Gaza/Jerusalem:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would consider a “strategic short pause” in the fighting to facilitate the entry of aid from the Gaza Strip or the evacuation of hostages, but again rejected calls for a ceasefire despite international pressure.
Israel’s military claimed to have captured a terrorist compound and attacked fighters hiding in a warren of underground tunnels, after besieging densely populated Gaza city in the north of the enclave, where the resistance group Hamas is based. Ready for.
Israel has bombed the area since a Hamas attack on southern Israel a month ago, when its fighters reportedly killed 1,400 people and captured 240 hostages.
More than 10,000 Palestinians, including at least 4,100 children, have been killed in the brutal Israeli attack.
Israel has repeatedly rejected growing calls to stop the fighting. It said that the hostages should be released first. Hamas says it will release all hostages if Israel stops bombing Gaza, adding that it will not stop fighting as long as the attack continues.
Netanyahu said a general ceasefire would hinder his country’s war efforts, but halting fighting for humanitarian reasons, an idea supported by Israel’s top ally the United States, would continue to be considered depending on the circumstances.
There was firing by the Israeli army on Gaza. Photo: Reuters
“As far as strategic short pauses – an hour here, an hour there – we have done that before. I believe we will examine the circumstances so that goods, humanitarian goods can come in, Or our hostages, individual hostages, to go,” Netanyahu told ABC News on Monday.
“But I don’t think there’s going to be a normal ceasefire.”
The White House said U.S. President Joe Biden discussed such a pause and possible hostage releases in a phone call with Netanyahu on Monday, reiterating his support for Israel and emphasizing that it must protect civilians. .
Like Israel, the US fears that Hamas will take advantage of the full ceasefire to regroup.
Netanyahu said that when the conflict ends, he thinks, “Israel will have overall security responsibility (in Gaza) indefinitely because we have seen what happens when we don’t have that security responsibility.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire, warning on Monday that Gaza was becoming a “cemetery for children”.
Guterres told reporters, “Israeli Defense Forces ground operations and sustained bombardment continue to attack civilians, hospitals, UN facilities including refugee camps, mosques, churches and shelters. No one is safe.”
Reading Despite calls for a ceasefire, Israel has intensified its brutal attacks on Gaza.
“At the same time, Hamas and other terrorists use civilians as human shields and continue to launch rockets indiscriminately toward Israel,” he said.
International organizations have said hospitals cannot treat the injured and food and clean water are running out and aid distribution is nowhere near sufficient.
“We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. It’s been 30 days. Enough is enough. This must stop now,” said a statement on Monday from the heads of several UN bodies.
Hundreds of protesters from the Jewish Voice for Peace group picketed outside New York’s Statue of Liberty on Monday, demanding a ceasefire and an independent Palestine.
Video on social media showed a crowd of activists sitting beneath the statue chanting “Never again, never again for anyone”, echoing a Jewish rally after the Holocaust.
A Jewish man who was knocked to the ground during a fight during pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian street protests in California died Monday, and law enforcement and a Jewish organization said his death was determined to be a homicide. Was.
Gaza city cut off
The Israeli military on Monday released video of tanks moving and groups of soldiers on foot on bombed streets. It says it has surrounded Gaza city and cut off northern parts of the narrow coastal strip from the south.
At a press briefing, chief military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said troops were seeking Hamas field-level commanders to weaken the resistance’s “ability to launch counter-attacks.”
An Israeli tank has been seen inside Gaza. Photo: Reuters
The United Nations Security Council met behind closed doors on Monday. The 15-member body is still trying to agree on a resolution after failing to act four times in two weeks. Diplomats said the main hurdle is whether to call for a ceasefire, cessation of hostilities or a humanitarian pause to allow aid access to Gaza.
At a meeting of foreign ministers of the leading G7 democracies in Tokyo, Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said the group planned to call for a halt to the fighting and allow humanitarian access to Gaza.
Biden’s administration has informed the US Congress that it plans to transfer $320 million worth of precision bombs to Israel, a source familiar with the plan said on Monday.
Israel said on Monday it was attacking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in response to a barrage of rockets fired at northern Israeli towns. The Israeli military said it detected about 30 launches from Lebanon in an hour.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israeli forces on the Lebanese-Israeli border since October 7, the worst fighting since a war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
Hamas said it launched 16 missiles toward Nahariya and southern Haifa in Israel.
