JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded Thursday that Israel retain control of key Gaza territory along the border with Egypt as part of any accord to suspend the war with Hamas.
The condition conflicts with Hamas's position that Israel must withdraw from all Gaza territory after a ceasefire.
Speaking after the return of Israeli negotiators from talks with mediators in Qatar, Netanyahu said Israel needed control to stop weapons reaching Hamas from Egypt -- one of four conditions for a deal with the Palestinian militants.
He did not say if the measure would be permanent. But it is the first time Israel has insisted on retaining control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and the so-called Philadelphi corridor along the border.
Netanyahu said Israel's negotiators, led by Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea, went to Doha to defend what he called four "ironclad principles", with the key condition that Israel be allowed to keep fighting until its war aims of destroying Hamas and bringing home all hostages are achieved.
Netanyahu reaffirmed the others: stopping weapons reaching Hamas from Egypt -- "first and foremost by Israeli control of the Philadelphi axis and the Rafah crossing" -- not allowing militants to regroup in northern Gaza and ensuring a "maximum" number of hostages are freed.
While the United States has expressed "cautious optimism" over the Qatar talks, Netanyahu vowed to keeping fighting Hamas with "full force", calling it a "sacred mission" to bring back hostages seized in the October 7 attacks.
The attacks on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 the military says are dead. Some 105 hostages were freed during a one-week truce in November.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 38,345 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.
"Ambiguity and hesitance did not bring about our achievements to date, and they will not bring about achievements in the future," Netanyahu said.
"I am committed to an outline for the release of our hostages, but Hamas terrorists continue to insist on demands that contradict the outline and threaten Israel's security," he added.
Netanyahu demands Israeli control of Gaza territory on Egypt border
https://arab.news/n4t79
Netanyahu demands Israeli control of Gaza territory on Egypt border
- The condition conflicts with Hamas's position that Israel must withdraw from all Gaza territory after a ceasefire
- Netanyahu said Israel needed control to stop weapons reaching Hamas from Egypt
Israeli police raid Christmas party in Haifa, arrest Palestinian man dressed as Santa
- ‘Excessive force’ used in raid, says rights group for Palestinian citizens of Israel
- Gaza marks first post-ceasefire Christmas as occupied West Bank faces holiday crackdown
LONDON: Police in Israel last week arrested a Palestinian man dressed as Santa Claus at a Christmas celebration in Haifa, The Guardian reported.
The Christmas event was closed on Sunday, after Israeli officers stormed the area and confiscated equipment, the Mossawa Center, a rights group for Palestinian citizens of Israel, said.
The Palestinian Santa Claus performer was arrested, as well as a DJ and street vendor.
In a video circulating on social media, police can be seen forcing the men to the ground and handcuffing them, as crowds of bystanders watch on.
The Palestinian man dressed as Santa Claus resisted arrest and assaulted an officer, Israeli police said in a statement.
But the police used excessive force during the raid, which was conducted without legal authority on the music hall venue, Mossawa said.
Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and Gaza are celebrating Christmas this week despite Israel’s imposition of restrictions on daily life there.
Celebrations for Dec. 25 were held in Bethlehem for the first time since the beginning of the war on Gaza.
Marching bands blew bagpipes in processions through the streets in the city of Jesus’ birth.
Churchgoers attended mass there at the Church of the Nativity and Palestinian children sang carols as the city hosted major celebrations.
Gaza’s small Christian community marked its first Christmas in the war-torn enclave since the signing of a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Amid the rubble strewn across Gaza, Christmas trees glitter brought sections of color to the territory, The Guardian reported.
Israel continued military operations and settler attacks took place despite the holiday.
In the town of Turmus Ayya outside Ramallah, Israeli settlers uprooted olive trees belonging to Palestinians, and near Hebron soldiers stormed the homes of residents and confiscated vehicles, according to the Palestinian news agency, WAFA.
Israel is carrying out mounting attacks against Christian sites in the occupied Palestinian territories.
A report in March documented 32 attacks on church properties and 45 assaults against Christians.
Pope Leo XIV, in his first Christmas address as pontiff, drew attention to the abysmal humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians there are living in tents amid fierce cold and rain, just as Jesus had been born in a stable, with God “pitching his fragile tent” among the peoples of the world, Leo said.
He added: “How, then, can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold.”
The pope highlighted the plight of “the defenseless populations, tried by so many wars.”
