TEL AVIV: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant offered his support for a hostage release agreement in the first phase of a Gaza truce deal, saying it would give Israel a “strategic opportunity” to address other security challenges.
Bringing the hostages home is “the right thing to do,” Gallant told foreign journalists.
“Achieving an agreement is also a strategic opportunity that gives us a high chance to change the security situation on all fronts,” he said.
Israel, which has been at war with Palestinian militants in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 attack, is also engaged in near-daily clashes with Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement on its northern border with Lebanon.
Urging the international community to keep up the pressure on Hamas to reach an agreement, Gallant said he firmly supported the first stage of a three-phase ceasefire deal announced by US President Joe Biden on May 31, hoping to build on it for an eventual end to the war.
“Israel should achieve an agreement that will bring about a pause for six weeks and bring back hostages,” Gallant told journalists at a sit-down on Monday at his office. His remarks were released for publication on Tuesday.
Gallant also said Hamas’s military capabilities had been severely damaged after more than 11 months of war and that it no longer existed as a military formation in Gaza.
“Hamas as a military formation no longer exists. Hamas is engaged in guerrilla warfare and we are still fighting Hamas terrorists and pursuing Hamas leadership,” he said.
His comments came as mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt struggle to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza, which has killed nearly 41,000 people.
The widespread destruction has produced a dire humanitarian situation in the besieged territory, underscored by the recent confirmation of its first polio case in 25 years.
Israel defense minister says Gaza truce deal a ‘strategic opportunity’
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Israel defense minister says Gaza truce deal a ‘strategic opportunity’
- Yoav Gallant firmly supports the first stage of a three-phase ceasefire deal announced by US President Joe Biden
- He also says Hamas’s military capabilities had been severely damaged after more than 11 months of war
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
