Netanyahu meets Israel president on Gaza, Arab ties before US trip; Iran’s Supreme Leader makes appearance
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met the country’s president ahead of his visit to Washington, with talks focusing on the Gaza war and efforts to expand ties with Arab states.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met the country’s president ahead of his visit to Washington, with talks focusing on the Gaza war and efforts to expand ties with Arab states, the presidency said.
Netanyahu is expected at the White House on Monday for talks with US President Donald Trump, who is pushing to end the 21-month war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas.
Indirect negotiations were set to resume on Sunday in Doha, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
“In his visit to Washington, the prime minister carries with him an important mission – advancing a deal to bring all our hostages home,” President Isaac Herzog said in a statement.
“This is a supreme moral duty. I fully support these efforts, even when they involve difficult, complex and painful decisions. We must all remember that the cost is not simple.”
Two Palestinian sources close to the discussions told media the proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel.
Some in Israel have called for an agreement that would see all hostages released in a single exchange.
Netanyahu and Herzog – whose role is largely ceremonial – also discussed the prospect of expanding the US-brokered Abaraham Accords of 2020, which saw Israel normalise relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
“The two discussed opportunities to deepen ties with additional countries, in the spirit of US President Donald Trump’s Abraham Accords initiative,” said the statement from Herzog’s office.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has recently said his government was “interested” in normalising ties with neighbouring Lebanon and Syria, with Damascus saying such a move was “premature”.
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IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER MAKES FIRST APPEARANCE SINCE US BOMBING
Israel is sending a team to negotiate a ceasefire deal with Hamas in Qatar after the militant group said it was ready to start talks “immediately and seriously”.
The parties, who have been at war for 21 months, are understood to be on the same page about the basic terms of the US-backed deal, renewing hopes for a truce.
It comes as Israeli forces continue to bombard Gaza, with a barrage of strikes resulting in the deaths of dozens of at least 42 Palestinian people yesterday.
AFP reports the draft agreement includes a 60-day pause, during which Hamas will release living hostages and several bodies in exchange for prisoners held by Israel.
The militant group has also proposed conditions for Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, including guarantees against more fighting and the return of UN-led aid distribution.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has labelled the proposed amendments “unacceptable”.
However, he has agreed to send a team for “proximity talks”.
The two groups will negotiate indirectly, meaning representatives will not sit in the same room while they’re in Doha, and all messages will be passed through mediators.
When asked about Hamas’s response, Mr Trump, who is making a renewed push for peace in the region, said: “We have to get it over with. We have to do something about Gaza.”
Two previous ceasefires, negotiated by Qatar, Egypt and the US, resulted in temporary pauses in fighting as well as swaps of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
However, neither of the previous deals offered hope for a long-term solution.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas attacked in October 2023, which saw about 1200 people killed and 251 taken hostage, provoking Israel to retaliate with a military offensive.
Israel reports 49 people are still being held, including 27 who have died.
Meanwhile, at least 57,338 Palestinians have been killed and at least 135,957 wounded in the conflict, which has also caused a humanitarian crisis and a critical risk of famine.
The developments come as Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has made his first appearance since before the war with Israel, leading a religious ceremony.
Mr Khamenei was seen waving and nodding to the crowd, which rose to its feet as he entered the mosque next to his office and residence in Tehran to commemorate Ashoura.
It’s understood the country’s 86-year-old leader has been spending the war in a bunker, under heavy security since US forces dropped “bunker buster” bombs on three Iranian nuclear sites.
Mr Trump sent a warning to Mr Khamenei via social media, letting him know the US knew his whereabouts but has no plans to kill him, “at least for now”.
Mr Netanyahu is set to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, as the White House pushes to end nearly 21 months of war in Gaza.
“That’s good. They haven’t briefed me on it. We have to get it over with. We have to do something about Gaza,” Mr Trump said when asked about it onboard Air Force One.
Two previous ceasefires, negotiated by Qatar, Egypt and the US, resulted in temporary pauses in fighting as well as swaps of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
Another 78 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military operations across Gaza overnight, including three children, as well as nine people at an aid station.
DOZENS KILLED IN A STRIKE ON SCHOOL SHELTER
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 25 people on Thursday, including 12 in a strike on a school sheltering Palestinians displaced by the war.
Israel has recently expanded its military operations in the Gaza Strip, where the war since October 2023 has created dire humanitarian conditions and displaced nearly all of the territory’s population of more than two million.
Many have sought shelter in school buildings, but these have repeatedly come under Israeli attacks that the military often says target Hamas militants hiding among civilians.
In Gaza City on Thursday, civil defence official Mohammad al-Mughayyir told AFP there were “12 martyrs, the majority of them children and women, and a large number of injuries in an Israeli air strike on the Mustafa Hafez School, which shelters displaced persons, in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood”.
AFP footage showed young children wandering through the charred, bombed out building, as piles of burnt debris smouldered.
Groups of Palestinians picked through the rubble and damaged furniture that littered the floor.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was looking into the report as well as another incident, in central Gaza, where according to Mughayyir Israeli gunfire killed people seeking humanitarian aid.
The civil defence official said the gunfire killed six people and resulted in “a large number of injuries” among a group of Palestinians near an aid distribution site.
It is the latest in a string of deadly incidents that have hit people trying to receive scarce supplies.
Across Gaza on Thursday, Mughayyir said artillery shelling in the northern town of Beit Lahia killed three people. A strike on Jabalia, also in the north, killed one.
Further south, three people were killed in a strike that hit tents housing displaced people in the coastal Al-Mawasi area, Mughayyir said.
Despite being declared a safe zone by Israel in December 2023, Al-Mawasi has been hit by repeated strikes.
Crowds of mourners gathered at Al-Shifa Hospital, where men and women wept over the bodies of the dead.
“We have no life left. Let them just annihilate us so we can finally rest,” said one woman who lost relatives in the strike and did not give her name.
“There’s nothing left for us. My two daughters are gone – and now my niece, along with her six children and her husband, were burned to death,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers.
The Israeli military did not comment on the reported incidents in Bait Lahia, Jabalia and Al-Mawasi, but told AFP in response that it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities” and that it “follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to eradicate Hamas, whose 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war, even after the Palestinian militant group said it was studying new proposals for a ceasefire from mediators.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that prompted the Israeli offensive resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 57,012 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.
– with AFP
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