Israel Hamas war live updates: Netanyahu won't agree to cease-fire - USA TODAY

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly referred to Hamas members as "barbarians'' while seeking to portray his country as a defender of civilization Monday.

At a rare press conference in which he took only a handful of questions, Netanyahu called Hamas part of an "axis of evil'' and said the stunning assault the militant group launched on Israeli soil Oct. 7 was "the worst savagery our people have seen since the Holocaust.''

He also asked other countries to join Israel's fight against "the enemies of civilization.''

"This is a time for war, a war for our common future,'' Netanyahu said. "Today we draw a line between the forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism.''

Asked about the huge death toll inflicted on Palestinians by Israel's retaliatory airstrikes – the fatality count has surpassed 8,300, including 3,200 children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry – Netanyahu said "not a single civilian'' would die if they went to the safe zones in southern Gaza. However, that's not possible for all the Gaza Strip residents, and Israeli forces have also bombarded the territory's southern end.

Netanyahu said the ground incursion Israel recently began would create pressure on Hamas to free hostages without explaining how. And he pushed back against requests from the United Nations and humanitarian organizations for a cease-fire, pointing out the U.S. did not agree to cease-fires after the Pearl Harbor and 9/11 attacks.

"Calls for a cease-fire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism,'' Netanyahu said. "That will not happen.''

Netanyahu, who is facing growing criticism over his government's failure to prevent the Hamas attack and his refusal to take responsibility, also said he does not intend to resign.

Hundreds in Russia try to storm plane:News reports said protesters shouted antisemitic slogans

Developments:

∎ The Israeli military announced Monday the rescue of a female soldier from Hamas captivity in what Netanyahu called a "successful action" by the Shabak security agency and the Israel Defense Forces. The soldier was identified as Pvt. Ori Megidish, 19.

∎ The relief organization CARE reports that some patients at overcrowded Gaza hospitals are having surgery without anesthesia, including pregnant women who require C-sections, and that some women are being released as soon as three hours after giving birth.

∎ The U.N. warned that Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza were hitting close to hospitals where more than 100,000 displaced people are staying amid thousands of patients and staff. Dr. Sobhi Skeik, director of the Turkish Palestinian Hospital south of Gaza City, said an airstrike Monday damaged two rooms and the hospital's oxygen system and water supply.

∎ The number of Israelis who have evacuated homes and communities near the Gaza border has surpassed 250,000, Israeli officials said.

∎ A combined total of nearly 60 trucks with humanitarian aid came into Gaza from Egypt on Sunday and Monday, an increase from previous convoys but still far less than what relief workers say is needed.

Hamas built a tunnel network in Gaza:Here's how Israeli forces will fight it

Russia blames outside interference for riot targeting flight from Israel

Russian officials on Monday blamed Ukraine and the West for the riotous upheaval at Russia's airport in the predominantly Muslim region of Dagestan when a flight from Israel was landing Sunday. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Kyiv called for the riots on social media, rallying "egregious Russophobes" in the Dagestan region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed Russian authorities, tweeting that antisemitic sentiment is common in Russia and emanates from its leaders. Ukraine's ambassador to Israel, Yevgen Korniychuk, told The Times of Israel that Russian security forces sent to the airport "were sitting aside and smoking cigarettes. They did nothing."

Russian President Vladimir Putin called a meeting Monday of top security and law enforcement officials. More than 20 people were injured in the riot, which prompted Israel to advise its citizens to leave the northern Caucasus district.

The plane from Tel Aviv was greeted by hundreds of angry demonstrators storming onto the landing field. The crowd waved Palestinian flags and held banners saying "Child killers are not welcome in Dagestan" and "We're against Jewish refugees."

During a White House presentation last week, President Joe Biden said he was alarmed by the incidents of "extremist settlers'' attacking Palestinians in the West Bank and added, "It has to stop now.''

It hasn't.

As of Sunday, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 123 Palestinians, including 33 minors, in the West Bank, half of them during search-and-arrest operations, the U.N. said.

