UN secretary general Antonio Guterres also made another futile appeal to Israel to end the carnage. Pleading for the unconditional release of hostages held by Hamas, he urged Israel to reverse a plan to expand illegal settlement construction in the West Bank. The plan would effectively bisect the occupied West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem. It is widely being described as a move to kill off any chance of a two-state solution.
Netanyahu labeled Mamdani's proposed policies as nonsense, suggesting he would likely serve one term if elected in November, and criticized calls to defund the police.
