Israel-Hamas LIVE: Netanyahu says he is not seeking ‘to govern Gaza’ as UN slams four-hour daily pauses in fighting as ‘very cynical and cruel’

Blinken welcomes pauses but says more needs to be done to protect civilians

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday he welcomed Israel’s agreed pauses in its offensive in Gaza, but that more needed to be done.

‘I think some progress has been made,’ Blinken said, speaking in New Delhi.

‘But I was also very clear that much more needs to be done in terms of protecting civilians and getting humanitarian assistance to them.’

'It's pure evil': Israel reveal why they have sent troops into Gaza to destroy Hamas's terror tunnels once and for all to end the war

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UN report paints dire picture of Palestinian economy, with GDP shrinking 4 percent

A new UN report has painted a stark picture of the devastation of the collapse of the Palestinian economy after a month of war and Israel’s siege of Gaza.

The gross domestic product shrank 4 percent in the West Bank and Gaza in the war’s first month, sending over 400,000 people into poverty.

Such an economic impact has been unseen in the conflicts Syria and Ukraine, or any previous Israel-Hamas war, the UN said.

The rapid assessment of economic consequences of the Gaza war released Thursday by the UN Development Program and the UN Economic and Social Commission for West Asia was the first UN report showing the devastating impact of the conflict especially on the Palestinians.

If the war continues for a second month, the UN projects that the Palestinian GDP, which was $20.4 billion before the war began, will drop by 8.4% – a loss of $1.7 billion. And if the conflict lasts a third month, Palestinian GDP will drop by 12%, with losses of $2.5 billion and more than 660,000 people pushed into poverty, it projects.

Netanyahu casts doubt on daily pauses in fighting

The White House said on Thursday that Israel agreed to pause military operations in parts of north Gaza for four hours a day, but there was no sign of a let-up in the fighting.

UN slams four-hour daily pauses in fighting as 'very cynical and cruel'

Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, described Israel’s decision to allow a four-hour humanitarian pause each day in combat operations in northern Gaza to allow civilians to flee to the south as ‘very cynical and cruel.’

‘There has been continuous bombings, 6,000 bombs every week on the Gaza Strip, on this tiny piece of land where people are trapped and the destruction is massive. There won’t be any way back after what Israel is doing to the Gaza Strip,’ Albanese told reporters in Adelaide, Australia, on Friday.

‘So four hours cease-fire, yes, to let people breathe and to remember what is the sound of life without bombing before starting bombing them again. It’s very cynical and cruel.’

Netanyahu says he is not seeking 'to govern Gaza'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war in Gaza will continue until Hamas is defeated but asserted that the country has no intention to conquer or govern the blockaded territory after the fighting ends.

Netanyahu said Israel does not ‘seek to govern Gaza’, adding ‘We don’t seek to occupy it, but we seek to give it and us a better future.’

In an interview with Fox News that aired Thursday evening, Netanyahu made clear that though Israel had no intention of occupying Gaza, it did envision a radically reshaped territory free of Hamas.

‘What we have to see is Gaza demilitarised, deradicalized and rebuilt,’ he said.

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