DM Monitoring
GAZA: Israel is ready to negotiate a lasting deal with Hamas to end the Gaza war when a temporary halt to hostilities begins, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.
But Netanyahu said the militants must first give up their weapons and their hold on the Palestinian ter-ritory, warning that failure to reach a deal on Israel’s terms would lead to further conflict.
His comments came as Gaza’s civil defence agency said eight children – killed as they queued for nutri-tional supplements outside a health clinic – were among 66 people who died in Israeli strikes across the territory Thursday.
The UN children’s agency said one victim was a one-year-old boy who according to his mother had ut-tered his first words only hours earlier.
Efforts to secure a 60-day halt in the 21-month war have dominated Netanyahu’s talks with US Presi-dent Donald Trump in Washington.
Indirect negotiations have been taking place between the two sides in Qatar, and the militants have agreed to free 10 of the 20 hostages still alive in captivity since the October 7, 2023 attack which sparked the war.
Sticking points include Hamas’s demand for the free flow of aid into Gaza and Israel’s military with-drawal from the territory. It also wants “real guarantees” on a lasting peace, the group said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said “progress has been made” but admitted in an interview with Austrian newspaper Die Presse that ironing out “all complex issues” would likely take “a few more days”.
There was no agreement on the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for hos-tages, he told the newspaper.
He said that “initially, eight hostages are to be released, followed by two more on the 50th day” of the 60-day ceasefire. “Additionally, 18 bodies of hostages are to be handed over,” he was quoted as saying.
Saar said a lasting ceasefire would be discussed but added: “There are still major differences, especial-ly regarding the question of how Hamas will be prevented from controlling Gaza after the war.” He said Israel was ready to grant Hamas leaders safe passage into exile. Netanyahu, who is under domestic pressure to end the war as military casualties mount, said disarm-ing and neutralising Hamas were “fundamental conditions” for Israel.
“If this can be achieved through negotiations, great,” he said. “If it cannot be achieved through negoti-ations within 60 days, we will have to achieve it through other means, by using… the force of our hero-ic army.”
Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told AFP that it would not accept “the perpetuation of the occupa-tion of our land” or Palestinians being herded into “isolated enclaves” in the densely populated territo-ry.
The group was particularly opposed to Israeli control over Rafah, on the border with Egypt, and the so-called Morag Corridor between the southern city and Khan Yunis, he added.
Israel announced this year that the army was seizing large areas of Gaza to be incorporated into buffer zones cleared of their inhabitants.
Naim said the group also wanted to end the delivery of aid by a US and Israel-backed group, a system which has seen scores of people killed while seeking food rations.
The Palestinian territory’s civil defence agency said eight children were among 17 people killed in an Israeli strike outside a medical clinic in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
