On Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, said that any truce in the Gaza strip must allow Israel to fight on until its objective is achieve. This comes amid expectations of talks restarting over a US plan meant to end the nine-month-old conflict.
According to officials, two Hamas members claimed that Palestinian activist group was anticipating Israel’s response to its most recent proposal which accepted main components of the plan five days later. Their good offices aim at ending the war and release 120 Israelis held hostage by Gaza.
Sources have said that Hamas has dropped demands for a permanent ceasefire with Israel before sealing a pact allowing negotiations during an initial six-week period.
However, he stressed that it must not stand in the way if Israel wants to restart fighting until all her war aims were met including breaking down Hamas military and governing capability and returning hostages back home. “Under this agreed plan with Israel endorsed by President Biden will enable return without violating other goals of the war,” Netanyahu reportedly said.
Netanyahu also added that such deal must help in preventing smuggling of arms from Egypt into Gaza through tunnels and discouraging return of thousands armed militants into Northen Gaza Strip.
CIA Director William Burns will discuss with his Egyptian and Israeli intelligence counterparts as well as Qatari Prime Minister tomorrow in Doha before heading to Cairo later this week with an Israeli delegation accompanying him.
There is still fighting going on in Gaza as early today morning Israeli soldiers had ordered residents again along with families displaced from their homes from some parts of Gaza City.
Palestinian health officials say that the Israeli airstrike on a house at Jabaliya in northern border of/ next to Gaza Strip killed at least ten people, left many others injured and others missing.
These latest rounds came after several failed attempts at securing a ceasefire over months; each occasion failed when Washington claimed it was close to agreement.
Protesters across Israel went out onto streets demanding their government reach out for ceasefire in Gaza and secure release of hostages still held by Hamas. At major intersections, they blocked rush hour traffic; picketed at politicians homes and in a short while set fire on tyres along the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway before police responded.
Palestinian health officials say that Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 15 people in Gaza, including deputy labor minister Ehab Al-Ghussein appointed by Hamas, his wife and children (he was kill in May) and three others died during Israeli air strikes on Gaza Strip.
Before targeting schools where militants were hiding or nearby manufacturing facilities for weapons, the military said it had taken steps to minimize civilian casualties. In Rafah on the border with Egypt in southern Gaza, tanks manned by Israelis intensified their attack while health officials recovered bodies of three Palestinians killed by Israeli gunfire.
The conflict began on October 7 when militant groups headed by Hamas launched attacks in southern Israel killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostage; according to Israeli data. More than 38,000 Palestinians have died in Israeli military attacks leaving the strip mostly destroyed according to health officials from Gaza.
