![Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told Israelis to prepare for a 'long and hard' offensive [File: Abir Sultan Pool/Pool via Reuters]](/Uploads/Images/News/2023/10/Image-2017-20231029093715.jpeg)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country’s war with Hamas has entered its “second stage” as Israeli troops and armoured vehicles push into Gaza in an expansion of ground operations.
In a press conference in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, Netanyahu told Israelis to prepare for a “long and hard” offensive, describing the campaign as the country’s “second war of independence” since 1948.
“This is the second stage of the war whose goals are clear – to destroy Hamas’s governing and military capabilities and to bring the hostages home,” Netanyahu told reporters.
“We are only at the start. We will destroy the enemy above ground and below ground.”
Netanyahu’s comments came as Gaza continued to be under a near-total communications blackout overnight amid intense Israeli bombardment thought to be aimed at clearing the way for troops to push into the enclave.
Palestinian media outlets on Sunday reported that telephone and internet communications were gradually being restored to the enclave.
Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Khan Younis in Gaza, said on Friday that Israel’s bombardment of the enclave had intensified in the eastern and northern areas of the strip.
“These kinds of attacks are giving clear permission to the Israeli ground troops to keep going deeper into the territory,” Abu Azzoum said.
India’s economy will become carbon neutral by the year 2070, the country’s prime minster has announced at the COP26 climate crisis summit in Glasgow. The target date is two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts. India is the last of the world’s major carbon polluters to announce a net-zero target, with China saying it would reach that goal in 2060, and the United States and the European Union aiming for 2050.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
A crucial U.N. conference heard calls on its first day for the world's major economies to keep their promises of financial help to address the climate crisis, while big polluters India and Brazil made new commitments to cut emissions. World leaders, environmental experts and activists all pleaded for decisive action to halt the global warming which threatens the future of the planet at the start of the two-week COP26 summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Monday. The task facing negotiators was made even more daunting by the failure of the Group of 20 major industrial nations to agree ambitious new commitments at the weekend.