Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant confirmed today the need to use "full force" against Palestinian armed groups in the occupied West Bank.
There, the Israeli army carried out a huge operation in which dozens of people died during one week.
"In the face of a resurgence of terrorism, we are rooting out terrorist organizations throughout Judea and Samaria," Galant told military officials, using the biblical names for the West Bank.
According to him, "these terrorist organizations (...) must be eradicated (...)".
"There is no other option, we must use all force," he said, according to a statement from the Israeli Defense Ministry.
Galant also said he gave the green light for airstrikes "wherever necessary, to avoid endangering soldiers".
Today, the Israeli army continued its massive operation in the north of the West Bank, a Palestinian territory under Israeli occupation since 1967.
At least 30 Palestinians have since been killed and 140 injured since the start of the operation, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Israeli actions are a daily occurrence in the occupied West Bank, the scene of violence that has been raging since the beginning of the war in Gaza in October, which, however, rarely reaches such proportions.
At least 661 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October, according to data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
At least 23 Israelis, including soldiers, were killed in the violence between the Palestinians on one side and the Israeli army and Jewish settlers on the other, according to official Israeli data.
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Israel's far-right minister Ben Gvir stepped up pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end Gaza ceasefire talks aimed at freeing hostages, AFP reports.
The national security minister called for an end to indirect negotiations with Hamas, which Israel has accused of executing six hostages whose bodies were found in a tunnel in Gaza last week.
"The country whose six hostages were killed in cold blood does not negotiate with the killers, but breaks off talks, stops the supply of fuel and electricity, and destroys them until they capitulate," he wrote on the X social network.
Ben Gvir, along with far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, are key members of Netanyahu's coalition government and have consistently opposed truce talks, insisting that continuing the war in Gaza is the only way to destroy Hamas.
The family of James Kirby, the World Central Kitchen aid worker who died in Gaza, have called for an independent investigation into his death and said they have not been contacted by British or Israeli diplomats, despite an internal Israeli investigation concluding his death was a tragic accident.
James Kirby (47) was one of seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers who died in the attack, including two other Britons.
The group was traveling in a convoy leaving one of the warehouses when Israeli drones fired at their marked vehicles on April 1 this year.
The Israeli army dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others, calling the case a "serious mistake," the Guardian reports.
The United Nations' main agency for the Palestinians (UNRWA) said the implementation of polio vaccinations in Gaza was progressing well, but called for a permanent ceasefire in the 11-month war to ease humanitarian suffering.
UNRWA said that three days after the start of the campaign in the central areas of Gaza, about 187.000 children had received the vaccine. In the second phase, the campaign will be extended to other parts of the enclave.
Reuters reports that the campaign was launched after a boy was diagnosed with polio last month, the first case in Gaza in 25 years.
Israel and Hamas militants have agreed to daily eight-hour pauses in fighting in pre-designated areas to allow the vaccination program to take place. No violations were reported.
"Great progress! Every day in the Middle Gaza Strip, more and more children are receiving polio vaccines," the head of the global humanitarian agency, Filipe Lazarini, wrote on the X social network.
Gaza's health ministry says at least 40.861 people have died in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, now approaching its twelfth month.
The number includes 42 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the ministry, which also said 94.398 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war, when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.
The United States has said it is time to finalize a deal between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to bow to pressure.
In the coming days, Washington will work with other mediators, Egypt and Qatar, in order to reach a final agreement, said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
He made the comments after Netanyahu refused to make concessions in indirect talks with Hamas, despite growing domestic and international pressure after the Israeli army recovered the bodies of six slain hostages from the war-torn Palestinian territory.
"It's time to finalize that deal," Miller added.
Benjamin Netanyahu's main political rival, Beni Gantz, accused the Israeli prime minister of putting his personal interests before those of the state after he again insisted on the need for Israeli control of the Gaza-Egypt border on Monday, which emerged as a key obstacle to reaching a truce deal. , the Guardian reports.
Speaking in Tel Aviv at the Israel Bar Association's annual conference on Tuesday, the leader of the center-right National Unity party said Netanyahu is lost and sees himself as a state, which he described as dangerous.
Netanyahu insisted on Monday night that Israel must retain control of the Philadelphia Corridor along Gaza's border with Egypt, a stance he warned was jeopardizing efforts to reach a truce and release hostages in the war with Hamas.
At a news conference on Tuesday evening, Gantz said that while the corridor was important to prevent Hamas and other Palestinian militants from smuggling weapons into Gaza, soldiers would be easy targets and would not stop tunneling.
He also rejected Netanyahu's claim that if Israel withdrew from the Philadelphia corridor, international pressure would make it difficult to return.
"We will be able to return to the Philadelphia corridor if and when necessary. If Netanyahu does not understand that after October 7, everything has changed... and if he is not strong enough to withstand international pressure, let him leave the keys and go home," he added. Ganc called for elections.
The United States has indicted Hamas leaders for their role in planning, supporting and carrying out the October 7 attacks in southern Israel, the Guardian reports.
The charges against Yahja Sinwar, the leader of the militant group, and at least five others accuse them of organizing the attack that killed 1.200 people, including more than 40 Americans.
That attack launched Israel's assault on Gaza, in which more than 40.800 Palestinians were killed and much of the territory destroyed. The seven-count indictment filed by the US Department of Justice includes charges of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to murder US citizens and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death.
Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah are also accused of providing financial support, as well as weapons, including missiles and military supplies.
"As stated in our indictment, these defendants - armed with weapons, political support and funding from the Iranian government, and support from Hezbollah - are spearheading Hamas' efforts to destroy the State of Israel and killing civilians to achieve that goal.
The allegations revealed today are only part of our efforts to target all aspects of Hamas operations. These actions will not be our last," said US Attorney General Merik Garland.
"Yahja Sinwar and other Hamas leaders have been charged today with orchestrating the terrorist organization's decade-long campaign of mass violence and terror - including the events of October 7," he added.
The indictment lists the names of six defendants, three of whom are dead. Alive are Sinwar, who is believed to be hiding in Gaza; Khalid Meshal, who is based in Doha and heads the group's diaspora office; and Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas official based in Lebanon.
The dispute between Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant escalated again after the bodies of six Israeli hostages were found and mass demonstrations followed.
Quarrels broke out several times between Netanyahu and Galant, who during his 35-year military career attained the rank of general, Reuters reminds. Although a hardliner on security issues, including Hamas, Galant spoke openly with disdain about Netanyahu's proclaimed goal of "total victory" in Gaza, which he dismissed as "nonsense."
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