Israeli soldiers drive a tank at a staging ground near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Sunday, May 5, 2024.

The latest round of Gaza cease-fire talks ended in Cairo after “in-depth and serious discussions,” the Hamas militant group said Sunday, reiterating key demands that Israel again rejected. After earlier signs of progress, the outlook appeared to dim as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to resist international pressure to halt the war.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant claimed Hamas wasn't serious about a deal and warned of “a powerful operation in the very near future in Rafah and other places across all of Gaza " after Hamas attacked Israel's main crossing point for delivering badly needed humanitarian aid, killing three soldiers. Israel’s military said it believed Hamas was targeting soldiers massed on the Gaza border in preparation for a possible Rafah invasion. Hamas said it targeted soldiers in the area.

But Israeli media reported that CIA chief William Burns, a main mediator in the talks, would meet with Netanyahu on Monday. An official familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that Burns was traveling to meet the prime minister of Qatar, which along with Egypt has been an intermediary dealing with Hamas. It was not clear whether a subsequent trip to Israel that had been planned would happen. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.

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Israel didn’t send a delegation to the latest talks. Egyptian state media reported that the Hamas delegation went for discussions in Qatar, where the group has a political office, and will return to Cairo for further negotiations on Tuesday.

Another threat to talks came as Israel ordered the local offices of Qatar’s Al Jazeera satellite news network to close, accusing it of broadcasting anti-Israel incitement. The ban did not appear to affect the channel’s operations in Gaza or the West Bank.

Netanyahu, under pressure from hard-liners in his government, continued to lower expectations for a cease-fire deal, calling the key Hamas demands “extreme” — including the withdrawal of Israel forces from Gaza and an end to the war. That would equal surrender after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that triggered the fighting, he said.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a statement earlier said the militant group was serious and positive about the negotiations and that stopping Israeli aggression in Gaza is the main priority.

But Israel's government again vowed to press on with a military operation in Rafah, the southernmost Gaza city on the border with Egypt where more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million residents now seek shelter from Israeli attacks. Rafah is a key entry point for aid.

Kerem Shalom, now closed, is another. The Israeli military reported 10 projectiles were launched at the crossing in southern Israel and said its fighter jets later struck the source. Israel’s Channel 12 TV channel said 10 soldiers remained hospitalized. It was unclear how long the crossing would be closed.

The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, called for an independent investigation and “accountability for the blatant disregard of humanitarian workers.” He also said Israel this week denied him entry to Gaza for a second time.

The closing of Kerem Shalom came shortly after the head of the U.N. World Food Program asserted “full-blown famine” in devastated northern Gaza, one of the most prominent warnings yet of the toll of restrictions on aid entering the territory. It was not a formal famine declaration.

In the full NBC interview, WFP chief Cindy McCain said famine was “moving its way south” in Gaza and that Israel's efforts to allow in more aid were not enough. “We have right now a mass on the outside border, about enough trucks and enough food for 1.1 million people for about three months. We need to get that in," she said.

Gaza's vast humanitarian needs put pressure on cease-fire talks. The proposal that Egyptian mediators put to Hamas sets out a three-stage process that would bring an immediate, six-week cease-fire and partial release of Israeli hostages taken on Oct. 7, and would include some sort of Israeli pullout. The initial stage would last for 40 days. Hamas would start by releasing female civilian hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Netanyahu claimed that Israel has shown willingness to make concessions but "will continue fighting until all of its objectives are achieved.” That includes the stated aim of crushing Hamas. Israel says it must target Rafah to strike remaining fighters there despite warnings from the U.S. and others about the danger to civilians.

In a fiery speech for Israel’s annual Holocaust memorial day, Netanyahu added: “I say to the leaders of the world, no amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself.”

An Israeli strike Sunday on a house in an urban refugee camp near Rafah killed four children, including a baby, and two adults, all from the same family, according to Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital. Another Israeli strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least five people, according to Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. Israel's military said it struck a Hamas command center in central Gaza. It didn't mention casualties.

