Live: Netanyahu rejects international recognition of Palestinian state Israeli Prime Minister Binjamin Netanyahu said late Thursday that he rejected a plan for international recognition of a Palestinian state, saying such an initiative "would offer an enormous reward to terrorism". Netanyahu's comments follow a similar rejection by influential far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who responded to reports of the plan in The Washington Post. Read our liveblog for all the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas war.