• In the West Bank, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians between the afternoon of 28 October and 21:00 on 29 October. During this time, another Palestinian died of wounds sustained previously. This brings the total number of Palestinian fatalities by Israeli forces or settlers since 7 October to 115, including 33 children, alongside one Israeli soldier killed by Palestinians. 
• Nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes in the West Bank since 7 October. This includes at least 98 Palestinian households, comprising over 800 people, driven out from 15 herding/Bedouin communities in Area C, amid intensified settler violence and access restrictions. Another 121 Palestinians were displaced following the demolition of their homes by the Israeli authorities on grounds of lack of Israeli-issued building permits or on punitive grounds.  

Israel blocking exit routes in Gaza as incursion intensifies

Israel appeared to begin blocking exit routes from northern Gaza as its ground invasion of the occupied enclave intensified Monday amid pockets of resistance from Palestinians who refused repeated Israeli orders to evacuate.

Fierce clashes took place as Israeli forces penetrated deep into northern Gaza near Beit Lahia, a city of 90,000, the Palestinian media outlet Al-Ayyam reported. The Israeli military said its forces were pushing into the territory, encountering militants attempting to launch anti-tank missiles and mortar shells. Dozens of the militants were killed, the Israelis said.

"The objectives of this war require a ground operation," the Israeli military chief of staff Herzi Halevi said. "The best soldiers are now operating in Gaza."

Video circulating on social media showed an Israeli tank and bulldozer blocking Gaza's primary north-south highway, which the Israeli military had said could be used to flee to southern Gaza.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting Monday at the request of the United Arab Emirates to discuss the humanitarian plight of Palestinians. Although almost 1 million Palestinians have heeded warnings from Israel and fled northern Gaza, hundreds of thousands remain, many refusing to leave and others unable. The ground invasion got underway last week as the war intensifies since it began with a surprise and brutal Hamas attack on Israeli border communities Oct. 7.

German chancellor confirms death of woman in Hamas video

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed the death of German-Israeli Shani Louk, 23, who was kidnapped from a music festival in the first hours of the attack by Hamas militants. Video circulating that day showed militants parading Louk's semi-naked body through the streets of Gaza. Scholz said Louk was "brutally murdered" and that Hamas must be held accountable.

"This shows the full barbarity behind the Hamas attack," Scholz wrote on social media. "This is terror, and Israel has the right to defend itself."

The Vatican seeks two-state solution, end to violence

The Vatican on Monday called for a two-state solution to the Palestinian homeland issue and urged both sides to avoid escalating the war. Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican's secretary for Relations with States, told Iran Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian that the pope had "serious concern" about the war. Iran had requested the phone conversation, the Vatican said.

"Archbishop Gallagher expressed the Holy See's serious concern about what is happening in Israel and Palestine, reiterating the absolute necessity to avoid escalating the conflict and to achieve a two-state solution for a stable and lasting peace in the Middle East,' the Vatican said in a statement.

Antisemitic, threatening messages draw probe at Cornell University

Campus police were sent to Cornell University's Jewish center after "horrendous, antisemitic messages" threatening violence appeared on a discussion board Sunday, university President Martha Pollack said in a statement. The University Police Department is investigating and has notified the FBI of a potential hate crime, she said. She urged the campus community to work together to reinforce "a culture of trust, respect and safety" at the Ivy League school in Ithaca, New York, more than 200 miles northwest of New York City.

The war has generated extensive and sometimes angry activism on multiple college campuses in the U.S.

"We will not tolerate antisemitism at Cornell," Pollack said. "The virulence and destructiveness of antisemitism is real and deeply impacting our Jewish students, faculty and staff, as well as the entire Cornell community."

Ground attack will take place underground

As Israeli troops push deeper into Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, the ground attack won't look quite like the traditional door-to-door skirmishes seen in Fallujah, Mosul and other past urban clashes. Instead, it will happen largely out of sight and underground, deep in a warren of connecting tunnels that Hamas has been digging and lining with concrete for more than a decade. The battle to control and destroy this subterranean labyrinth, estimated at more than 300 miles, will be a key strategy for the Israeli military, according to military analysts and experts – and will make the incursion into Gaza unlike any past urban conflict.

"It's going to be an undertaking like nothing the (Israel Defense Forces) has ever done," said retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Mark Schwartz, who ran U.S. security coordination with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority from 2019 to 2021. "And frankly unlike anything we've ever done." 

− Rick Jervis

Contributing: The Associated Press

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