Israel-Hamas war: Netanyahu pledges 'powerful' Rafah action

• Israeli PM Netanyahu says Rafah operation will happen

• France's Macron expresses 'firm opposition' to Rafah action

• Egypt's el-Sissi and Turkey's Erdogan urge Gaza cease-fire

• Germany's foreign minister visiting Israel amid crisis

Netanyahu pledges 'powerful' Rafah action

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his commitment to follow through with a military operation in Rafah, southern Gaza.

"We will fight until complete victory and this includes a powerful action in Rafah as well, after we allow the civilians population to leave the battle zones," Netanyahu wrote in a post on X.

Western countries, such as the US and France, have expressed concern about such an operation because of the more than 1 million Palestinians sheltering there.

Israel launched extensive military operations earlier in the war against Hamas in Gaza City in the north and Khan Yunis in the south. Rafah lies on the very southern part of Gaza, next to the Egyptian border.

Gaza death toll 'intolerable,' Macron tells Netanyahu

French President Emmanuel Macron told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the death toll in Gaza was "intolerable" during a phone call on Wednesday.

Macron's office said he expressed his "firm opposition" to an Israeli offensive in Rafah because it "could only lead to a humanitarian disaster of a new magnitude" and create a new risk of regional escalation.

He also reiterated calls for a cease-fire deal that would "guarantee the protection of all civilians and the massive inflow of emergency aid" as well as for creation of a Palestinian state.

Macron also reiterated France's solidarity with the Israeli people following the October 7 terrorist attack. He said it was a priority that the remaining Israeli hostages be freed by Hamas militants.

Hamas is classified as terrorist organization by the US, Germany, the EU and other governments.

Erdogan visits Cairo for Gaza talks

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country is ready to cooperate with Egypt to rebuild Gaza as he met with his Egyptian counterpart to focus mainly on the Israel-Hamas war.

Erdogan, visiting Egypt for the first time since 2012 after a spat, was holding a joint press conference with President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi in Cairo.

The Turkish leader said the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza topped the agenda of their talks.

Egypt is concerned that a ground assault on Rafah would push hundreds of thousands of people into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt, together with Qatar and the United States, a key Israel ally, have been seeking to broker a cease-fire.

"We agreed on the need for an immediate cease-fire [in Gaza] and the need to achieve calm in the West Bank" to relaunch peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, the Egyptian president said in the press conference.

The visit marks a major step toward rebuilding relations between the regional powers after they became strained over Egypt's 2013 military coup.

Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon kill 4, reports say

A woman and her two children have been killed in Israeli airstrikes that hit the village of Sawaneh in southern Lebanon, the Reuters and AFP news agencies reported, citing Lebanese security sources

AFP reported that the attacks also killed one person in the southern town of Adsheet.

At lease nine other people had been injured in southern Lebanon amid the Israeli airstrikes, the AFP reported. Footage showed massive damage there.

The Israeli army said earlier that it had begun an "extensive" wave of attacks on Lebanese territories. The military said it had responded to cross-border rocket fire from Lebanon.

Earlier in Israel, a woman was killed by a rocket fired from across the border that hit the northern town of Safed, Israeli media reported, citing rescue services. Seven other people were also said to have been injured.

Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni Arab countries, while the EU lists its armed wing as a terrorist group.

West Bank leader Abbas urges Hamas to avoid 'catastrophic event'

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has urged the militant group Hamas to conclude a Gaza cease-fire deal quickly to avoid "dire consequences," official Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

"We call on the Hamas movement to quickly complete a prisoner deal, to spare our Palestinian people from the calamity of another catastrophic event with dire consequences," Abbas said.

The Palestinian leader said the situation was "no less dangerous than the Nakba of 1948," referring to the war accompanying the creation of Israel that saw 760,000 Palestinians flee or be forced to leave their homes.

The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority (PA) is based in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, away from the fighting in Gaza. Hamas has been in power in Gaza since 2007 when Abbas loyalists were forced out.

The top US diplomat, Antony Blinken, said last month that Abbas was "committed" to reforming the PA "so that it can effectively take responsibility for Gaza, so that Gaza and the West Bank can be reunited under a Palestinian leadership."

A Hamas source told the AFP news agency that a delegation was headed to the Egyptian capital, Cairo, to meet Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Israeli negotiators held talks with mediators on Tuesday.

Rocket attack kills woman in northern Israel — reports

A woman was killed by a rocket fired from Lebanon that hit the northern town of Safed, Israeli media has reported, citing rescue services.

Seven people were taken to the hospital with injuries.

The Israeli military had reported that there had been several rocket alerts in the northern part of the country, without being clear about where the attacks were coming from.

Since the war began between Israel and Hamas, there have been repeated clashes along Israel's border with Lebanon. They involved the Israeli army and Iranian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah or other militant groups.

Nearly 200 Hezbollah fighters have died, according to the group. Civilians have also been killed on both sides of the border.

Tens of thousands of people living near the border in both countries have left their homes amid the worst escalation of cross-border clashes since the second Lebanon war in 2006.

Gaza ministry says death toll over 28,500

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said at least 28,576 Palestinians, mainly women and children, have been killed, with another 68,291 injured in Israeli retaliatory strikes on the territory since October 7.

The toll includes 103 people killed in the last 24 hours, the ministry added. Figures from the ministry officials are deemed largely accurate by the UN and others, but they do not differentiate between militants and civilians.

Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip came in response to the terror attacks by Hamas in the south of Israel in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed, mostly civilians, and some 240 people kidnapped.

Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the US, the EU, Germany and several other governments.

Israeli delegation leaves cease-fire talks in Cairo — reports

Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian negotiators in Cairo failed to reach a deal to achieve a cease-fire in the Gaza war and to exchange more hostages, but are set to continue talks, according to media reports.

The Israeli delegation was on its way back from Cairo on Tuesday night, an official in the Prime Minister's Office told The Times of Israel.

Israeli intelligence chief David Barnea earlier met CIA Director William Burns in the Egyptian capital where they held Qatari-brokered talks to plan a temporary halt in the fighting in Gaza.

The negotiations reportedly involved Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, and Egyptian officials who made an effort to secure a ceasefire before Israel launched a full-scale invasion into Rafah in southern Gaza.

The Wall Street Journal, citing Egyptian officials, said Barnea's delegation had departed the Egyptian capital "without closing any of the major gaps in the negotiations".

Egyptian state-owned television channel Al Qahera said the talks would continue for another three days, citing a senior Egyptian official.

US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called the negotiations "constructive and moving in the right direction."

"Nothing is done until it is all done," he told reporters at the White House.

Israel, Egypt or Qatar have not yet released an official statement on the result of the talks.

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