Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday morning dismissed reports that negotiators were close to agreeing a cease-fire deal.

“It’s exactly inaccurate,” Netanyahu told “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade during an interview. “There’s a story, a narrative out there that there’s a deal out there … that’s just a false narrative.” 

Netanyahu stressed that Israel has agreed to several deals proposed by the negotiators from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar, but that each time the deal lapsed because Hamas “has consistently said no to every one of them.”

“They don’t agree to anything: Not to the Philadelphi Corridor, not to the keys of exchanging hostages for jailed terrorists, not to anything,” Netanyahu said, adding that the terrorist group “just want us out of Gaza so they can retake Gaza and do as they vowed to do.” 

NETANYAHU HITS BACK OVER GLOBAL PRESSURE TO MAKE CEASE-FIRE CONCESSSIONS, SAYS DEMANDS ARE ‘IMMORAL’, ‘INSANE’

Netanyahu made headlines last week when The Times of Israel reported that the prime minister told Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that he prioritized an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) presence along the 7.8 mile long Philadelphi Corridor over saving the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

The IDF over the weekend recovered the bodies of six hostages who were killed by Hamas terrorists. 

Netanyahu lamented the “horrible” condition of the bodies and detailed his visit to the families of the victims, whom he said were “broken” by the news. 

BIDEN BLASTED FOR PRESSURING NETANYAHU, NOT HAMAS TERRORISTS FOLLOWING MURDER OF JEWISH HOSTAGES

“We have worked so hard to get them out,” Netanyahu insisted. “I made a deal a few months ago where we got more than half of our hostages out and more than half of the living hostages. And we’re doing everything we can to get the remainder.”

People light candles during a vigil in memory of slain hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Jerusalem, Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

“But Hamas consistently refuses to make a deal, so it’s not, you know, the report that there’s a deal out there that the only thing holding it up is the Philadelphia tunnel is not merely not true, it’s just a direct falsehood,” Netanyahu said. 

KAMALA HARRIS STILL NOT CLEAR ON WHETHER SHE WOULD STOP WEAPONS SHIPMENTS TO ISRAEL

Netanyahu maintains that the best way to ensure the return of the remaining roughly 100 hostages – over half of whom are believed to still be alive – relies on keeping control of the Philadelphi Corridor. 

Protesters rally outside the Defense Ministry against the government and to show support for the hostages who were kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7 attack amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sept. 1, 2024. (Reuters/Florion Goga)

“It prevents Gaza from becoming this Iranian terror enclave again, which can threaten our existence, but it’s also the way to prevent them from smuggling hostages that they keep through the cease-fire into Egypt, into the Sinai, where they could disappear, and then they’ll end up in Iran or in Yemen, and they’re lost forever,” Netanyahu argued. 

“So if you want to release the hostages and you want to make sure that Gaza doesn’t pose a threat to Israel again, you’ve got to keep the Philadelphia corridor … and that’s what we’re really doing right now.” 

President hopes his choice will end weeks of deadlock since snap election, counting on far right not to block appointment.

President Emmanuel Macron has named Michel Barnier, the European Union’s former Brexit negotiator, as France’s new prime minister after more than 50 days of a caretaker government.

Macron held talks with the 73-year-old veteran politician at the Elysee Palace on Thursday, tasking him with forming a new government in the hope of ending weeks of political deadlock in the country that followed snap parliamentary elections.

Barnier succeeds Gabriel Attal, 35, who served only eight months in office.

Macron’s gamble to call the snap parliamentary election in June backfired, with his centrist coalition losing dozens of seats and no party winning an absolute majority.

The left-wing alliance New Popular Front came first, but Macron ruled out asking them to form a government after other parties said they would immediately vote it down.

Macron’s centrist faction and the far right make up the two other major groups in the National Assembly.

Barnier, a right-winger from the Republicans party (LR), has been all but invisible in French politics since failing to win his party’s nomination to challenge Macron for the presidency in 2022.

The former foreign minister and EU commissioner now faces the daunting challenge of trying to push reforms and the 2025 budget through a hung parliament at a time when France is under pressure from the European Commission and bond markets to reduce its deficit.

The appointment follows weeks of intense efforts by Macron and his aides to find a candidate able to build loose groupings of backers in parliament and survive possible attempts by the president’s opponents to stymie efforts to form a new government.

A minister in the outgoing government told the AFP news agency that Barnier is “very popular with right-wing members of parliament without being an irritant on the left”.

Macron appears to be counting on the far-right National Rally (RN) of three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen not to block Barnier’s appointment.

National Rally party leader Jordan Bardella said Barnier would be judged “on evidence” when he addresses parliament.

Greens leader Marine Tondelier countered: “We know in the end who decides. Her name is Marine Le Pen. She is the one to whom Macron has decided to submit.”

Left-wing leader Jean-Luc Melenchon said Macron naming Barnier meant the election had been “stolen from the French”.

BERLIN (AP) — Police officers in Munich opened fire Thursday at a person who appeared to be carrying a firearm in an area near a museum on the city’s Nazi-era history and the Israeli Consulate.

The person was wounded, police said on social network X. They didn’t identify the person or detail the extent of the injuries, but said there were no indications that anyone else was hurt. They also said there was no evidence of any more suspects connected to Thursday morning’s incident.

The shooting took place in the Karolinenplatz area, near downtown Munich. Police said they had increased their presence in the city, Germany’s third-biggest, but they had no indication of incidents at any other locations or of any other suspects.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the consulate in Munich was closed when the shooting occurred and that no consulate staff had been hurt.

Thursday was the 52nd anniversary of the attack by Palestinian militants on the Israeli delegation at the 1972 Munich Olympics, which ended with the death of 11 Israeli team members, a West German police officer and five of the assailants. It was unclear whether the incident was in any way related to the anniversary.