CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Any Gaza ceasefire deal must allow Israel to resume fighting until its objectives are met, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, as talks over a US plan aimed at ending the nine-month-old war were expected to restart.
Five days after Hamas accepted a key part of the plan, two officials from the Palestinian militant group said the group was awaiting Israel’s response to its latest proposal.
Netanyahu was scheduled to hold consultations late on Sunday on the next steps in negotiating the three-phase plan that was presented in May by US President Joe Biden and is being mediated by Qatar and Egypt.
It aims to end the war and free around 120 Israeli hostages being held in Gaza.
Hamas has dropped a key demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before it would sign an agreement. Instead, it said it would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase, a Hamas source told Reuters on Saturday on condition of anonymity.
But Netanyahu said he insisted the deal must not prevent Israel from resuming fighting until its war objectives are met. Those goals were defined at the start of the war as dismantling Hamas’ military and governing capabilities, as well as returning the hostages.
“The plan that has been agreed to by Israel and which has been welcomed by President Biden will allow Israel to return hostages without infringing on the other objectives of the war,” Netanyahu said.
The deal, he said, must also prohibit weapons smuggling to Hamas via the Gaza-Egypt border and should not allow for thousands of armed militants to return to northern Gaza.
US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns is to meet with the Qatari prime minister and the Israeli and Egyptian intelligence chiefs on Wednesday in Doha, said a source familiar with the issue who asked not to be further identified.
Burns is also expected to visit Cairo this week, along with an Israeli delegation, Egypt’s Al Qahera News TV reported on Sunday, citing a high-ranking source.
A Palestinian official close to the talks said the proposal could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel, and would end the war.
“We have left our response with the mediators and are waiting to hear the occupation’s response,” one of the two Hamas officials told Reuters, asking not to be identified.
Another Palestinian official with knowledge of the ceasefire deliberations said Israel was in talks with the Qataris and that a response was expected within days.
Protests in Israel
In Israel, protesters took to the streets across the country to press the government to agree to the Gaza ceasefire deal, which would bring back hostages still being held in Gaza.
They blocked rush-hour traffic at major intersections across the country, picketed politicians’ houses and briefly set fire to tires on the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway before police cleared the way.
In Gaza, Palestinian health officials said at least 15 people were killed in Israeli strikes.
Among them were Ehab Al-Ghussein, the Hamas-appointed deputy minister of labor whose wife and children were killed in May, and three other people killed in a strike at a church-run school in western Gaza City sheltering families, Hamas media and the Civil Emergency Service said.
The Israeli military said that after it took steps to minimize the risk of civilians being harmed there, it struck militants who were hiding in the school, as well as a facility in the vicinity where weapons were being made.
In central and northern areas of Rafah, on the southern Gaza border with Egypt, Israeli tanks deepened their raids. Health officials there said they had recovered three bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the eastern part of the city.
The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said fighters had attacked Israeli forces in several locations Gaza Strip with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs.
The Israeli military said its forces had killed 30 Palestinian gunmen in Rafah in the past day, and that one of its soldiers was killed in combat.
In Shejaia, an eastern suburb of Gaza City, the military said its forces had killed several gunmen, and located weapons and explosives. It published a drone video showing gunmen, some appearing to be wounded or dead, in a house.
Reuters could not immediately verify the video.
The conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when fighters led by Hamas, which controlled Gaza, attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military onslaught, according to Gaza health officials, and the coastal enclave has largely been reduced to rubble.
Gaza’s health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, but officials say most of the dead throughout the war have been civilians. Israel has lost 324 soldiers in Gaza, and says at least a third of the Palestinian dead are fighters.
Netanyahu: Gaza deal must let Israel resume fighting until war goals met
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Netanyahu: Gaza deal must let Israel resume fighting until war goals met
- Hamas has dropped a key demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before it would sign an agreement
- Netanyahu said he insisted the deal must not prevent Israel from resuming fighting until its war objectives are met
How Syria’s government responded to February’s floods
- Floodwaters battered fragile camps and infrastructure, exposing the vulnerability of millions still displaced by years of war
- Interim authorities mobilized emergency efforts in Idlib and Latakia, evacuating communities and restoring key roads and bridges
LONDON: All Nour owned was washed away in a single stormy night at the Karamah displacement camp in northwest Syria’s Idlib province — a tent, a few pieces of furniture and some clothing.
She had already lost everything once before. Years earlier, fighting forced her family to flee their home in the countryside of Aleppo.
“When we fled our home in Aleppo back in 2014, I was only 13 and couldn’t even save a single doll,” said Nour, whose name has been changed at her request.
“Just as I couldn’t carry anything back then, I couldn’t carry anything when my home got flooded two weeks ago,” she said. “The neighbors told me to run quickly, and I had to save myself and my child.”
In early February, torrential rains swept through Idlib, Latakia and Hama, inundating camps, homes and farmland. Tents collapsed, crops were destroyed and lives were lost as thousands of already vulnerable families struggled through harsh winter conditions.
The flooding has become an early test of the interim government’s ability to respond to disasters, having come to power just over a year ago following more than a decade of civil war.
Flash flooding triggered by heavy rain on Feb. 7 hit Idlib province and northern Latakia, damaging at least 1,850 tents and destroying 149 within two days, according to the UN humanitarian office, OCHA.
Floodwaters reached at least 21 displacement sites, affecting about 5,300 people and submerging entire shelters.
The impact extended beyond camps. In Latakia’s Qastal Maaf district, at least 30 homes were damaged, while 47 houses were affected in the northwestern Idlib province.
