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Biden Says Netanyahu Not Doing Enough to Secure Hostage Deal

FILED - 18 October 2023, Israel, Tel Aviv: US President Joe Biden (L) comforts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a joint press conference. Photo: Avi Ohayon/GPO/dpa
FILED - 18 October 2023, Israel, Tel Aviv: US President Joe Biden (L) comforts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a joint press conference. Photo: Avi Ohayon/GPO/dpa
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Biden Says Netanyahu Not Doing Enough to Secure Hostage Deal

FILED - 18 October 2023, Israel, Tel Aviv: US President Joe Biden (L) comforts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a joint press conference. Photo: Avi Ohayon/GPO/dpa
FILED - 18 October 2023, Israel, Tel Aviv: US President Joe Biden (L) comforts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a joint press conference. Photo: Avi Ohayon/GPO/dpa

President Joe Biden said on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not doing enough to secure a deal for the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas and the US was close to presenting a final proposal to negotiators working on a hostage and ceasefire agreement.

Biden was speaking to reporters at the White House after Israeli forces over the weekend recovered the bodies of six hostages, including 23-year-old American Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, from a tunnel in Gaza. Israel's military said they were recently killed by Palestinian Hamas fighters.

That has sparked criticism of the Biden administration's Gaza ceasefire strategy and ratcheted up pressure on Netanyahu from Israelis to bring the remaining hostages home.

Asked whether he thought Netanyahu was doing enough to reach a hostage deal, Biden said "No." He did not elaborate on his remarks, which drew a sharp response from senior Israeli sources.

Asked if he was planning to present a final hostage deal to both sides this week, Biden said: "We're very close to that."

"Hope springs eternal," he added when asked whether a deal would be successful.

Biden's fresh criticism of Netanyahu comes as he and Vice President Kamala Harris, who has replaced the president at the top of the Democratic ticket for the Nov. 5 election, face increased calls for decisive action to end the nearly 11-month-old war in Gaza.

The conflict has sown divisions among Democrats, with many progressives pressing Biden to restrict or at least place conditions on US weapons supplies to Israel, Washington's chief Middle East ally.

ISRAEL AND HAMAS RESPOND TO BIDEN

Responding to Biden's comments, senior Israeli sources said it was "remarkable" that Biden was pressuring Netanyahu over a hostage deal rather than Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

They said Biden's statement that Netanyahu was not doing enough was also dangerous because it came days after Hamas executed six hostages, including an American.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Biden's criticism of Netanyahu was "American recognition that Netanyahu was responsible for undermining efforts to reach a deal."

He said the group would respond positively to a proposal that could secure a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave.

Netanyahu, who has accused Hamas of obstructing any agreement, said over the weekend that "whoever murders hostages does not want a deal."

Israeli protesters took to the streets on Monday for a second day, and the largest trade union launched a general strike to press the government to reach a deal to return the hostages.

Biden and Harris on Monday were meeting with the US hostage deal negotiating team to discuss efforts toward a hostage agreement, the White House said.

Months of stop-start negotiations mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt have so far failed to reach an accord on a Gaza proposal laid out by Biden in May. 

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Arab World

Israel Says Hezbollah Chief to Pay ‘Heavy Price’ for Jewish Holiday Attacks

First responders clear the rubble from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Hanouiyeh, east of Tyre, on March 30, 2026. (AFP)
First responders clear the rubble from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Hanouiyeh, east of Tyre, on March 30, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Says Hezbollah Chief to Pay ‘Heavy Price’ for Jewish Holiday Attacks

First responders clear the rubble from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Hanouiyeh, east of Tyre, on March 30, 2026. (AFP)
First responders clear the rubble from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Hanouiyeh, east of Tyre, on March 30, 2026. (AFP)

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Thursday warned that Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem would pay an "extraordinarily heavy price" for escalating attacks during the ongoing Jewish holidays.

"I have a clear message for Naim Qassem... you and your associates will pay an extraordinarily heavy price for the intensified rocket fire directed at Israeli citizens as they gathered to celebrate Passover Seder," Katz said in a video statement.

"You will be consigned to the depths of hell alongside Nasrallah, Khamenei, Sinwar and the other fallen figures of the axis of evil," he said, referring to the former leaders of Hezbollah, Iran, and the Palestinian Hamas movement, who have been assassinated by Israel over the past two and half years.

"The Hezbollah terrorist organization you now lead, and its supporters in Lebanon, will bear the full and severe consequences," Katz added.

His warning followed claims by Hezbollah that it had carried out a series of rocket attacks on northern Israel late Wednesday and early Thursday, as Israeli Jews began marking the Passover holidays.

Katz also reiterated that Israeli forces "will clear Hezbollah and its supporters from southern Lebanon, maintain Israeli security control throughout the Litani area, and dismantle Hezbollah's military capabilities across Lebanon."

