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.

His comments follow renewed warnings by the US and UN against a Rafah invasion.

The US secretary of state Antony Blinken hopes Hamas will accept what he has called Israel’s “extraordinarily generous” offer for a Gaza truce and hostage release deal. He was speaking as a Hamas delegation discussed the new proposal with mediators from Egypt and Qatar.

Meanwhile in the United States, pro-Palestinian student protesters at Columbia University, who have barricaded themselves inside a campus building, could “face expulsion”.

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