerned” about Israel’s plan to attack Rafah and appealed to Israel to call off the operation.

Humanitarian agencies say the besieged enclave is teetering on the brink of famine, and they are calling for Israel to facilitate increased aid deliveries and open more access points into the territory. One in 3 children under 2 are now acutely malnourished in northern Gaza, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Saturday, adding that malnutrition among children is reaching “unprecedented” levels.

Here’s what else to know

• Israel’s war cabinet and security cabinet will discuss Israel’s response to Hamas’s cease-fire and hostage-release proposal on Sunday evening, said an Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. An Israeli delegation will travel to Qatar to continue negotiating a hostage deal, Netanyahu’s office said last week.

• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is set to meet with Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, an Israeli war cabinet member and political rival of Netanyahu, later Sunday. Germany, a staunch ally of Israel, has called on the Israeli government to “urgently” open more border crossings to support the flow of more aid by truck, which Scholz said would be a topic of conversation in his meeting with Netanyahu.

• A second ship carrying 240 tons of food aid, as well as machinery, is preparing to depart for Gaza from the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, according to World Central Kitchen, the U.S. nonprofit founded by celebrity chef José Andrés. A first shipment carrying nearly 200 tons of food aid arrived in Gaza on Saturday and is now being “readied” for distribution, the organization said.

- Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Bahraini Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa in Manama on Saturday to discuss a cease-fire proposal of at least six weeks in Gaza and the Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. “Secretary Blinken pledged to continue close coordination with regional and international partners to promote calm during the holy month of Ramadan and prepare for the post-conflict phase,” Miller added.

- At least 31,645 people have been killed and 73,676 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and says that 249 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operation in Gaza.

- The first pieces of the U.S.’s planned floating dock off Gaza’s coast are already en route, Kirby told ABC, adding that it will take roughly 6 to 8 weeks for all parts to arrive and be assembled. “We are working with partners in the region to figure out the details of how the material will be secured on and off the floating dock,” he said, “and of course, how it will be distributed inside Gaza.”

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Lior Soroka and Peter Jamison contributed to this report.