Israel to hold ceasefire negotiations with Hamas

ISRAEL’S Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country 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 militants serving life sentences.

Netanyahu has called these conditions delusional, and says that after any hostage release, Israel will keep fighting until Hamas is destroyed.

Hamas is believed to be holding roughly 100 hostages, as well as the remains of about 30 people killed in the group’s October 7 attack or who died in captivity. Some 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the surprise attack, which triggered the current conflict.

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 32,000 people and wounded 74,000, according to the 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 U.N. has reported that 100% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are at severe levels of food insecurity. Aid deliveries have been impeded by Israeli military restrictions, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order, according to the U.N. and international aid groups.

Meanwhile the Syrian army says Israeli airstrikes near the northern city of Aleppo killed or wounded “a number of” people and caused damage.

An opposition war monitor said the strikes killed 42, 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 militant Hezbollah group in Aleppo’s southern suburb of Jibreen, near the

Aleppo International Airport, and the nearby town of Safira, home to a sprawling military facility.

The Observatory said 36 Syrian troops and six Hezbollah fighters 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.

Hezbollah has had an armed presence in Syria since it joined the country’s conflict fighting alongside government forces.