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The Hamas cross-border attack on Oct. 7 killed some 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. Israel says militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others. Netanyahu is under pressure from some hostages' families to make a deal to end the war and get hostages freed.

Israeli's air and ground offensive has killed over 34,500 people, according to Palestinian health officials, who don't differentiate between civilians and combatants but say women and children make up a majority of those killed.

Israel blames Hamas for civilian deaths, accusing it of embedding in residential and public areas. The Israeli military says it has killed 13,000 militants, without providing evidence to back up the claim.

Israeli PM Netanyahu does not accept Hamas's request for a permanent cease-fire

Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he will not accept Hamas's demands for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza. Netanyahu released a video message rejecting Hamas's request for Israel to withdraw all troops from the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of hostages.

Netanyahu uses Holocaust ceremony to brush off international pressure against Gaza offensive

People visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, Sunday, May 5, 2024. The annual Israeli memorial day for the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust of World War II begins at sundown on Sunday.

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected international pressure to halt the war in Gaza in a fiery speech marking the country’s annual Holocaust memorial day, declaring: “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”

The message, delivered in a setting that typically avoids politics, was aimed at the growing chorus of world leaders who have criticized the heavy toll caused by Israel’s military offensive against Hamas militants and have urged the sides to agree to a cease-fire.

Netanyahu has said he is open to a deal that would pause nearly seven months of fighting and bring home hostages held by Hamas. But he also says he remains committed to an invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, despite widespread international opposition because of the more than 1 million civilians huddled there.

“I say to the leaders of the world: No amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself,” he said, speaking in English. “Never again is now.”

Yom Hashoah, the day Israel observes as a memorial for the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany and its allies in the Holocaust, is one of the most solemn dates on the country’s calendar. Speeches at the ceremony generally avoid politics, though Netanyahu in recent years has used the occasion to lash out at Israel's archenemy Iran.

The ceremony ushered in Israel’s first Holocaust remembrance day since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war, imbuing the already somber day with additional meaning.

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Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people in the attack, making it the deadliest violence against Jews since the Holocaust.

Israel responded with an air and ground offensive in Gaza, where the death toll has soared to more than 34,500 people, according to local health officials, and about 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are displaced. The death and destruction has prompted South Africa to file a genocide case against Israel in the U.N.’s world court. Israel strongly rejects the charges.

On Sunday, Netanyahu attacked those accusing Israel of carrying out a genocide against the Palestinians, claiming that Israel was doing everything possible to ensure the entry of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

The 24-hour memorial period began after sundown on Sunday with a ceremony at Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial, in Jerusalem.

There are approximately 245,000 living Holocaust survivors around the world, according to the Claims Conference, an organization that negotiates for material compensation for Holocaust survivors. Approximately half of the survivors live in Israel.

On Sunday, Tel Aviv University and the Anti-Defamation League released an annual Antisemitism Worldwide Report for 2023, which found a sharp increase in antisemitic attacks globally.

It said the number of antisemitic incidents in the United States doubled, from 3,697 in 2022 to 7,523 in 2023.

While most of these incidents occurred after the war erupted in October, the number of antisemitic incidents, which include vandalism, harassment, assault, and bomb threats, from January to September was already significantly higher than the previous year.

The report found an average of three bomb threats per day at synagogues and Jewish institutions in the U.S., more than 10 times the number in 2022.

Other countries tracked similar rises in antisemitic incidents. In France, the number nearly quadrupled, from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023, while it more than doubled in the United Kingdom and Canada.

“In the aftermath of the October 7 war crimes committed by Hamas, the world has seen the worst wave of antisemitic incidents since the end of the Second World War,” the report stated.

Netanyahu also compared the recent wave of protests on American campuses to German universities in the 1930s, in the runup to the Holocaust. He condemned the “explosion of a volcano of antisemitism spitting out boiling lava of lies against us around the world.”

