LIVE Middle East Crisis. Israeli Prime Minister breaks off talks in Cairo and repeats attack plan – Australia, Canada and New Zealand call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza | Israel-Palestine conflict

The leaders of Australia, Canada and New Zealand have today called up to an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The Commonwealth countries came up with one joint statement following reports of Israel’s planned military operation in Rafah, the last refuge for displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza.

“We are deeply concerned by indications that Israel is planning a ground offensive against Rafah military operation against Rafah would be catastrophic” the statement said. “A an immediate humanitarian ceasefire is urgently needed.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israeli forces will press ahead with a planned offensive in Rafah, saying they will definitively defeat the radical Palestinian movement Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu no longer sees any interest in negotiations with Hamas over the release of Israeli hostages, Israeli media report. The delegation that was present in Cairo at meetings of envoys from Egypt, Qatar and the United States on the hostages and on a truce in the Gaza Strip has left the Egyptian capital and will not return, according to the ‘Jerusalem Post’.

According to local media, there has been a stir in Israel over Netanyahu’s position, because he reportedly did this without consulting the ministers and officials involved in the war leadership. For example, ministers of the ‘war cabinet’ such as Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot are said to be furious because – not for the first time – they feel ignored by Netanyahu, reports ‘The Times of Israel’.

According to Netanyahu, Hamas is clinging to insane demands and cannot achieve anything with them. According to him, the movement must first adopt a different position. He is also said to have rejected a proposal for a deal with Hamas that the Israeli secret services and armed forces had presented to him. Campaign groups for the return of hostages and families of the victims accuse Netanyahu of passing a death sentence on the hostages.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday promised a “strong” operation in Rafah, “after” the civilian population has been given the opportunity to leave the city at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip.

“We will fight until complete victory, which implies a strong operation in Rafah after the civilian population has been given the opportunity to leave the combat zones,” he said in a message on his official Telegram account.

According to the United Nations, about 1.4 million people are crammed into this city, which has turned into a giant refugee camp.

The operation in Rafah is controversial. Even several of Israel’s allies, such as Germany and the United States, have reservations about the announced offensive. Although Israel says it wants to give citizens a chance to leave the city, it is not clear where the refugees would go.

An Israeli offensive on the Rafah, where 1.3 million people have taken refuge in the southern Gaza Strip, would be a humanitarian disaster. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said this on Wednesday, according to a report from the news agency ‘Reuters’.

Baerbock said at the press conference in Jerusalem that Germany is urging the European Union to investigate sanctions against extremist settlers attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, after Paris, Washington and London already imposed sanctions on violent settlers.

“Let’s agree together on sanctions in Europe. For this we need all 27 Member States. We as Germans have put this on the European agenda,” she said, adding that national entry bans in the Schengen zone would only work if they were implemented across the bloc.

The US government is investigating the misuse of US-supplied weapons by the Israeli forces in alleged attacks on civilians, reports ‘The Wall Street Journal’ (WSJ). This includes bombings in which white phosphorus from the US was allegedly used in Lebanon last year. Bombing of the Gaza Strip is also being considered.

White phosphorus is used, among other things, in incendiary bombs. When in contact with the skin, skin and flesh burn away at temperatures over 800 degrees. The State Department in Washington is investigating whether civilians were deliberately killed with US-supplied weapons, according to officials WSJ spoke to.

For example, a bombing in the Gaza Strip at the end of October is being investigated in the town of Jabalia. At least 125 people were killed, according to American officials quoted by the newspaper. Israel has said that a Hamas tunnel under a high-rise apartment building was bombed. According to weapons experts, this was probably done with a bomb weighing almost 900 kilos that may have been supplied by the US.

The US has been supplying Israel with weapons for decades, but representatives in Congress have asked President Joe Biden to impose conditions on the weapons deliveries to exert political pressure. According to WSJ, Biden is getting into trouble in the run-up to the presidential elections in November due to months of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, among other places, where more than 28,000 people, mainly civilians, have already been killed.

Biden has generally backed Israeli policies so far. But with this he risks losing many Democratic voters in a number of states, because they are strongly against continuing hostilities. They want Biden to put pressure on the Israelis to stop the bloodshed. But on the other hand, there are also Democratic voters who believe that Biden should under no circumstances reject Israel.

If the US investigation concludes that Israel has misused American weapons, this could eventually lead to restrictions on arms supplies to Israel.

But a spokesperson for the State Department told the newspaper that this investigation is not being done hastily and will not lead to a different American policy towards Israel in the short term.