Israel-Hamas war: Kamala Harris holds talks with Netanyahu

Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party in November's presidential election, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.

She said she had a "frank and constructive meeting" with him in which she reiterated her "unwavering commitment" to Israel's security, but went on to take a more critical tone on Israel's actions in Gaza.

"Israel has a right to defend itself. And how it does so matters," she told reporters after the meeting.

"I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there," she said. "I will not be silent."

Gaps in a Gaza cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas militants can be overcome, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday.

He spoke as US President Joe Biden met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss prospects for a cease-fire.

White House officials have said the cease-fire talks are in the closing stages, but some issues still need to be addressed.

"We need to get there soon," Kirby said. " But it's going to require, as it always does, some leadership, some compromise."

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller added, "I think the message from the American side in that meeting will be that we need to get this deal over the line."

The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has called on Israel to reverse its decision to outlaw the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). In a post on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, he said such a move was "nonsense."

"Outlawing UNRWA — and labelling it as terrorist, which it is not — amounts to targeting regional stability and human dignity of all those benefiting from the UN agency work," wrote Borrell. "We join many partners in urging the Israeli Government to halt this nonsense."

Israeli lawmakers this week gave their preliminary approval to a bill labeling UNRWA a terrorist organization and proposing to sever relations with the UN agency.

"It's another attempt in a wider campaign to dismantle the agency," UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said of the bill. "Such steps are unheard of in the history of the United Nations."

Following the October 7 Hamas terror attacks, Israel, without publicly releasing evidence, claimed UNRWA employed a dozen Hamas militants. The accusation led several governments to pause funding to the agency until an inquiry found issues with "neutrality" but no evidence of terrorism. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his thanks to US President Joe Biden for the American leader's 50 years of support for the state of Israel.

"I want to thank you for the 50 years of public service and 50 years of support for the state of Israel, and I look forward to discussing with you today and working with you in the months ahead," said Netanyahu.

The statement came during Netanyahu's long-awaited visit to the White House on Thursday — his first since 2020, when Donald Trump was president.

On the heels of Netanyahu's speech to US lawmakers on Wednesday, he and Biden were expected to discuss efforts to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas militants.

Biden has pressed Israel and Hamas to seal a US-backed plan to release remaining hostages in Gaza over three phases — something that would be a legacy-affirming achievement for the 81-year-old Democrat. On Sunday, Biden abandoned his reelection bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who will hold a private meeting with Netanyahu later Thursday.

The Israeli leader is under pressure at home as hostages' relatives demand the return of their loved ones and members of his far-right government call for him to ensure Israeli forces eliminate Hamas.

Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by several countries, including Israel, Germany and the United States.

Up to 20 people from the Gaza Strip suffering from serious illness will be evacuated with their close relatives to Norway, the Norwegian Immigration Department (UDI) has said.

The UDI said the Norwegian government had ordered it to issue entry permits for medical evacuations from Gaza, adding that women and children would be the first to be accepted.

Norway has said it will take in up to 100 people, though it remains unclear when the first patients will arrive since they require Gaza exit permits.

The World Health Organization in April called on countries to help with medical evacuations of patients from Gaza, as much of the health care system there has been damaged or destroyed by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Earlier this week, 16 children were flown from Egypt to Spain for treatment.

The Hamas-led Health Ministry in Gaza has said some 39,000 people have been killed and more than 90,000 injured since Israel began its military operation in the Palestinian territory following the October 7, 2023, terror attacks by Hamas, which killed about 1,200 people and saw some 240 more taken hostage. 

The death toll published by the Gaza Health Ministry is essentially a "plausible number," the chairperson of Every Casualty Counts, an NGO that is committed to ensuring that victims in armed conflicts are recorded, told DW.

Michael Spagat, who is also a professor at the Royal Holloway College at the University of London, said the Hamas-run ministry's number is mostly based on a "detailed list of victims," which it regularly releases.

"That comes from their morgue-based monitoring system plus a form that people can fill out reporting tests that they know about," he said.

The latest list released by the ministry contains information about more than 28,000 people who have been killed, but the ministry puts the death toll at 39,000. 

