Benjamin Netanyahu stood in front of a giant digital map, that mysteriously erased the West Bank and explained why Israeli forces wouldn’t be leaving Gaza anytime soon.
He has shied away from engaging with Israeli media during the war but was forced to do this press conference under pressure from the huge protests on the country’s streets.
If the thousands gathered outside the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv were hoping for a sign of compromise, they didn’t get it.
Netanyahu gave no ground, either figuratively or literally. Israel couldn’t and wouldn’t withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor in southern Gaza he declared, and that, tweeted a former IDF spokesman “sealed the hostages’ fate”.
Israel’s prime minister did, for the first time, try and explain his position in detail and said that if Israel withdrew, international pressure would stop them returning.
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If the purpose was to convince sceptical Israeli journalists and an angry public, he failed. He can’t even convince his own defence minister.
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He was asked why he agreed to withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor in May but has since changed his demands. He tried to claim he never made such a commitment. Mediators have said differently.
He was challenged on his responsibility for the deaths of hostages but dismissed it as purely the fault of Hamas, an act of a group with no intention of negotiating.
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If there was one small glimmer of compromise, it was his concession that “we don’t have to be there with a huge force, we need to be there with a sufficient force”.
Could that give the mediators room to negotiate?
One thing was undisputedly clear: even if the first six-week phase of a ceasefire was agreed, there is no chance of it being extended.
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
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“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.