Netanyahu says Israel has 'no choice' but to continue fighting in Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said again Saturday that Israel has “no choice” but to continue fighting in Gaza and will not end the war before destroying Hamas, freeing the hostages and ensuring that the territory won’t present a threat to Israel.

The prime minister also repeated his vow to make sure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.

Netanyahu is under growing pressure at home not only from families of hostages and their supporters but also from reservist and retired Israeli soldiers who question the continuation of the war after Israel shattered a ceasefire last month.

In his statement, he said Hamas has rejected Israel’s latest proposal to free half the hostages in return for another temporary truce. Hamas has said it will only free the remaining hostages in return for an Israeli withdrawal and a lasting ceasefire, as called for in the agreement that Israel ended.

Israeli strikes meanwhile killed more than 90 people in 48 hours, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday. Israeli troops have been increasing their attacks to pressure Hamas to release the hostages and disarm.

Children and women were among the 15 people killed overnight, according to hospital staff. At least 11 dead were in the southern city of Khan Younis, several of them in a tent in the Muwasi area where hundreds of thousands of displaced people stay, hospital workers said. Israel has designated it as a humanitarian zone.

Mourners cradled and kissed the faces of the dead. A man stroked a child's forehead with his finger before body bags were closed.

“Omar is gone ... I wish it was me," one brother cried out.

Four other people were killed in strikes in Rafah city, including a mother and her daughter, according to the European Hospital, where the bodies were taken.

Later on Saturday, an Israeli airstrike on a group of civilians west of Nuseirat in central Gaza killed one person, according to Al-Awda Hospital.

Israel's military in a statement said it killed more than 40 militants over the weekend.

Separately, the military said a soldier was killed Saturday in northern Gaza and confirmed it was the first soldier death since Israel resumed the war on March 18. Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said it ambushed Israeli forces operating east of Gaza City’s al-Tuffah neighborhood.

Israel has vowed to intensify attacks across Gaza and occupy indefinitely large “security zones” inside the small coastal strip of over 2 million people.

Israel also has blockaded Gaza for the past six weeks, again barring the entry of food and other goods.

This week, aid groups raised the alarm, saying thousands of children have become malnourished and most people are barely eating one meal a day as stocks dwindle, according to the United Nations.

The head of the World Health Organization’s eastern Mediterranean office, Dr. Hanan Balkhy, on Friday urged the new U.S. ambassador in Israel, Mike Huckabee, to push the country to lift Gaza's blockade so medicines and other aid can enter.

“I would wish for him to go in and see the situation firsthand,” she said.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Hamas currently holds 59 hostages, 24 of them believed to be alive.

Israel’s offensive has since killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The war has destroyed vast parts of Gaza and most of its food production capabilities. Around 90% of the population is displaced, with hundreds of thousands of people living in tent camps and bombed-out buildings.

Frustration has been growing on both sides, with rare public protests against Hamas in Gaza and continued weekly rallies in Israel pressing the government to reach a deal to bring all hostages home.

Thousands of Israelis joined protests Saturday night pressing for a deal.

“Do what you should have done a long time ago. Bring them all back now! And in one deal. And if this means to stop the war, then stop the war,” former hostage Omer Shem Tov told a rally in Tel Aviv.

——

Magdy reported from Cairo and Federman from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

This story corrects the day the WHO official made comments.

Mohammad Al-Qadi carrying body of his nephew who was killed in an Israeli army airstrike, during his funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A view of a makeshift tent camp for Palestinians displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip, in Gaza City, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

People take part in a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

People take part in a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

People take part in a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday, April 19, 2025. The poster says Netanyahu's holocaust. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

People take part in a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Palestinians carry the bodies of their relatives killed in an Israeli army airstrike, during their funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians carry the bodies of their relatives killed in an Israeli army airstrike, during their funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians mourn over the bodies of their relatives killed in an Israeli army airstrike, during their funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mohammad Al-Qadi carrying body of his nephew who was killed in an Israeli army airstrike, during his funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians mourn over the body of Kinan Edwan, 2 years old, killed in an Israeli army airstrike, during his funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Palestinians mourn over the body of Kinan Edwan, 2 years old, killed in an Israeli army airstrike, during his funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners grieve over the body of Palestinian child Mohammad Abu Nada, killed in an Israeli army airstrike, during his funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The al-Atal family's tent is seen after it was struck overnight in an Israeli airstrike that killed several family members, in the Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza City, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Mourners carry white sacks covering the bodies of members of the Abu Al-Rous family, killed when an Israeli airstrike struck their displacement tent overnight, during their funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

New Jersey Transit train engineers went on strike Friday, leaving an estimated 350,000 commuters in New Jersey and New York City to seek other means to reach their destinations or consider staying home.

