Rafah attack will happen regardless of Gaza truce, says Netanyahu

JERUSALEM, Apr 30 (BBC/AFP): Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will launch an invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah regardless of truce talks with Hamas.
It comes amid ongoing attempts to try to reach an agreement for a ceasefire and hostage releases. But at a meeting of hostages' relatives, Mr Netanyahu said he would invade "with or without" a deal.
His comments follow renewed warnings by the US against a Rafah invasion unless civilians were properly protected. In a phone call with Mr Netanyahu on Sunday, US President Joe Biden "reiterated his clear position" on Rafah, a White House statement said. Mr Biden has previously described an invasion of Rafah as a "red line".
More than half of Gaza's 2.5m population is in Rafah, having fled there to escape fighting in other parts of the territory. Conditions in the overcrowded city are dire, and displaced people there have spoken of a lack of food, water and medication.
Five Israeli army units
violated human rights
The US state department has found five units of the Israeli military responsible for gross violations of human rights in individual incidents, but says they will continue to receive US military backing.
All the incidents involved took place outside of Gaza before the current war. Israel took corrective action in four units, giving "additional information" on the fifth, the department says. This means all the units remain eligible for US military assistance.
Washington is Israel's major military backer, supplying it with $3.8bn (£3bn) worth of weapons and defence systems per year. The announcement is the first determination of its kind for any Israeli unit by the US government.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said five security forces units committed gross violations of human rights. "Four of these units have effectively remediated these violations, which is what we expect partners to do," he said.
Palestinian rivals Hamas, Fatah
met for talks in Beijing
China said Tuesday that rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah met in Beijing recently for "in-depth and candid talks on promoting intra-Palestinian reconciliation".
"Representatives of the Palestine National Liberation Movement and the Islamic Resistance Movement recently came to Beijing," foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said, referring to the groups by their formal names.
"The two sides fully expressed their political will to achieve reconciliation through dialogue and consultation, discussed many specific issues and made positive progress," he added, without specifying when the sides had met.
Islamist movement Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 after ferocious fighting with its rivals in Fatah, which maintains partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank through the Palestinian Authority.