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Nearly 2,500 students have been arrested in a wave of protests at U.S. college campuses, while there have been smaller protests in other countries, including France. Protesters reject antisemitism accusations and say they are criticizing Israel. Campuses and the federal government are struggling to define exactly where political speech crosses into antisemitism.

Israel and Hamas trade blame amid little sign of breakthrough in ceasefire and hostage talks

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he “cannot accept” Hamas’ demands to end the war in Gaza as the two sides traded blame amid fresh ceasefire talks that showed little sign of a breakthrough.

Discussions are thought to have centered around a new framework, proposed by Cairo, that calls for the militant group to release hostages kidnapped from Israel in exchange for a pause in hostilities in Gaza.

A Hamas delegation has now left Egypt after the latest round of gruelling months of talks, saying “in-depth and serious discussions took place.”

There had been some cause for optimism, with Egyptian media citing an Egyptian official as saying there had been “significant progress” in negotiations. But the latest comments from Israel and Hamas show how far apart the two remain.

On Sunday, Hamas’ political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement that the group was “still keen” to reach an agreement with mediators but that any proposal would have to guarantee Israeli withdrawal and cease fighting in the enclave permanently.

He reiterated that the delegation carried “positive and flexible positions” aimed at stopping “the aggression against our people, which is a fundamental and logical position that lays the foundation for a more stable future.”

However, referring to the Israeli government, Haniyeh said that “the world has become a hostage to an extremist government, which has a huge number of political problems and crimes committed in Gaza,” and accused its leadership of seeking to “sabotage the efforts made through the mediators and various parties.”

Netanyahu in turn accused Hamas of making unacceptable demands in the Cairo talks, adding that Israel had “demonstrated a willingness to go a long way” in the negotiations.

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He said Hamas’s demand that Israel withdraw from Gaza was out of the question.

“Hamas remained entrenched in its extreme positions, chief among them the demand to withdraw all our forces from the strip, end the war, and leave Hamas intact,” he said. “The State of Israel cannot accept this.”

“We are not ready to accept a situation in which the Hamas battalions come out of their bunkers, take control of Gaza again, rebuild their military infrastructure, and return to threatening the citizens of Israel in the surrounding settlements, in the cities of the south, in all parts of the country.”

“Israel will not agree to Hamas’s demands, which mean surrender, and will continue the fighting until all its goals are achieved,” Netanyahu said.

Looming offensive in Rafah

Amid the tense ongoing negotiations is an expected ground offensive on the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million Palestinians are estimated to be sheltering after fleeing fighting in the north.

The US has sought to increase the pressure on Hamas to accept the deal on the table, while also trying to prevent the Israeli military from moving towards Rafah. Most recently, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held another round of high-stakes talks in Israel on Wednesday.

However, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops on Sunday to expect “intense action in Rafah in the near future, and in other places all over the strip.”

Galant entered the enclave Sunday morning, according to the Defense Ministry, where he told soldiers that Israel was “committed to the elimination of Hamas and the release of the hostages.”

“We recognize alarming signs that Hamas actually does not intend to go to any outline agreement with us, the meaning of this - action in Rafah and the entire Gaza Strip in the near future,” Gallant said.

“We are just before an action, we’re in high readiness, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) knows what to do, we are prepared for things and it will encompass the entire strip from north to south, all the area and within it Rafah.”

Rocket barrage near Kerem Shalom

Meanwhile, Israel closed the Kerem Shalom border crossing to humanitarian trucks after it was hit by at least 10 rockets on Sunday morning, according to the IDF.

The crossing has been central to getting aid into Gaza.

It wasn’t immediately clear where exactly the rockets had landed in the area or if there were any injuries or fatalities. The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said it had targeted the crossing with rockets.

Following the rocket barrage, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) blamed Hamas aid not reaching the besieged strip.

In a post on X, COGAT said: “Hamas will do anything to prevent aid from reaching the people of Gaza. Over the last few days and in separate incidents: Hamas shot mortars at the corridor for humanitarian purposes, disrupted aid from traveling from southern to northern Gaza, and prevented residents from receiving humanitarian aid.”

