LIVE | Day 32: Netanyahu says Israel will have ''overall security responsibility'' in Gaza after war
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will have “overall security responsibility” in Gaza “for an indefinite period” after its war with Hamas and expressed openness to “little pauses” in the current fighting to facilitate the release of hostages.
His comments, in an interview that aired late Monday (November 6) on ABC News, offered the clearest indication yet that Israel plans to maintain control over the territory that is home to some 2.3 million Palestinians.
Netanyahu ruled out any general ceasefire without the release of the more than 240 captives seized by Hamas in its October 7 raid into Israel, but he said he was open to “tactical little pauses.”
US President Joe Biden had raised the need for humanitarian pauses directly with Netanyahu on a call earlier on Monday (November 6), but no agreement was reached, the White House said.
The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 10,000, including more than 4,100 children and 2,640 women, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.
In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in the violence and Israeli raids. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the October 7 Hamas attack that started the fighting, and 242 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.
Roughly 1,100 people have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing since Wednesday (November 1) under an apparent agreement among the United States, Egypt, Israel, and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas.
Follow this space for more updates.
Live Updates
- 7 Nov 2023 9:07 AM IST
Bombardment in North Gaza
Several hundred thousand people are believed to remain in the north in the path of the assault of the Israeli military. The military says a one-way corridor for residents of Gaza City and surrounding areas to flee south remains available. But many are afraid to use the route, part of which is held by Israeli troops.
In recent days, airstrikes have hit UN facilities where thousands are sheltering, as well as hospitals, which have been overwhelmed by wounded and running low on power and supplies.
A strike early on Monday hit the roof of Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, killing a number of displaced people sheltering on its top floor and destroying solar panels, said Mohamed Zaqout, general manager of all hospitals in Gaza. The panels have been helping keep power on in the facility, which has been reduced to using one generator because of lack of fuel. The strike came in what witnesses said was one of the heaviest nights of bombardment yet in northern Gaza.
Israel said it struck 450 targets overnight, killing a number of Hamas military commanders. Israel blames civilian casualties on Hamas, accusing the militants of operating in residential neighborhoods. The overnight barrages crushed homes, burying unknown numbers of people underneath, in the Shati refugee camp, a densely built-up district on the Mediterranean coast adjacent to central Gaza City, Palestinians who fled south Monday reported.
