Jerusalem, Feb 5 (EFE). – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Monday that the war in the Gaza Strip “must not end” until the death of Hamas leaders.
“Our goal is the absolute victory over Hamas. We will kill the Hamas leadership, therefore we must continue to act in all areas of the Gaza Strip. The war must not end before that. It will take time – months, not years,” Netanyahu told his party, Likud, during a meeting.
Family of the 136 people still held hostage in Gaza after 122 days of war were not allowed to attend the meeting, despite having been present at previous ones, local media reported.
Behind closed doors, Netanyahu took credit for the release of 110 hostages in November, telling of his party that “the efforts to free the hostages are continuing at all times,” but that Hamas is trying to make demands that he will not accept.
“As I also emphasized in the Security Cabinet – we will not agree to every deal, and not at any price,” Netanyahu said.
In the November swap, 105 hostages (following five earlier ones) were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners, many of them in istrative detention without trial.
But according to leaks from the latest negotiations, although no draft agreement has been published, Palestinian factions are now reportedly demanding the release of some 100 to 150 prisoners, including heavyweights such as Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences.
On Jan. 30, while new negotiations were taking place in Paris under the mediation of Qatar and Egypt, Netanyahu announced that he would not release “thousands of terrorists” or withdraw his troops from the Strip, another of Hamas’s demands until he had achieved “absolute victory.”
In Gaza, the death toll rose to 27,478 on Monday, with at least 66,835 wounded, after 113 new fatalities were reported in the past 24 hours, according to the latest data from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.
The Israeli army confirmed that fighting has intensified in northern and central Gaza after Israel focused its offensive on Khan Yunis (south) to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its capabilities in those areas, according to a military statement released Monday.
The army claimed Monday to have killed “hundreds of terrorists and arrested dozens,” in a raid conducted last week in the north of the enclave in Gaza City, now reduced to rubble after months of bombardment, and in the Al Shati refugee camp.
The presence of troops in these areas has also been felt by the medical teams, who work in extreme danger when they are not directly attacked by soldiers, as in Al Amal Hospital (south), every time they try to move to help the wounded.
In the center of the enclave, at least four civilians were killed and dozens wounded in a combined aircraft and artillery attack on a house in the Al Hakar neighborhood, the official Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
In another attack on a house in the Al Zawaida area, north of Deir Al Balah, an Israeli airstrike also killed eight Palestinians, most of them children, according to local medical sources. EFE
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