WASHINGTON: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address a joint meeting of the US Congress on June 13, Punchbowl News reported on Monday, following an invitation by top lawmakers intended as a show of support despite partisan divides over the Gaza war.
Netanyahu’s handling of the war, during which tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, has heightened tensions with President Joe Biden’s administration.
The Israeli premier is unlikely to meet with Biden during his time in Washington. The US president is scheduled to be in Puglia, Italy, for a G7 leaders’ summit taking place June 13-15.
Addresses to joint meetings of Congress by foreign leaders are a rare honor generally reserved for the closest US allies or major world figures. Netanyahu has already given three such addresses, most recently in 2015.
This speech would make Netanyahu the first foreign leader to address joint meetings of Congress four times. He is currently tied at three with Britain’s wartime prime minister, Winston Churchill.
The Gaza war was precipitated by a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 that killed around 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Palestinian health authorities estimate more than 36,280 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel attacked the enclave.
Netanyahu to address US Congress on June 13, Punchbowl reports
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Netanyahu to address US Congress on June 13, Punchbowl reports
- The Israeli premier is unlikely to meet with Biden during his time in Washington
Israeli soldiers kill 55-year-old Palestinian and teenager in West Bank
- Israeli military says soldiers opened fire after car accelerated toward them
- Security official says the car was driven by a Palestinian teenager
RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM: Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian teenager who was driving a car toward them as well as a Palestinian bystander in the West Bank on Saturday, according to an Israeli security official.
The military said that an “uninvolved person” was hit in addition to the driver of the car who had “accelerated” toward soldiers at a checkpoint in West Bank city of Hebron.
In an earlier statement, the military said two “terrorists” were killed, before later clarifying that only one person was involved.
An Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a 17-year-old was driving the car and a 55-year-old was the bystander.
Palestinian state news agency WAFA reported that 55-year-old Ziad Naim Abu Dawood, a municipal street cleaner, was killed while working. It said another Palestinian was killed but did not report the circumstances that led the soldiers to open fire.
The Palestinian health ministry identified the second Palestinian as 17-year-old Ahmed Khalil Al-Rajabi.
The military did not report any injuries to the soldiers.
The motive for the 17-year-old’s actions was not immediately clear, and no militant group claimed responsibility.
Since January, 51 Palestinian minors, aged under 18, have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Violence has surged this year in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians have risen sharply, while the military has tightened movement restrictions and carried out sweeping raids in several cities.
Palestinians have also carried out attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians, some of them deadly.
