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Israeli military officials are urging Palestinians to evacuate Rafah in Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive.

Hamas on Sunday attacked a border crossing with Israel as cease-fire talks appeared to be on the verge of collapse. Ramy Inocencio reports.

STORY: "Eighty years ago, in the Holocaust, the Jewish people were totally defenseless against those who sought our destruction," Netanyahu said in English remarks that linked the World War Two atrocities to the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. "We will defeat our genocidal enemies," he said. "'Never again' is now." Netanyahu made the speech during Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, in Jerusalem. This year's ceremony takes place as the war in Gaza rages on, and recently triggering pro-Palestinian protests in several U.S. campuses. The war began after Hamas stunned Israel with a cross-border raid on Oct. 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and 252 hostages taken, according to Israeli tallies. More than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed, 29 of them in the past 24 hours, and more than 77,000 have been wounded in Israel's assault, according to Gaza's health ministry. The bombardment has devastated much of the coastal enclave and caused a humanitarian crisis. Prospects for a ceasefire appeared slim on Sunday as Hamas reiterated its demand for an end to the war in exchange for the freeing of hostages, and Netanyahu flatly ruled that out. The annual Holocaust commemorations remember the six million Jews killed by the Nazis during the Second World War. On Monday (May 6) Israel will come to a standstill as a two-minute siren will be heard across the country.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned of an "operation in Rafah and in the entire Gaza Strip in the very near future,” speaking during a visit to the war-torn territory. It came as Israel closed its main crossing point for delivering badly needed humanitarian aid for Gaza on Sunday after Hamas militants attacked it.

STORY: Video obtained by Reuters shows the rubble following what Palestinians said was an Israeli airstrike in the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. And it comes amid what seem to be dwindling prospects for ceasefire talks in Cairo. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday flat-out rejected what he said were Hamas's demands for a potential truce. Netanyahu said the Palestinian Islamist group wanted the removal of all Israeli forces from Gaza, and a permanent end to the fighting, which would leave Hamas in power. He said, "the State of Israel cannot accept that." Hamas meanwhile, blamed Israel for the impasse. In a statement, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh accused Netanyahu of "sabotaging efforts made through the mediators." A Palestinian official close to the mediation effort told Reuters on Sunday: "If Netanyahu doesn't change his mind, there will be no reason to stay." And the fighting continues: Israel soldiers at the Kerem Shalom crossing between Gaza and Israel inspected armored vehicles after Hamas claimed it had attacked the position on Sunday. Earlier in the day trucks carrying desperately-needed humanitarian aid passed through the crossing. But following the attack, Israel said the crossing had been closed. The war began after Hamas stunned Israel with a cross-border raid on Oct. 7 in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and over 250 hostages taken. More than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's subsequent assault, according to Gaza's health ministry. The bombardment has devastated much of the coastal enclave and caused a humanitarian crisis. Israel has been warning for months it plans to send troops into Rafah, the southern city bordering Egypt where more than a million displaced Gaza residents have taken refuge. Israel believes thousands of Hamas fighters are holed up in the city, along with potentially dozens of hostages. The United Nations on Friday warned such an operation would potentially put thousands more lives at risk. The Israeli military on Sunday released video of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meeting commanders in Gaza. Gallant said there were signs Hamas did not intend to reach an agreement. He said, "this means strong military action in Rafah will begin in the very near future, and in the rest of the Strip. But the deadlock in Cairo continues to turn up the heat on Netanyahu. Thousands of Israelis protested on Saturday, demanding the prime minister accept a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that would see the remaining hostages brought home.

STORY: 86-year-old Bellha Haim fled with her family as child from Poland during World War Two. And on October 7 last year, her grandson Yotam, like her a resident of a village near the Gaza border, was taken hostage by Hamas. He managed to escape, only to be accidentally shot dead by Israeli soldiers. The trauma drove Haim to return to Poland, where she will on Monday (May 6) take part in the "March of the Living" at the site of the Auschwitz death camp. The annual ceremony is timed to coincide with Israel's Holocaust memorial day. Holocaust commemorations this year have a searing significance for her and six other elderly survivors now deeply scarred by the Hamas attack that sparked the ongoing Gaza war. “What happened here on October 7th, it's impossible to believe. I see the huge picture mounted in the new library in Jerusalem with all those who were killed and murdered, it's impossible. To this day I cannot fathom. I'm running away from it.” A veteran campaigner for peace with the Palestinians, Haim said she would no longer pursue that activism. "Now what interests me is only my people," she added. Among those joining her will be 90-year-old Daniel Louz. His hometown Kibbutz Beeri lost a tenth of its residents to the Palestinian attackers. In some ways, he said, that ordeal was worse for him than the European war, when he escaped Nazi round-ups in his native France although half his family perished in Poland. “In France, as a child I suffered all kinds of post-traumas that I’ve learned to cope with, but in Be’eri, it was the first time that I felt the fear of death.” On October 7 last year, he woke up to the sound of Arabic yelling and gunfire. A neighboring house was riddled with bullets. Louz's was untouched. He says he imagined the souls of the six million Holocaust victims steering Hamas away from him.

AP journalist Jon Gambrell explains the situation surrounding Israel's order to bar Al Jazeera from working in the country amid the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his government has voted unanimously to shut down the local offices of Qatar-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera, escalating Israel’s long-running feud with the channel at a time when cease-fire negotiations with Hamas — mediated by Qatar — are gaining steam.

The Israeli prime minister said Sunday that the if Israel agrees to Hamas’ “extreme positions”, then the “next 7th of October is only a matter of time.” Netanyahu’s comments came as a Hamas delegation was in Cairo for cease-fire talks. But Israel hasn’t sent a delegation and a senior Israeli official downplayed prospects for a full end to the war.

Protesters are demanding the government reach a deal to bring the hostages back from Gaza, for new elections and the resignation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstration took place as a delegation of the Palestinian militant group Hamas was in Cairo for cease-fire talks with Israel. (AP video by Shlomo Mor)

While CIA Director William Burns and Hamas representatives were in Cairo Saturday for cease-fire talks in the Israel-Hamas war, Israel said it is not sending a delegation until the militant group replies to Israel's latest proposal. Ramy Inocencio has the latest from Tel Aviv.

The Biden administration has been focused intensely all week on pushing for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Israel-Hamas war. This comes as pressure grows politically, within the president's own party, over Israel's direction in the war. Natalie Brand reports from Washington.

Negotiators in Cairo are hoping to push forward a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel to end the monthslong war and hasten the return of Israeli hostages.

STORY: Continuous exchange of fire could be heard in the area during the operation which started overnight and continued through the morning. Violence in the West Bank had already been on the rise before the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began in October. It has risen further with frequent Israeli raids, Palestinian street attacks and rampages by Jewish settlers in Palestinian villages. The West Bank and Gaza are among the territories which the Palestinians seek for an independent state. U.S.-brokered peace talks broke down a decade ago.