the draft framework would include a 40 day pause in all military operations and reports suggest 400 palestinian prisoners serving sentences for terror related crimes could be exchanged for a0 female and elderly israeli hostages. however, the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu has vowed to go ahead with an assault on gaza s southernmost city, rafah, regardless of any agreement. as negotiations between hamas and israel continue, president biden has said israel has agreed in principle not to engage in military activities in gaza during the muslim holy month of ramadan. here s the us president speaking late on monday. reporter: can you give us a sense of when you think that ceasefire will start? well, i hope by the beginning of the weekend. i mean, end of the weekend. my national security adviser tells me that we re close. we re close. not done yet. and my hope is by next monday we ll have a ceasefire. with the latest from jerusalem, here s our middle east correspondent y
we begin in the middle east, where the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has vowed to go ahead with an offensive in gaza s southernmost most city rafah whatever happens in hostage negotiations. nearly 1.5 million palestinians are sheltering there. mr netanyahu s comments follow widespread reports that a framework for a pause in the fighting along with the release of hostages has been formulated by international mediators in paris. well, victory is within reach and you can t have victory until you eliminate hamas. how close is in reach? hamas is a terrorist organisation that once we begin the rafah operation, the intense phase of the fighting is weeks away from completion, not months, weeks away from completion. and that is.we ve already destroyed 18 out of the 2a hamas terrorist battalions. so we have..and four of them are concentrated in rafah. we can t leave the last hamas stronghold without taking care of it. obviously, we have to do it. but understand too th
by international mediators in paris. well, victory is within reach and you can t have victory until you eliminate hamas. how close is in reach? hamas is a terrorist organisation that once we begin the rafah operation, the intense phase of the fighting is weeks away from completion, not months, weeks away from completion. and that is.we ve already destroyed 18 out of the 2a hamas terrorist battalions. so we have. and four of them are concentrated in rafah. we can t leave the last hamas stronghold without taking care of it. obviously, we have to do it. but understand too that i ve asked the army to submit to me a double plan, first to evacuate, to enable the evacuation of the palestinian civilians in gaza and obviously, second, to destroy the remaining hamas battalions. that gets us a real, real distance towards the completion of our victory, and that, we re not going to give it up. if we have a deal, it ll be delayed somewhat, but it ll happen. if we don t have a deal, we ll d
whatever happens in hostage negotiations. nearly 1.5 million palestinians are sheltering there. mr netanyahu s comments follow widespread reports that a framework for a pause in the fighting along with the release of hostages has been formulated by international mediators in paris. our special correspondent, fergal keane, has been finding out what any ceasfire could mean for the palestinians sheltering in rafah. you may find some of his report distressing. well, victory is within reach and you can t have victory until you eliminate hamas. how close is in reach? hamas is a terrorist organisation that once we begin the rafah operation, the intense phase of the fighting is weeks away from completion, not months, weeks away from completion. and that is.we ve already destroyed 18 out of the 2a hamas terrorist battalions. so we have..and four of them are concentrated in rafah. we can t leave the last hamas stronghold without taking care of it. obviously, we have to do it. but u
on newsnight at10:30. dozens of mps call for lindsay hoyle to resign, as sir keir starmer denies threatening the speaker. are concerns over mps safety shaping the political agenda? we ll ask labour and the conservative mps. good evening. the prime minister has criticised the commons speaker, sir lindsay hoyle, over the way he handled a vote on a ceasefire in gaza last night. but rishi sunak stopped short of saying he should resign. more than 60 mps have now called for sir lindsay to go after he changed parliamentary convention in a way that ended up helping labour. the move sparked chaos in the commons as dozens of snp and conservative mps walked out. the speaker today apologised again, saying he had made a mistake. our chief political correspondent henry zeffman reports. this is another example of our politicians getting involved in bun fights. it stopped being about gaza and it became about them. it just takes you away from the real issue. l shocking. geopolitics descend