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Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu hardened his rejection of Hamas demands for an end to the Gaza war in exchange for the freeing of hostages, saying on Sunday that would keep the Palestinian Islamist group in power and pose a threat to Israel.
Mr Netanyahu said Israel was willing to pause fighting in Gaza in order to secure the release of hostages still being held by Hamas, believed to number more than 130.
“But while Israel has shown willingness, Hamas remains entrenched in its extreme positions, first among them the demand to remove all our forces from the Gaza Strip, end the war and leave Hamas in power,” Mr Netanyahu said.
“Israel cannot accept that. Hamas would be able to achieve its promise of carrying out again and again and again its massacres, rapes and kidnapping.”
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In Cairo, Hamas leaders held a second day of truce talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators, with no apparent progress reported as the group maintained its demand that any agreement must end the war in Gaza, Palestinian officials said.
The war began after an assault by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7th in which 1,200 people were killed and 252 hostages taken, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s ensuring military offensive has killed more than 34,600 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza. The bombardment has devastated much of the coastal enclave and caused a humanitarian crisis
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Sunday the Palestinian militant group was keen on reaching a comprehensive ceasefire that will end Israeli “aggression”, guarantee Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, and achieve a serious hostage-swap deal.
Mr Haniyeh, in his statement, also blamed Mr Netanyahu for “the continuation of the aggression and the expansion of the circle of conflict, and sabotaging the efforts made through the mediators and various parties”.
On Sunday, Mr Netanyahu’s government also voted unanimously to close down the offices in Israel of the Qatar-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera.
The vote comes amid deeply strained ties between Israel and the channel, which have worsened during the war against the Islamist movement Hamas.
It also comes as Qatar is helping to broker a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the war in Gaza.
On Saturday, thousands of people protested in Israel, demanding Mr Netanyahu accept a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that would see the remaining Israeli hostages brought home from Gaza.
At a rally in Tel Aviv that took place as Hamas officials were meeting Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, relatives and supporters of the more than 130 hostages still in captivity said anything possible had to be done to bring them home.
"I'm here today to support a deal now, yesterday," said Natalie Eldor. "We need to bring them back. We need to bring all the hostages back, the live ones, the dead ones. We got to bring them back. We got to switch this government. This has got to end."
The protests, in advance of the Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls this year on May 6th, came as the war in Gaza nears the end of its seventh month amid growing international pressure to stop the fighting.
“The only thing that keeps us going is the hope that Bar is alive and surviving,” said Ora Rubinstein, the aunt of Bar Kupershtein, who was seized along with more than 250 others when Hamas-led gunmen rampaged through Israeli communities near Gaza on October 7th.
Many of those taken hostage are believed to be dead but families want all of those taken to be brought back.
“Everyone must be returned. We will not abandon them as the Jews were abandoned during the Holocaust,” said Hanna Cohen, an aunt of 27-year-old Inbar Haiman, who was initially believed to have been taken hostage on October 7th but was subsequently found to have been killed. Her body is still believed to be being held by Hamas in Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu announced the clampdown on Al Jazeera on X, formerly Twitter. Details on when it would go into effect or whether it was permanent or temporary were not immediately clear.
The head of Al Jazeera in Israel and the Palestinian territories described the decisionto shutter the Qatari-owned station’s local operations as “dangerous” and motivated by politics rather than professional considerations. Al Jazeera’s legal team was preparing a response, Walid Omary told Reuters, in a possible anticipation of a court appeal against the decision
On Sunday an Israeli airstrike killed four members of a family in a house in a border village in southern Lebanon, civil defence and security sources said.
The four were killed in Meiss al Jabal, which has suffered extensive damage in regular exchanges of fire between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hizbullah group since the start of the war in Gaza last October.
In a statement, Hezbollah said it fired “tens” of Katyusha rockets at the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, a northern town close to the Lebanese border, in retaliation.
Airstrikes and shelling have taken place sporadically but both sides have pulled back from all-out war.
Meanwhile, Hamas on Sunday claimed responsibility for an attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza that local media reports said resulted in Israeli casualties.
The Israel military said 10 projectiles were launched from Rafah into southern Gaza towards the crossing, which it said was now closed to aid trucks going into the coastal enclave – Reuters
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