The floods also claimed lives. In northern Latakia, two children were reportedly killed on Feb. 8 after being swept away by floodwaters in a rugged valley in the Jabal Al-Turkman area.
Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer Samiha Rakhamiya died while attempting to rescue stranded residents, while six other staff were injured when their vehicle slid into a valley en route to assist affected communities.
Infrastructure damage deepened the disruption. Two bridges linking about 15 villages in Jabal Al-Turkman collapsed, severing access between communities, state media reported.
One bridge over the Northern Great River connected the villages of Al-Sultran and Al-Sarraf. Residents now face journeys of more than two hours instead of minutes.
Officials said surging water levels, exceeding 450 cubic meters per second on Feb. 8, carried debris that clogged a dam and forced water to spill over, eroding surrounding land and blocking roads.
Mustafa Joulha, director of the northern district in Latakia, told state agency SANA that drainage systems were also overwhelmed, worsening flooding in nearby areas.
Authorities deployed emergency teams to clear debris, reopen roads and assess damage.
The floods also strained essential services in Idlib. Ain Al-Bayda hospital was forced out of service, with patients transferred to facilities in Jisr Al-Shughour and Idlib City.
In response, Syrian authorities and humanitarian organizations launched coordinated relief efforts.
An emergency committee was formed, and joint assessment missions surveyed affected camps on Feb. 8.
By Feb. 9, the Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management said civil defense teams carried out search and rescue operations, evacuated residents from high-risk areas, and also prioritized drainage work and road rehabilitation to restore access.
Displacement shelters were opened near Kherbet Al-Jouz and in northern Latakia. Authorities also reported the availability of 1,500 housing units in Afrin and 100 in Latakia, while dozens of families were evacuated by Feb. 12 from six displacement camps in western Idlib.
Syria’s minister of emergency and disaster, Raed Al-Saleh, told SANA that 173 families were evacuated from camps in Idlib’s Badama and Khirbet Al-Jouz to temporary shelter centers.
In addition, emergency teams have conducted drainage operations, cleared culverts within the camps, reopened more than 25 roads and 30 water channels, and removed five earthen berms as part of preparations for further weather systems.
Aid agencies simultaneously coordinated with local authorities to deliver multi-sector assistance. Camp coordination, health, and shelter teams have been relocating the most affected households, repairing and replacing tents, and distributing essential supplies.
Despite the authorities’ rapid response, the scale of need remains immense as the nation has yet to recover from the devastation left by the civil war which erupted in 2011.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that 7.4 million people remain internally displaced in Syria, with the majority concentrated in the northwest. Camps are clustered along the Syria-Turkiye border, particularly in the Harim area and the Atma-Qah-Sarmada-Al-Dana belt.
Of the total internally displaced population, 5.2 million are estimated to be living outside formal displacement sites, according to the UNHCR.
Although more than 1 million people have returned to their hometowns since the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime on Dec. 8, 2024, many are still struggling to rebuild their lives.
Conditions in displacement camps are especially precarious. During aid distributions in Idlib, Medecins Sans Frontieres described shelters as “extremely fragile.” The organization’s logistics manager, Osama Joukhadar, said displaced people “are exposed to the cold, wind, and snow.”
“Every winter, families struggle just to survive,” he added in a Feb. 18 statement. “We are trying to provide basic support, small but essential help to assist families get through the cold months.”
For many, what began as temporary refuge in those camps has hardened into long-term uncertainty.
About 88 percent of shelter sites in Idlib are informal, self-settled camps, often built on private or agricultural land, according to the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.
Residents say returning home is often impossible.
“All the camps around us are in very bad condition, but they do not have the ability to return to their hometowns,” said Hajem Al-Asaad, a displaced resident in the Harim Mountains.
“Even if you own land, you cannot live on barren land — you need a home,” he told MSF. “Our homes are destroyed. I need at least $500 to $1,000 just to make basic repairs.”
Humanitarian support has expanded alongside emergency response efforts. The Syrian government deployed mobile medical teams and ambulances across Idlib, and more than two tonnes of medicines and emergency supplies were delivered to local health authorities.
In Latakia, damaged infrastructure is gradually being restored. A key bridge connecting Atira and Kalaz in the province’s countryside has been rehabilitated, and road clearance projects are underway to help residents return, Syria’s Al-Ekhbariah TV reported on Feb. 19.
Yet even as aid reaches affected areas, the floods underscore a deeper vulnerability.
About 90 percent of Syrians live below the poverty line, according to UN estimates, and the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative Index ranks Syria among the world’s most climate-vulnerable, with limited capacity to respond to environmental shocks.
In the first two months of 2026 alone, Syria experienced both severe snowstorms and widespread flooding.
These crises are layered on the legacy of 14 years of conflict, which devastated homes, infrastructure and essential services across the country.
In Daraa province alone, more than 95,000 homes were damaged during the war, including 33,400 that were completely destroyed, the interim government said on Feb. 25.
Nationwide, electricity generation has fallen sharply, leaving most areas with only a few hours of state power each day.
Years of conflict destroyed power plants, transmission lines and substations, reducing effective generation from about 9.5 gigawatts before the war to around 1.5 to 3 gigawatts in recent years, against demand of roughly 6.5 gigawatts or more.
Against this backdrop, disasters like February’s floods do not just disrupt lives — they compound years of loss.
For Nour and millions like her, the war may no longer dominate headlines, but its consequences remain immediate. And when the floodwaters rise, there is often little left to save.