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war in early March when Tehran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel to avenge the attack that killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel has responded with massive strikes across Lebanon and a ground offensive.

Arab World

UN Experts Call for Investigation into Israel's Killing of Lebanese Journalists

A woman sits in a cemetery before the funeral of Lebanese journalists, Al Manar reporter Ali Shoeib, Al Mayadeen reporter Fatima Ftouni and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, who were killed by a targeted Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Choueifat, Lebanon, March 29, 2026. (Reuters)
A woman sits in a cemetery before the funeral of Lebanese journalists, Al Manar reporter Ali Shoeib, Al Mayadeen reporter Fatima Ftouni and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, who were killed by a targeted Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Choueifat, Lebanon, March 29, 2026. (Reuters)
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UN Experts Call for Investigation into Israel's Killing of Lebanese Journalists

A woman sits in a cemetery before the funeral of Lebanese journalists, Al Manar reporter Ali Shoeib, Al Mayadeen reporter Fatima Ftouni and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, who were killed by a targeted Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Choueifat, Lebanon, March 29, 2026. (Reuters)
A woman sits in a cemetery before the funeral of Lebanese journalists, Al Manar reporter Ali Shoeib, Al Mayadeen reporter Fatima Ftouni and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, who were killed by a targeted Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Choueifat, Lebanon, March 29, 2026. (Reuters)

UN experts on Thursday called for an international investigation into the death of three Lebanese journalists in an Israeli strike, saying Israel had not provided "credible evidence" of their alleged links to armed groups.

The three journalists, including Ali Shoeib, a star correspondent for Al Manar channel of Hezbollah, which is at war with Israel, were killed on March 28 in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon.

"We denounce strongly what has now become a standard, dangerous practice of Israel to target and kill journalists and then claim, without providing any credible evidence, that they were involved with armed groups," the experts said in a statement.

The Israeli army had described Shoeib as a member of the Radwan force, an elite Hezbollah unit, operating "under the guise of a journalist".

According to the experts, Israel's only so-called "evidence" for its claims was a photoshopped image of the journalist.

Israel also confirmed it killed journalist Fatima Ftouni of Al Mayadeen, seen as close to Hezbollah, and her brother cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, describing him as "an additional terrorist in Hezbollah's military wing".

The experts argued that working as a journalist for a media outlet linked to an armed group does not constitute direct participation in hostilities under international humanitarian law.

"Israeli officials know this, yet they choose to ignore it -- emboldened by impunity for their previous killings of journalists in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank."

At least 231 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel since 2023, including 210 in Gaza and 11 in Lebanon, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Although appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, special rapporteurs are independent experts and do not speak on behalf of the UN.

Arab World

European Nations Say Israel, Hezbollah Fighting ‘Must Cease’

A man stands atop the rubble as smoke rises from a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, March 14, 2026. (AP)
A man stands atop the rubble as smoke rises from a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, March 14, 2026. (AP)
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European Nations Say Israel, Hezbollah Fighting ‘Must Cease’

A man stands atop the rubble as smoke rises from a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, March 14, 2026. (AP)
A man stands atop the rubble as smoke rises from a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, March 14, 2026. (AP)

Eighteen European countries on Thursday urged Israel and Hezbollah to stop fighting as their latest conflict reached one month and with fears over Israeli plans to occupy part of southern Lebanon post-war. 

"Israeli military operations in Lebanon and Hezbollah's attacks must cease," the foreign ministers of the countries including Italy, Spain, Belgium, Poland and Ireland said in a joint statement. 

"We urge Israel to fully respect Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and call on all parties, both Hezbollah and Israel, to halt military action," the statement said. 

Lebanon was sucked into the Middle East war after Tehran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel to avenge the US-Israeli attack that killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei. 

Israel has responded with massive strikes across Lebanon and a ground offensive. 

Lebanese authorities say the hostilities have so far killed more than 1,200 people and displaced more than one million others. 

The European ministers said they were "appalled by the dramatic situation" in Lebanon and called for an end to "unjustified and unacceptable" attacks on civilian targets such as healthcare personnel, aid workers and journalists. 

They pledged to continue providing humanitarian relief for the Lebanese population and called on the international community "to mobilize further" to help the country. 

Earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the country's military would occupy a swathe of southern Lebanon even after the current war against Hezbollah has ended. 

The comments have raised fears for the area's fate following the last Israeli occupation that lasted nearly two decades. 

The European nations "strongly encouraged" Israel to hold direct negotiations with the Lebanese authorities and said reform efforts by Lebanon's government "must be supported instead of being undermined". 

"Efforts to support stabilization in Lebanon are instrumental to lasting peace and security in the Middle East. De-escalation is urgently needed. Diplomacy must prevail," they said. 

The countries include Spain, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Moldova, Norway, Poland, San Marino, Slovenia and Sweden.