Israel will attend ceasefire talks, Netanyahu says
UN court orders more crossings opened for aid
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will return to the table for ceasefire talks with Hamas.
Friday’s announcement marks yet another attempt to reach a deal to pause Israel’s devastating war in Gaza against Hamas in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages. Efforts by the United States, Qatar and Egypt to negotiate a ceasefire appear stalled as the war grinds through its sixth month.
Hamas has previously suggested a phased release of all remaining hostages in return for an end to the war and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the opening of its borders for aid and reconstruction, and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including top fighters serving life sentences.
Netanyahu has called these conditions delusional, and says that after any hostage release, Israel will keep fighting until Hamas is destroyed.
He told the families of soldiers held captive in the Gaza Strip that continued military pressure was the only way to secure the hostages’ release, reiterating Israel’s intention to launch an offensive in the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah.
“Only continuation of the forceful military pressure that we have applied, and will yet apply, will return our hostages, will return everyone,” Netanyahu told the relatives of the Israeli soldiers who have been held captive in Gaza since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas.
“We are holding the northern Gaza Strip and Khan Younis,” he added, according to a translation from an official readout from the meeting. “We have bisected the Strip and we are preparing to enter Rafah.”
Hamas is believed to be holding roughly 100 hostages, as well as the remains of about 30 people killed in the group’s Oct. 7 attack or who died in captivity. Some 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the surprise attack, which triggered the conflict.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 32,000 people and wounded 74,000, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
The Syrian army said Israeli airstrikes on Friday near the northern city of Aleppo killed or wounded “a number of” people and caused damage. A war monitor said the strikes killed 44, most of them Syrian troops.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said Israeli strikes hit missile depots for Lebanon’s Hezbollah group in Aleppo’s southern suburb of Jibreen, near the airport, and the nearby town of Safira, home to a sprawling military facility.
The observatory said 36 Syrian troops, seven Hezbollah fighters and a Syrian member of an Iran-backed group died, and dozens of people were wounded, calling it the deadliest such attack in years.
There was no immediate statement from Israeli officials on the strikes.
Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in its northern neighbour, has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges them.
Iran and Hezbollah, both allies of Syria, oppose the existence of Israel.
Hezbollah has had an armed presence in Syria since it joined the country’s conflict fighting alongside government forces.
In the southern Gaza city of Rafah, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 12 people when it slammed into a residential building late Thursday, according to health officials.
Two children and four women were among the dead, said Dr. Saleh alhams, the head of the nursing department at the European Hospital. About a dozen of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are only partially functioning.
Israel has promised to launch a ground invasion of Rafah, saying the city on the border with Egypt is the last remaining Hamas stronghold in the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces have continued to bombard areas where they told civilians to take shelter — including Rafah.
Over half of Gaza’s population has sought refuge in Rafah, many in makeshift tent camps, United Nations shelters and crowded apartments. The U.S. says it shares Israel’s goal of defeating Hamas but a major assault on the city would be a mistake.
In a legally binding order, the top United Nations court said Thursday that Israel must open more land crossings into Gaza for food, water, fuel and other supplies.
The International Court of Justice issued two new so-called provisional measures in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of acts of genocide in its war in Gaza — charges Israel strongly denies.
And in the West Bank, Israeli authorities say an attacker wounded three people Thursday after opening fire at several vehicles on a main route in the territory. The military says it’s still searching for the shooter.