Australia news LIVE: Grocery stores face billion-dollar fines under stronger laws; Police hunt for armed teenagers who triggered Westfield lockdown

A major shopping centre in Adelaide was forced into lockdown on Sunday afternoon following reports of an armed offender.

Police say the incident at Westfield Marion, south of the CBD, was sparked by two groups of young men fighting in the food court.

“A thorough search of the centre was conducted including rooftops. However, the groups involved were not located,” South Australia Police said in a statement on Sunday.

The offenders are still at large as of Monday morning, with police saying CCTV will be crucial to locating the teenagers.

Assistant Police Commissioner Scott Duval said the boys had expandable batons and may have had knives, but that was yet to be confirmed.

He asked them to come forward and face the consequences of their actions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the phase of intense fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip was coming to an end but that the war would not end until the Islamist group no longer controls the Palestinian enclave.

Once the intense fighting is over in Gaza, Netanyahu said, Israel will be able to deploy more forces along the northern border with Lebanon, where fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah has escalated.

“After the intense phase is finished, we will have the possibility to move part of the forces north. And we will do this. First and foremost for defensive purposes. And secondly, to bring our (evacuated) residents home,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 14.

“If we can we will do this diplomatically. If not, we will do it another way. But we will bring (the residents) home,” he said.

Many Israeli towns near the border with Lebanon have been evacuated during the fighting.

Asked when the phase of intense fighting against Hamas will come to an end, Netanyahu answered: “Very soon.”

But the military will still operate in Gaza.

“I am not willing to end the war and leave Hamas as it is,” he said.

Netanyahu also reiterated his rejection of the idea that the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority run Gaza in place of Hamas.

Reuters

Good morning blog readers. My name is Josefine Ganko, and I’ll lead our live coverage through the morning.

It’s Monday, June 24.

Here’s what made news in Australia and around the world overnight.

• A new poll revealed many Australians are willing to consider nuclear power even if they are unsure, raising the stakes for Labor and the Coalition in an election fight on energy.
• Australia’s supermarket giants could be fined billions of dollars if they breach a revamped and mandatory code of conduct.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the phase of intense fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip was coming to an end but that the war wasn’t over yet, as footage of an injured Palestinian man strapped to the bonnet of an IDF vehicle spread online.
• Gunmen opened fire at a synagogue, an Orthodox church and a police post in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan, killing six policemen and injuring 12.