HIGHLIGHT : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that complete victory in the Gaza Strip was within reach, Hamas'...
HIGHLIGHT: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that complete victory in the Gaza Strip was within reach, Hamas' latest call for a ceasefire to ensure the return of hostages still held in the besieged enclave. rejected the proposal.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renewed his pledge to destroy the Palestinian Islamic movement, saying Israel had no choice but to destroy Hamas.
http://www.5minutesnews.com/2024/02/russia-says-biden-boosting-his.html
"The next day is the day after Hamas. All of Hamas," he said at a press conference, stressing that complete victory over Hamas is the only solution to the war in Gaza.
“Only complete victory can restore security to the north and south of Israel.” Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, described Netanyahu's comments as "political courage" that demonstrated the Israeli leader's intention to continue the conflict in the region.
Another Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, said a Hamas delegation led by senior Hamas official Khalil al-Haya will visit Cairo on Thursday to continue ceasefire talks with mediators Egypt and Qatar. Hamas had proposed a four-and-a-half month ceasefire in Gaza under which all hostages would be released, Israel would withdraw its troops from Gaza, and an agreement would be reached to end the war.
The Hamas proposal, whose contents were first reported by Reuters, was a response to an earlier proposal made by US and Israeli spy chiefs and passed on to Hamas by intermediaries in Qatar and Egypt last week.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the proposal with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after arriving in Israel following talks with the leaders of Qatar and Egypt. Blinken later met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
Israel launched a military offensive after Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in southern Israel on October 7. The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 27,585 Palestinians were confirmed dead and thousands more were feared buried under the rubble. There has been only one ceasefire so far, lasting just one week at the end of November.
Israel has previously said it would not withdraw its troops from Gaza or end the war until Hamas is destroyed. But people close to the negotiations said Hamas was taking a new approach to its long-standing demand for an end to the war, viewing it not as a condition for a ceasefire but as an issue to be resolved in future negotiations. .
In the first 45 days, all Israeli hostages, males under the age of 19, The elderly and the sick will be released. Israel will withdraw its troops from the populated areas of the Gaza Strip. The implementation of the second phase will only begin after the two sides have completed "indirect consultations on the conditions necessary to end mutual military operations and return to complete peace."
The second phase includes the release of the remaining male hostages and Israel's complete withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip. The remains of the deceased will be replaced in the third phase. The U.S. government concluded the hostage-taking and ceasefire agreement as part of plans for a broader solution to the Middle East conflict that would ultimately lead to reconciliation between Israel and its Arab neighbors and the establishment of a Palestinian state. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state, which Saudi Arabia insists is a precondition for any deal to normalize relations with Israel.
The diplomacy comes as Israel seeks to capture Khan Yunis, the capital in the southern Gaza Strip. Israel announced last week that it was planning an attack on Rafah. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday that the measures would "drastically worsen what is already a humanitarian nightmare, with untold consequences for the region". The Israeli military says it has killed dozens of Hamas members in fighting over the past 24 hours. Similar claims were made during the battle at Khan Yunis, but could not be independently verified. In Rafah, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, where half of the enclave's 2.3 million people are packed along the border with Egypt, the bodies of 10 people killed in Israeli airstrikes were deposited overnight in a hospital morgue. It was enshrined.
At least two of the wrapped bundles were the size of small children. Family members wept next to the deceased. Israeli airstrikes killed three more people in a house in Rafah on Wednesday, Palestinian health authorities said. Officials added that Majdi Abdul-Al, a senior Palestinian police officer and Hamas member, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a vehicle used to secure an aid truck in Rafah. "Every time Mr. Blinken visits, the situation calms down, but the situation only gets worse with more attacks and bombings," said mourner Mohammad Abundi.
No comments