GAZA: Israel declared its determination Wednesday to press on with its Gaza war “with or without international support,” after it came under mounting pressure even from key backer the United States.
Now in its third month, the war was launched after the unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas that officials say killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Palestinian militants carried out one of the deadliest single attacks on Israeli soldiers since the Gaza invasion began, killing at least nine in an urban ambush, the military said Wednesday, a sign of the stiff resistance Hamas still poses despite more than two months of devastating bombardment.

LONDON: Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, said on Wednesday that her country will “absolutely” reject any possibility of a two-state solution after the war in Gaza ends.

Asked how peace might be achieved absent an agreement to establish a Palestinian state, she told Sky News: “Israel knows today and the world should know now … that the Palestinians never wanted to have a state next to Israel.

“They want to have a state ‘from the river to the sea.’ They are saying it loud and clear.”

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s parliament postponed until further notice its planned vote for a new speaker on Wednesday, local media reported, with MPs focused on local elections.

The previous speaker, influential Sunni politician Mohamed Al-Halbussi, was dismissed last month after accusations of forgery in an arcane dispute with another member of parliament.

CAIRO: Egypt has again slammed what it described as Israeli attempts to encourage Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip.

Any move to displace Gazans, whether voluntarily or forcibly, was on Wednesday condemned by Cairo.

The latest Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ statement on the Israel-Hamas war came in response to recent comments made by the Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer suggesting Palestinians should vacate the Strip.