The Israeli leader rejected the proposal of the US president and the UN secretary general for a ceasefire. On the other hand, Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that his troops would remain in the Gaza Strip, a point on which Joe Biden directly disagrees with the Prime Minister of the National Unity Government. A month after the Hamas attacks, Israel’s Defense Minister said the army is operating “in the heart of Gaza City.”
While several parts of Israel marked the passing of a month of the terrorist massacre with a minute’s silence, Tel Aviv declared that its forces, operating in the center of Gaza City, will not stop until the hostages are released. The report was confirmed in a telephone conversation between President Isaac Herzog and US Vice President Kamala Harris. Earlier, Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that there will be no fuel deliveries to Gaza or a ceasefire in the fighting between Israel and Hamas unless the more than 240 hostages captured by Palestinian militants are released.
In his address to fellow citizens, Netanyahu said that thousands of Hamas militants had been eliminated both on the surface and in the tunnels, including the personnel who planned and carried out the October 7 massacre, as well as the command center and tunnels. “We are operating in Gaza, we are increasing the pressure on Hamas every hour, every day,” he said at Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv. “Hamas is discovering that we are reaching places they thought we would never reach,” he says.
“We are in the heart of Gaza city,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had previously announced, for whom “Gaza is the largest terrorist base ever built.” The minister had also rejected the idea of a humanitarian ceasefire. “For me, humanitarian pauses primarily mean the return of prisoners who were being held by savages. There will be no humanitarian pauses without the return of the hostages,” he assured.
The day before, in a phone call with the Israeli prime minister, the US president had defended “humanitarian pauses” to allow the access of humanitarian aid and the release of hostages. According to the place Walla proposed to Joe Biden a three-day silence that would start with the release of ten to fifteen hostages, but Netanyahu reportedly rejected this idea. According to Walla, the head of the Israeli government said on the one hand that he did not trust Hamas to release a large number of hostages, and on the other hand that Israel would have much more difficulty restarting the fighting under international pressure.
The lack of harmony with his closest ally was also evident in Netanyahu’s interview with ABC News, when he was asked who should rule Gaza when the war was over. “I think Israel will have overall responsibility for security indefinitely. If we don’t have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror,” he replied.
Washington’s response was not long in coming. “Israel and the region must be safe. Gaza should not and cannot be a base for launching terrorist attacks against the people of Israel or anyone else,” US State Department spokesman Vedant told reporters. However, the disagreement with Netanyahu is clear: “In our opinion, the Palestinians should be at the forefront of these decisions. Gaza is Palestinian territory and will remain Palestinian territory. In general, we do not and do not support the reoccupation of Gaza. Israel.”
Netanyahu’s comments differ from previous statements by his government. When Yoav Gallant presented the three-phase plan to delegates on October 20, he said Israel intended to end its “responsibility” for Gaza after the fighting. “The third phase requires the elimination of Israel’s responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip and the establishment of a new security reality for Israeli citizens,” the minister said.
President Biden, who has supported the Israeli government, had warned last month that it would be “a big mistake” if Israel were to reoccupy Gaza, as it did between 1967 and 2005. In turn, Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested the Palestinian Authority as the appropriate body to govern Gaza and, by extension, be responsible for its security.
What Israel and the US agree on is warning other regional actors not to interfere. Netanyahu again warned Hezbollah not to join the war. “You will make the mistake of your life,” he said on the same day that US energy envoy Amos Hochstein visited Lebanon and, in a more diplomatic manner, called for the conflict not to spread to that country.
Although the Israeli army has not declared a ceasefire, thousands of Palestinians, some carrying makeshift white flags and others with their hands raised, left the center of Gaza City heading south.
The Associated Press and AFP news agencies on Salah a-Din Road witnessed the movement, ultimately responding to calls from Israeli authorities to move south. Carrying one of her children, Amira al Sakani told AFP she had read the pamphlet released by the Israeli army. “We came south from the center of Gaza on foot. I didn’t expect the path to be so long,” he said, also saying that along the way he saw “bodies of martyrs, some torn to pieces.”
Tributes to Israeli victims in Lisbon
The rocket attacks, massacres and kidnappings committed by fighters of the terrorist organization Hamas – which resulted in more than 1,000 dead civilians and more than 240 hostages – in Israeli territory on October 7 were highlighted in Praça do Município, in Lisbon, in tribute to the victims which was attended by Israeli Ambassador Dor Shapira.
Source: DN
