JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he would not stop the war in Gaza “now,” with renewed efforts toward a ceasefire underway.
Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem 14 months into the war against Hamas, he said “if we end the war now, Hamas will return, recover, rebuild and attack us again — and that is what we do not want to go back to.”
Netanyahu reiterated that he had set the goal of “the annihilation of Hamas, the elimination of its military and administrative capabilities” to prevent future attacks but said that the objective was not yet complete.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on October 23 that Israel had “managed to dismantle Hamas’s military capacity” and eliminated its senior leadership. With those successes, he said, it was time to “get the hostages home and bring the war to an end with an understanding of what will follow.”
In recent days, there had been signs that months of failed ceasefire and hostage release negotiations might be revived and achieve a breakthrough.
Qatar, a main mediator, said on Saturday there was new “momentum” for negotiations created by the election of Donald Trump in the United States.
A source close to the Hamas delegation said at the same time that Turkiye as well as Egypt and Qatar had been “making commendable efforts to stop the war,” and a new round of talks could begin soon.
On Sunday, the prime minister met with the families of hostages held in Gaza and said that Israel’s wars on Hezbollah and Hamas would facilitate negotiations for their release.
Protesters, including relatives of the hostages, have repeatedly called for a deal to free the captives and accused him of prolonging the war.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.
During the attack, militants also kidnapped 251 hostages, 96 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 44,758 people, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry that is considered reliable by the UN.
Israeli PM says won’t stop Gaza war ‘now’
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Israeli PM says won’t stop Gaza war ‘now’
- Netanyahu reiterated that he had set the goal of “the annihilation of Hamas, the elimination of its military and administrative capabilities” to prevent future attacks
Tunisia’s famed blue-and-white village threatened after record rains
- The one-time home of French philosopher Michel Foucault and writer Andre Gide, the village is protected under Tunisian preservation law, pending a UNESCO decision on its bid for World Heritage status
SIDI BOU SAID, Tunisia: Perched on a hill overlooking Carthage, Tunisia’s famed blue-and-white village of Sidi Bou Said now faces the threat of landslides, after record rainfall tore through parts of its slopes.
Last week, Tunisia saw its heaviest downpour in more than 70 years. The storm killed at least five people, with others still missing.
Narrow streets of this village north of Tunis — famed for its pink bougainvillea and studded wooden doors — were cut off by fallen trees, rocks and thick clay. Even more worryingly for residents, parts of the hillside have broken loose.
“The situation is delicate” and “requires urgent intervention,” Mounir Riabi, the regional director of civil defense in Tunis, recently told AFP.
“Some homes are threatened by imminent danger,” he said.
Authorities have banned heavy vehicles from driving into the village and ordered some businesses and institutions to close, such as the Ennejma Ezzahra museum.
- Scared -
Fifty-year-old Maya, who did not give her full name, said she was forced to leave her century-old family villa after the storm.
“Everything happened very fast,” she recalled. “I was with my mother and, suddenly, extremely violent torrents poured down.”
“I saw a mass of mud rushing toward the house, then the electricity cut off. I was really scared.”
Her Moorish-style villa sustained significant damage.
One worker on site, Said Ben Farhat, said waterlogged earth sliding from the hillside destroyed part of a kitchen wall.
“Another rainstorm and it will be a catastrophe,” he said.
Shop owners said the ban on heavy vehicles was another blow to their businesses, as they usually rely on tourist buses to bring in traffic.
When President Kais Saied visited the village on Wednesday, vendors were heard shouting: “We want to work.”
One trader, Mohamed Fedi, told AFP afterwards there were “no more customers.”
“We have closed shop,” he said, adding that the shops provide a livelihood to some 200 families.
- Highly unstable -
Beyond its famous architecture, the village also bears historical and spiritual significance.
The village was named after a 12th-century Sufi saint, Abu Said Al-Baji, who had established a religious center there. His shrine still sits atop the hill.
The one-time home of French philosopher Michel Foucault and writer Andre Gide, the village is protected under Tunisian preservation law, pending a UNESCO decision on its bid for World Heritage status.
Experts say solutions to help preserve Sidi Bou Said could include restricting new development, building more retaining walls and improving drainage to prevent runoff from accumulating.
Chokri Yaich, a geologist speaking to Tunisian radio Mosaique FM, said climate change has made protecting the hill increasingly urgent, warning of more storms like last week’s.
The hill’s clay-rich soil loses up to two thirds of its cohesion when saturated with water, making it highly unstable, Yaich explained.
He also pointed to marine erosion and the growing weight of urbanization, saying that construction had increased by about 40 percent over the past three decades.
For now, authorities have yet to announce a protection plan, leaving home and shop owners anxious, as the weather remains unpredictable.
