Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected demands by the extremist group Hamas for a ceasefire and vowed that Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip will continue until it achieves absolute victory.
Netanyahu said this after a meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who visited the region in hopes of reaching a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which the United States and the European Union have declared a terrorist organization, reports Radio Free Europe.
Netanyahu said at a press conference that there is no alternative for Israel but to bring about the collapse of Hamas.
According to him, a complete victory against Hamas is the only solution to the war in Gaza.
"We are on the way to absolute victory," Netanyahu said, adding that the operation would last months, not years.
Hamas proposed a ceasefire in Gaza for four and a half months, during which all hostages would be released, Israel would withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip and an agreement would be reached to end the war.
Netanyahu has rejected any deal that would give Hamas full or partial control of the Gaza Strip, saying Israel is "the only power" that can guarantee long-term security.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that Netanyahu's statements showed that he intended to continue the conflict in the Middle East.
(MINE)
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) discovered a new room in the Hamas tunnels in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, where hostages kidnapped from southern Israel on October 7 last year were allegedly being held.
The army said 12 hostages were there at different times, three of whom have already returned to Israel, the Times of Israel reports.
Next to that cell, a bathroom and a room were found where the people guarding the prisoners were housed.
As stated by the Israeli army, the tunnel was previously used as a hiding place by Hamas officials, and then it was repurposed for holding hostages, and that many objects and weapons were found in it.
The army said that the tunnel was built in the middle of a populated area in the city of Khan Yunis.
Today, Hamas proposed a truce plan that would last 135 days in three phases and lead to an end to the war.
(BETA)
The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas, announced today that since the beginning of the war against Israel, 27.708 people, mostly women, children and young people, have been killed.
In the last 24 hours, 123 Palestinians were killed, and the number of wounded since the beginning of the war on October 7 reached 67.174, France Press reported.
In Israel, in the attacks of Palestinian extremists led by Hamas on the first day of the war, about 1.200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 250 hostages were kidnapped and taken to Gaza.
As it was confirmed last night, of the 136 hostages still held, 31 are no longer alive.
(BETA)
Palestinian Hamas has proposed a truce plan that would last four and a half months and lead to the end of the war, in response to a proposal made last Sunday by Qatari and Egyptian mediators with the support of the US and Israel, Israeli media reported today.
According to a draft document seen by Reuters, Hamas's counter-proposal foresees three phases, each of which would last 45 days.
During the truce, the extremist organization would exchange the remaining Israeli hostages kidnapped on October 7 in attacks on southern Israel for Palestinian prisoners.
In addition, the reconstruction of Gaza would begin, Israeli forces would withdraw completely and the remains of the deceased and those killed would be exchanged.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Israel last night after a meeting with the leaders of the intermediary countries of Qatar and Egypt as part of the most serious diplomatic effort so far to achieve a longer truce.
Based on Hamas' counter proposal, all Israeli female hostages, men under the age of 19, the elderly and the sick would be exchanged during the first 45 days in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons.
The remaining male hostages would be released in the second phase and the remains in the third.
Towards the end of the third phase, Hamas would expect the parties to reach an agreement to end the war.
Hamas is seeking the release of 1.500 prisoners, a third of whom it would choose from a list of life sentences.
During the ceasefire, the delivery of food and other aid to civilians in Gaza would also increase, and it is required that 500 trucks a day would enter the territory to bring humanitarian aid.
More than 130 hostages are believed to be held in Gaza, out of a total of around 250 abducted in southern Israel in the October 7 Hamas attacks. As it was announced last night, 31 kidnapped persons are no longer alive.
(BETA)
In response to a proposed plan for the release of hostages and a cease-fire in Gaza seen by Reuters, Hamas laid out its three-phase solution in which Israeli hostages would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners, Gaza would be rebuilt, and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces and a body exchange would be provided. and remains.
Five people, including three civilians, were killed in Israeli attacks last night on the Homs region in central Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced, France Press reported.
The Syrian army announced that civilians were killed and wounded late last night, and the Syrian state news agency SANA, citing an unnamed military official, reported this morning that the strikes caused damage to private and public property, without giving details, the Associated Press reported.
A statement from the UK-based Observatory said the civilian casualties were "a woman, a child and a man" and that "seven others were wounded" in Israeli strikes on a building in the Hamra neighborhood of Homs city.
The Syrian Ministry of Defense indicated that "the Israeli enemy carried out airstrikes from the region north of Tripoli (Lebanon) and targeted several targets in the city of Homs and its surroundings."
Syrian state television broadcast footage showing rescuers searching for the wounded in the rubble of a collapsed building and carrying one person on a stretcher.
Observatory director Abdel Rahman said the affected building in Homs was completely destroyed.
Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria, mostly targeting pro-Iranian forces, mostly the Lebanese extremist Hezbollah, which is linked to the Syrian regime and the Syrian army.
Attacks have increased since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah.
At the end of January, Israeli attacks near Damascus killed eight people, including pro-Iranian fighters, according to the observatory.
Israel has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran, which supports the government of President Bashar al-Assad, to expand its presence in Syria.
On Saturday, Israel's military said it had struck more than 50 Hezbollah-linked targets in Syria since October last year.
The US also carried out attacks on Iran-backed groups in Syria and Iraq last week, killing dozens of people, in response to a deadly attack on its soldiers in Jordan.
(BETA)
The war between Israel and Hamas - 124th day.
Saudi Arabia has said it will not have diplomatic relations with Israel until the country recognizes an independent Palestinian state on its 1967 borders with East Jerusalem and Israel's "aggression" on the Gaza Strip ends.
Yesterday, White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said that the administration of President Joe Biden has received positive feedback that Saudi Arabia and Israel are ready to continue normalization talks.
The kingdom issued a statement to confirm to Washington its steadfast position on the Palestinian issue in light of comments attributed to Kirby, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said, according to Hina.
The idea of Israel and Saudi Arabia officially cementing ties has been mooted since the Saudis gave tacit consent to Gulf neighbors the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to establish ties with Israel in 2020.
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