i24 News – Prosecutors from the International Criminal Court (ICC) have reportedly initiated interviews with staff from Gaza’s major hospitals as part of their investigation into possible war crimes in the region.

This marks the first official confirmation that ICC investigators have engaged with medical personnel regarding potential crimes in the Gaza Strip.

According to sources familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject, ICC prosecutors have conducted interviews with individuals who previously worked at Gaza City’s main hospital, Shifa, as well as the primary hospital in Khan Younis, Nasser. These interviews come as part of the ICC’s ongoing efforts to gather evidence and testimonies related to alleged war crimes committed in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded to the prospect of ICC action by condemning it as a move that could set a dangerous precedent. Netanyahu asserted on Friday that any ICC move would not impact Israel’s actions on the ground but warned that it could establish a precedent threatening soldiers and public figures.

He further characterized the possibility of an ICC arrest warrant as an “unprecedented antisemitic hate crime.”

The post “It Would Be an Unprecedented Antisemitic Hate Crime,” says Netanyahu first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump does not rule out building detention camps on U.S. soil for migrants in the country illegally if he wins a second White House term, he told Time magazine in an interview published on Tuesday.

Trump was asked whether he would build new detention camps as part of his campaign pledge to carry out the biggest deportation of migrants in the country illegally.

“I would not rule out anything,” Trump said. “But there wouldn’t be that much of a need for them” because, he said, the plan is to deport migrants in the U.S. illegally back to their home countries as quickly as possible.

“We’re not leaving them in the country,” Trump said. “We’re bringing them out.”

Trump has made illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border a centerpiece of his campaign against President Joe Biden, a Democrat who is running for a second four-year term. Immigration is a top issue for voters, according to national opinion polls.

Trump said he would use National Guard troops to assist in his planned deportation efforts, but also did not rule out deploying active military forces to help.

“I don’t think I’d have to do that. I think the National Guard would be able to do that. If they weren’t able to, then I’d use the military,” he said.

Trump was asked about the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, a post- Civil War law that prohibits the deployment of the military against civilians.

“Well, these aren’t civilians. These are people that aren’t legally in our country. This is an invasion of our country,” Trump said.

Trump has used dehumanizing terminology to describe immigrants in the U.S. illegally, calling them “animals” when talking about alleged criminal acts, and saying they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” a phrase that has drawn criticism as xenophobic and echoing Nazi rhetoric.

In his campaign speeches, Trump rails against the prosecutors who have brought the four criminal cases he currently faces, including Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Georgia’s Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis.

Asked if he would instruct his attorney general in a future Trump administration to prosecute Bragg and Willis, he said, “What they’ve done is a terrible thing,” but “no, I don’t want to do that.”

Trump was also asked about an interview he gave last year when he said he would want to be a dictator for a day to close the southern border and expand domestic energy production.

Trump told Time: “That was said sarcastically. That was meant as a joke.”

On Ukraine, Trump said if elected in November “I’m going to try and help Ukraine, but Europe has to get there also and do their job.”

Trump has been unclear whether he would continue sending military aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia if he becomes president.

Trump said a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians – a bedrock of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East – was probably no longer feasible.

“I’m not sure a two-state solution anymore is gonna work,” Trump said. The animosity between Israelis and the Palestinians, was now so intense it makes a two-state solution “very, very tough.”

Trump also said he “wouldn’t feel good” about hiring anybody in a new administration who believed Biden won the 2020 election. Trump has never stopped making the baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him because of fraud.

He said if he wins in November, he would serve one more term, “and then I’m gonna leave.”

The post Trump: ‘I’m Not Sure a Two-State Solution Anymore Is Gonna Work’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday to go ahead with a long-promised assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, whatever the response by Hamas to the latest proposals for a halt to the fighting and a return of Israeli hostages.

Expectations that a ceasefire agreement could be in sight have grown in recent days following a renewed push led by Egypt to revive stalled negotiations between Israel and Hamas, Gaza’s ruling Palestinian Islamist group.

However Netanyahu said that with or without a deal, Israel intended to pursue the operation to destroy the remaining Hamas combat formations in Rafah, where more than 1 million Gaza Palestinians displaced from their homes amid Israeli military operations elsewhere since October have been seeking shelter.

“The idea that we will halt the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question,” he said in a statement. “We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there – with or without a deal, in order to achieve total victory.”

Earlier, a person close to Netanyahu said Israel has been waiting for Hamas to respond to the latest ceasefire proposals tabled by Egypt, one of several foreign mediators, before sending a team to Cairo to continue talks.

With U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken due to arrive in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening following a visit to Riyadh to help nurture a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, pressure has been building for an agreement to stop the war that has devastated Gaza as it nears the end of its seventh month.

But so far there has been little sign of agreement on the most fundamental difference between the two sides – the Hamas demand that any deal must ensure a withdrawal of troops and a permanent end to the Israeli operation in Gaza.

“We can’t tell our people the occupation will stay or the fight will resume after Israel regains its prisoners,” said a Palestinian official from a group allied with Hamas. “Our people want this aggression to end.”

For Netanyahu, any move is likely to be affected by divisions in his coalition cabinet between ministers pressing to bring home at least some of the 133 Israeli hostages left in Gaza, and hardliners insisting on the long-promised assault on remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah.

‘LAST CHANCE’

But Israeli officials have said the operation could be deferred if Hamas accepts the deal on offer – which includes no definitive ceasefire but the return of 33 vulnerable hostages – women, children and those in frail health – in exchange for a much larger number of Palestinian prisoners and a limited pause in the fighting.

“As far as Israel is concerned, this is the last chance to hold off a Rafah sweep. The IDF has already started mobilizing troops for that operation,” said a second Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the talks.

The Israeli military said two divisions which left Gaza last week were refitting and repairing equipment and holding training and operational assessment exercises in preparation for continued operations in the enclave.

“The commanders of the divisions have completed the approval of plans for upcoming missions and are now continuing to enhance readiness in all areas and in training,” the military said.

Netanyahu’s position has been complicated by talk that the International Criminal Court (ICC) may be preparing arrest warrants for himself and other senior Israeli leaders on charges related to the conduct of the war.

The ICC has so far said nothing to confirm the speculation, which prompted Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz to warn Israeli embassies abroad to bolster their security.

But it underlined fears in Israel of growing isolation over the fighting in Gaza, which has caused mounting international alarm at the scale of destruction, the risk of famine and the prospect of a slide into a wider regional conflict. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced by the war.

The post Netanyahu Vows Again to Storm Rafah as Israel Awaits Hamas Reply to Truce Proposal first appeared on Algemeiner.com.