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A CNN stringer in Rafah, Gaza said that people there had become fearful as immediately after rockets hit Kerem Shalom, artillery fire could be heard east of the city as Israeli jets struck unspecified targets.

Israel threatens imminent Rafah invasion if ceasefire talks collapse

Israel’s defence minister has threatened an imminent invasion of Rafah where 1.5 million Gazans are sheltering if a temporary ceasefire agreement is not reached.

Amid faltering peace talks in Egypt, Yoav Gallant warned his government was preparing to launch “a powerful operation in the very near future in Rafah and other places across all of Gaza”.

Negotiations stalled on Sunday after Hamas said it would reject any deal that failed to end the war in the Palestinian territory.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said he cannot accept Hamas’ demands for an end to the war or the withdrawal of IDF forces from Gaza.

Israel claims Rafah, in south Gaza, is the last stronghold of Hamas, with four unharmed battalions remaining in the area, in addition to the remnants of other dismantled battalions which have fled since the ground invasion.

Mr Netanyahu has been urged by his allies, including the US, to abandon plans to launch an offensive on Rafah to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.

Speaking to troops on Sunday, Mr Gallant said that the invasion was imminent.

“We have clear goals for this war: we are committed to the elimination of Hamas and the release of the hostages… we have identified alarming signs that Hamas actually does not intend to go for any agreement framework with us. What this means is an operation in Rafah and the entire Gaza Strip in the very near future,” he said.

On Sunday, a barrage of at least 10 projectiles was fired from Rafah towards the Kerem Shalom crossing, once a key entry point for the likes of food and aid, but currently closed for security reasons. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming it had targeted Israeli soldiers in the area.

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Egyptian and Qatari mediators had been working alongside the head of the CIA, William Burns, in Cairo over the weekend to move forward a ceasefire agreement though Israel did not send a delegation.

Mr Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel has been “very generous” in its offer for a potential deal but added that Hamas “still held to its extreme positions.”

He continued: “First and foremost the withdrawal of our forces from the Strip, the conclusion of the war and leaving Hamas intact.”

Mr Netanyahu has said he is willing to pause fighting for 40 days to secure the release of hostages still being held by Hamas. But he has ruled out an end to the war until all his “aims are achieved”.

Nearly seven months into the war, less than half the 250 or more hostages taken on October 7 have been released. Many are believed to have already died in captivity.

Hamas’s political head, Ismail Haniyeh, said the terror group would only do a deal that would secure Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza, in addition to the hostages being exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Mr Haniyeh blamed Mr Netanyahu for “the continuation of the aggression and the expansion of the circle of conflict, and sabotaging the efforts made through the mediators and various parties.”

The war was sparked on October 7 when thousands of Hamas militia invaded Israel by land, air and sea, killing 1,200 mostly civilians and taking at least 250 hostages in the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust. Since then, Israel’s retaliatory bombardment has killed over 34,000 according to Hamas.

“We are not willing to accept a situation in which Hamas’s battalions leave their tunnels, reestablish control over the Strip, rebuild their military industries and go back to threatening the citizens of Israel in the communities of the Western Negev, the cities of the south and throughout the country,” added Mr Netanyahu. “In such a case, the next October 7 would only be a matter of time. Hamas would be able to realise its promise to carry out repeated massacres, rapes and abductions.”

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Protests swept across Israel over the weekend. Thousands took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night to demand a ceasefire and the release of hostages, calling for the resignation of Mr Netanyahu. But on Sunday, a counter-protest was undertaken by the families of the fallen Israeli soldiers, which is now nearing 400, calling for the invasion of Rafah in a bid to secure the end of Hamas.

“The Heroic” families’ forum, made up of the families of soldiers who have died since October 7, marched to Mr Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem with banners reading “the road to victory is via Rafah” as calls for the continuation of the war contrasted with the ceasefire calls in Tel Aviv. Several ministers joined the protest including Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Right-wing national security minister and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister.