Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will only accept a partial cease-fire deal that would not end the 8-month-long war in Gaza, casting doubt on the viability of a U.S. backed cease-fire proposal.
Netanyahu made the comments late Sunday in an interview with Israeli Channel 14, a conservative, pro-Netanyahu station. He was he was ready to make a partial deal to bring back some of the 120 hostages still held in the Gaza Strip, but “we are committed to continuing the war after a pause, in order to complete the goal of eliminating Hamas.”
The comments come at a sensitive time as Israel and Hamas appear to be moving further apart over the U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal, and could represent another setback for mediators trying to end the war.
The three-phased plan would bring about the release of the remaining hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. But disputes and mistrust persist between Israel and Hamas over how the deal plays out.
Hamas has insisted it will not release the remaining hostages unless there’s a permanent cease-fire and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,400 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.
Currently:
— Netanyahu says he won’t agree to a deal that ends the war in Gaza, testing the latest truce proposal
— Suspected Yemen Houthi attack targets vessel in waters further away than many previous assaults
— Some visitors to Israel have a new stop on their tours: Hamas’ destruction in the south
— An Israel offensive into Lebanon risks an Iranian military response, top US military leader says
— Democrats wrestle with whether to boycott Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu ’s address to Congress
Follow news agencies’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here’s the latest:
CAIRO — Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City have killed at least nine people, including two health workers.
The strikes late Sunday came months after Israel declared that it had mostly dismantled Hamas in Gaza City and the rest of northern Gaza, which Israeli forces have surrounded and largely isolated since the earliest days of the ground invasion.
The Gaza Health Ministry said the strike on the Daraj clinic in Gaza City killed Hani al-Jaafrawi, director of the ministry’s ambulance and emergency department. First responders with the Civil Defense said another health worker, Mohammed Salah, was also killed.
The ministry said Israeli bombardments of Gaza have killed over 500 healthcare workers since the start of the war, and that more than 300 others have been detained.
The Civil Defense said seven other people were killed in a separate strike on Sunday that flattened a home in the Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City. It said rescuers are searching for another missing person.
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