Groups of picketers gathered in front of transit headquarters in Newark and at the Hoboken Terminal, carrying signs that said “Locomotive Engineers on Strike” and “NJ Transit: Millions for Penthouse Views Nothing for Train Crews.” Passing drivers honked their horns.

The walkout comes after the latest round of negotiations on Thursday didn’t produce an agreement. It is the state’s first transit strike in more than 40 years and comes a month after union members overwhelmingly rejected a labor agreement with management.

“We presented them the last proposal; they rejected it and walked away with two hours left on the clock," said Tom Haas, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri described the situation as a “pause in the conversations.”

“I certainly expect to pick back up these conversations as soon as possible,” he said late Thursday during a joint news conference with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. “If they’re willing to meet tonight, I’ll meet them again tonight. If they want to meet tomorrow morning, I’ll do it again. Because I think this is an imminently workable problem. The question is, do they have the willingness to come to a solution.”

Murphy said it was important to “reach a final deal that is both fair to employees and at the same time affordable to New Jersey’s commuters and taxpayers.”

"Again, we cannot ignore the agency’s fiscal realities,” Murphy said.

The announcement came after 15 hours of nonstop contract talks, according to the union.

NJ Transit — the nation’s third-largest transit system — operates buses and rail in the state, providing nearly 1 million weekday trips, including into New York City. The walkout halts all NJ Transit commuter trains, which provide heavily used public transit routes between New York City’s Penn Station on one side of the Hudson River and communities in northern New Jersey on the other, as well as the Newark airport, which has grappled with unrelated delays of its own recently.

The agency had announced contingency plans in recent days, saying it planned to increase bus service, but warned riders that the buses would only add “very limited” capacity to existing New York commuter bus routes in close proximity to rail stations and would not start running until Monday. The agency also will contract with private carriers to operate bus service from key regional park-and-ride locations during weekday peak periods.

However, the agency noted that the buses would not be able to handle close to the same number of passengers — only about 20% of current rail customers — so it urged people who could work from home to do so.

Even the threat of it had already caused travel disruptions. Amid the uncertainty, the transit agency canceled train and bus service for Shakira concerts Thursday and Friday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

The parties met Monday with a federal mediation board in Washington to discuss the matter, and a mediator was present during Thursday’s talks. Kolluri said Thursday night that the mediation board has suggested a Sunday morning meeting to resume talks.

Wages have been the main sticking point of the negotiations between the agency and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen that wants to see its members earn wages comparable to other passenger railroads in the area. The union says its members earn an average salary of $113,000 a year and says an agreement could be reached if agency CEO Kris Kolluri agrees to an average yearly salary of $170,000.

NJ Transit leadership, though, disputes the union’s data, saying the engineers have average total earnings of $135,000 annually, with the highest earners exceeding $200,000.

Kolluri and Murphy said Thursday night that the problem isn’t so much whether both sides can agree to a wage increase, but whether they can do so under terms that wouldn’t then trigger other unions to demand similar increases and create a financially unfeasible situation for NJ Transit.

Congress has the power to intervene and block the strike and force the union to accept a deal, but lawmakers have not shown a willingness to do that this time like they did in 2022 to prevent a national freight railroad strike.

The union has seen steady attrition in its ranks at NJ Transit as more of its members leave to take better-paying jobs at other railroads. The number of NJ Transit engineers has shrunk from 500 several months ago to about 450 today.

Associated Press reporters Hallie Golden in Seattle and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.

An NJ Transit train pulls into the Secaucus Junction station in Secaucus, N.J., Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

An electronic display advises commuters of potential NJ Transit service disruptions at the Secaucus Junction station in Secaucus, N.J., Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen form a picket line outside the NJ Transit Headquarters on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen form a picket line outside the NJ Transit Headquarters on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)