"I view that 28,185 as a highly credible rock bottom minimum. The other bit of it, essentially 10,000 additional deaths ... is really a black box," Spagat said.

He also dismissed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement in US Congress that there were virtually no civilian deaths as a result of the fighting in Rafah.

Spagat said at least 3,500 deaths were recorded in Rafah, "and of those 1,656 were children under the age of 15."

Spagat mentioned that the scale of the war in Gaza is "so vast" that it would take up to a decade to document every person who died in the conflict.

"I think that the place to start is by listing each person killed by name and then trying to say something about each one of those," he said.

Watch the entire interview with Spagat here:

Militant group Hamas, as well as the Iranian Foreign Ministry, have condemned an address by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the US Congress.

Late on Wednesday, Hamas accused Netanyahu of misleading the public over efforts to secure a hostage release deal.

"Netanyahu's talk about intensified efforts to return the hostages is a complete lie and misleading Israeli, American and international public opinion, while he is the one who thwarted all efforts aimed at ending the war and concluding a deal to release the prisoners, despite the continuous efforts of mediators from our brothers in Egypt and Qatar," the Palestinian group said in a statement.

Hamas is classified as a terror group by the US, the EU, Germany and others.

On Thursday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani denounced the US Congress for welcoming and applauding Netanyahu.

"The criminal prime minister of a fake regime is embraced by his supporters after nine months of genocide and infanticide," he said.

In his address on Wednesday, Netanyahu called for an alliance against what he called an Iranian "axis of terror." He claimed Iran was behind almost all sectarian violence in the Middle East.

Australia has sanctioned Israeli settlers and a youth group accused of the "beatings, sexual assault and torture" of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced financial sanctions and travel bans against seven individuals and the Hilltop Youth religious settler group. 

The move follows similar measures by the European Union and the United States.

"The individuals sanctioned today have been involved in violent attacks on Palestinians," Wong said. "This includes beatings, sexual assault and torture of Palestinians resulting in serious injury and in some cases, death."

Since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022 at the helm of a strongly pro-settler coalition, settlement expansion has increased sharply.

Occupied by Israel since 1967, the West Bank has seen a significant spike in violence since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza last October.

Palestinian authorities say at least 589 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers since the outbreak of the war on October 7. At least 17 Israelis, including soldiers, have also been killed in the same period of time in attacks involving Palestinians in the territory, Israeli officials say.

US President Joe Biden was due to meet Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Thursday after the Israeli prime minister delivered a combative speech to the US Congress the day before. 

Amid tensions between the two, Biden's administration has urged Israel to do more to provide further aid to Gaza and to protect civilians there.

The health system in the Palestinian territory has been decimated, with widespread malnutrition and a risk of famine in some areas. 

The meeting in Washington comes after Netanyahu's heated speech on Wednesday, in which he called for the United States and Israel to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in confronting Iran.

Netanyahu is set to hold talks with Biden in the Oval Office, before both meet with the families of US hostages still held in Gaza.

The Israeli leader is also set to meet the Democratic Party's presumed presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, on Thursday, before meeting Republican nominee Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Friday.

The visit is Netanyahu's first to Washington since the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7 — and the first in nearly four years.

Israel's military has said soldiers have retrieved the bodies of five Israelis kept in the Gaza Strip after they were killed in Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel.

The five had previously been announced dead, with the military and the Israeli Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group saying they were killed on the day of the initial attack.

The Israeli army said the bodies were recovered in southern Gaza on Wednesday and taken back to Israel.

Four of the deceased were soldiers who were killed fighting militants who had crossed the border into Israel on October 7, 2023, the military said. The other was a 56-year-old woman who had been living in a kibbutz near the border with the Palestinian territory. The military said she was "murdered" after she was taken hostage during the attacks.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas took some 251 people hostage during the October 7 terror attacks. Some have been released, but some 111 remain in Gaza, including around 40 who are believed to be dead.

About 1,200 people were also killed during the attacks in Israel, which triggered the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza. Health officials in the Hamas-run enclave say over 39,000 Palestinians have been killed.

rc/rmt (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)