Edited by Deepali Verma
Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu has come up with a proposal to go on a two month hiatus to the attack on Gaza, killing Palestinians, reports Axios. The proposal was conveyed to Hamas fighters via the Qatari and Egyptian mediators. The proposal comes after 24 hours of Netanyahu’s rejection of a deal by Hamas fighters to end the war on Gaza, which has reportedly killed over 25,000 Palestinians as of now.
Israel’s multi-phase deal has provisions to release all remaining hostages held in Gaza, as per the Axios’ report that cited two Israeli officials.
Netanyahu, facing growing domestic pressure to get the captives home, said that the acceptance of Hamas’s conditions translates to leaving the armed group “intact” and that Israel’s soldiers had “fallen in vain”.
“I reject outrightly the terms of surrender of the monsters of Hamas,” said Netanyahu.
Previously, Netanyahu has repeated his opposition of an independent Palestinian state saying that he will not be compromising on “full Israeli security control over the entire area in the west of Jordan”.
Hamas has freed close to 100 captives in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners as a result of the brief truce that was brokered in late November by Egypt, Qatar and the US.
Presently, Hamas holds 136 people in captivity, as per the Israeli officials.
More than 25,105 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel has publicly declared its intention to eliminate Hamas in response to the group’s October 7 attacks.
US, Britain launch new joint strikes on Houthis
The United States and Britain have launched fresh strikes on Yemen’s Houthis stating that their second round of joint military action against the Iran-backed rebels came as a response to the lasting attacks on Red Sea shipping.
Latest US-UK strikes were against “eight Houthi targets in Yemen that were in response to the Houthis’ continued attacks against the international and commercial shipping as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea,” as per the joint statement from Washington and London with other countries that supported the military action.
Their specific target was “a Houthi underground storage site and locations coupled with the Houthis’ missile and air surveillance capabilities,” said the statement.
“These precision strikes were aimed at disrupting and degrading the capabilities that the Houthis employed to threaten global trade and the lives of innocent mariners,” it said. Furthermore, the rebel group also engaged in “a series of illegal, dangerous, and destabilising” actions since the previous joint US-UK air raids.
