Israel is able to negotiate a long-lasting deal to finish the warfare with Hamas in Gaza when a short lived halt to hostilities begins within the Palestinian territory, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Thursday.
But Netanyahu stated the Palestinian resistance group wants first to surrender its weapons and its capability to control, warning that failure to achieve a deal on Israel’s phrases would plunge the territory into additional battle.
Netanyahu’s feedback got here in a video message from Washington, the place efforts to safe a 60-day halt within the 21-month warfare have dominated his talks with US President Donald Trump, who’s hoping for an settlement inside days.
Indirect negotiations have been going down all week between the 2 sides in Qatar, and the Hamas-led resistance actions have agreed to free 10 of the 20 hostages nonetheless alive in captivity because the October 2023 assault which sparked the warfare.
Sticking factors stay, not least Hamas’s calls for for the free stream of assist into Gaza and Israel’s army withdrawal from the territory, whereas it additionally needs “real guarantees” on a long-lasting peace, the group stated.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar stated “progress has been made” however admitted in an interview with Austrian newspaper Die Presse that ironing out “all complex issues” would possible take “a few more days”.
There was no settlement but on the variety of Palestinian prisoners to be launched in change for hostages, he informed the newspaper.
He stated that “initially, eight hostages are to be released, followed by two more on the 50th day” of the 60-day ceasefire. “Additionally, 18 bodies of hostages are to be handed over,” he was quoted as saying.
Saar too stated a long-lasting ceasefire could be mentioned however added: “There are still major differences, especially regarding the question of how Hamas will be prevented from controlling Gaza after the war.”
Asked if Israel could be prepared to grant Hamas leaders protected passage into exile, he stated: “Yes, we will offer that.”
– ‘Fundamental situations’ –
Netanyahu, who’s underneath home strain to finish the warfare as army casualties mount, stated disarming and neutralising Hamas had been “fundamental conditions” for Israel.
“If this can be achieved through negotiations, great,” he stated. “If it cannot be achieved through negotiations within 60 days, we will have to achieve it through other means, by using… the force of our heroic army.”
Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim informed AFP earlier on Thursday that it will not settle for “the perpetuation of the occupation of our land” or Palestinians being herded into “isolated enclaves” within the densely populated territory.
The group was notably against Israeli management over Rafah, on the border with Egypt, and the so-called Morag Corridor between the southern metropolis and Khan Yunis, he added.
Israel introduced earlier this yr that the military was seizing giant areas of Gaza and incorporating them into buffer zones cleared of their inhabitants.
Naim stated the group additionally wished an finish to the present supply of assist by a US- and Israel-backed group, a system which has seen scores of individuals killed whereas looking for meals rations.
– Blood and screams –
On the bottom, Gaza’s civil defence company stated eight youngsters had been amongst 17 individuals killed in an Israeli strike outdoors a medical clinic in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
“The ground shook beneath our feet and everything around us turned into blood and deafening screams,” stated Yousef Al-Aydi, who was within the queue for dietary dietary supplements when he heard a drone approaching then a blast.
Rabih Torbay, the top of US medical charity Project Hope which runs the ability, referred to as it “a blatant violation of humanitarian law, and a stark reminder that no one and no place is safe in Gaza, even as ceasefire talks continue”.
The UN youngsters’s company stated one of many victims was a one-year-old boy who in line with his mom had uttered his first phrases solely hours earlier.
Israel’s army stated it had struck a Hamas militant within the metropolis who had infiltrated Israel throughout the 2023 assault and that it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals”.
Overall, the well being ministry in Hamas-run Gaza stated not less than 57,762 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed because the begin of the battle.
Hamas‘s October 2023 assault led to the deaths of 1,219 individuals, most of them civilians, in line with an AFP tally based mostly on Israeli figures.
A complete of 251 hostages had been seized within the assault. Forty-nine are nonetheless held in Gaza, together with 27 the Israeli army says are useless.
Source: www.anews.com.tr