German foreign minister says first phase of Trump's Gaza plan achievable by next week
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Monday that the initial stage of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to end the conflict in Gaza must...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he did not rule out further strikes on Hamas leaders "wherever they are", as the heads of Arab and Islamic states held a summit to back Qatar after Israel's attack last week in the Gulf state.
The 9 September strike targeting leaders of Hamas in Doha was a significant escalation of Israeli military action in the region.
While the assembled Arab and Muslim leaders were expressing solidarity with Qatar, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Netanyahu in Jerusalem and gave strong backing for Israel's hardline stance, although Washington has expressed unease over the Qatar strike.
Speaking alongside Netanyahu in Israel, Rubio said the only way to end the war in Gaza would be for Hamas fighters to free all hostages and surrender. While the U.S. wants a diplomatic end to the war, "we have to be prepared for the possibility that's not going to happen," he said.
Washington has said it was not warned in advance before Israel attacked Qatar, which houses the biggest U.S. military base in the Middle East. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Israel had to be "very, very careful".
"They have to do something about Hamas, but Qatar has been a great ally to the United States," Trump said.
Qatar denounces 'cowardly and treacherous' strike
Hamas has said the Israeli strike killed five of its members, including a son of its exiled Gaza chief, but its leadership survived. Qatar says one of its security agents also died.
Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani urged the summit to take "practical and decisive steps" in response to the "cowardly and treacherous" strike, saying it occurred as Hamas leaders were studying a U.S. ceasefire proposal.
The final communique of the summit, which brought together states including Iran, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia, did not contain language that appeared in a draft seen by Reuters which said the Israeli attack and other "hostile acts" threaten coexistence and efforts to normalise ties in the region.
A separate statement by the Gulf Cooperation Council said Israel’s "continuation of these aggressive policies undermines ... the future of existing understandings and agreements with Israel."
The summit's communique did call on countries to review diplomatic and economic ties with Israel, in what Arab League Assistant Secretary General Hossam Zaki said was an invitation to states that have relations with Israel to revise them.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, a U.S. ally which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, told the meeting Israel's actions "put obstacles in the way of any opportunities for any new peace agreements and even aborts existing ones".
Rubio to fly to Qatar
Rubio will travel to Qatar after his visit to Israel. He called on Qatar to continue to play a constructive role in resolving the Gaza conflict, saying it could help reach the goals of releasing all 48 hostages still held in Gaza, disarming Hamas and building a better future for Gazans.
But his words alongside Netanyahu suggested Washington now considers a diplomatic solution unlikely and is backing Israel's plan for a major new military operation that Netanyahu says will crush Hamas once and for all.
"As much as we may wish that there be a peaceful, diplomatic way to end it, and we'll continue to explore and be dedicated to it, we also have to be prepared for the possibility that's not going to happen," said Rubio, calling Hamas "savage terrorists".
"Hamas needs to cease to exist as an armed element that can threaten the peace and security of the region," he said.
Asked whether Israel was considering extending its sovereignty to the West Bank, Netanyahu said: "A future step is a future step. We don't need to expose it ahead of time.
"It's clear that taking unilateral actions against us simply invites unilateral actions on our part," he said.
Assaults on Gaza continue
While diplomacy was unfolding in Jerusalem and Doha, Israeli forces continued their assault on Gaza City, where they killed at least 16 Palestinians in strikes on two homes and on a tent housing a displaced family, local health authorities said.
The army also hit and destroyed a 16-floor building in the west of the city, believed to be the tallest in Gaza, about an hour after warning displaced families sheltering inside and nearby to leave. It said the building was being used to hide "terrorist infrastructure."
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Monday that the initial stage of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to end the conflict in Gaza must be implemented by the beginning of next week at the latest, while acknowledging that other elements of the proposal would take longer to resolve.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday found a militia leader guilty for the first time over atrocities committed in Sudan’s Darfur region more than two decades ago.
Protesters once again took to the streets of Madagascar’s cities on Monday, marking a third consecutive week of anti-government demonstrations now calling for President Andry Rajoelina to step down.
Iran and France indicated on Monday that talks on the release of two French citizens held in Iran in exchange for an Iranian national detained by France were progressing.
Ukraine’s military says it has carried out strikes on one of Russia’s main explosives factories and an oil terminal in occupied Crimea, escalating long-range attacks on key sites supporting Moscow’s war effort.
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