CTel Aviv [Israel] : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there will be no ceasefire without the release of hostages by Hamas.
“There will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages,” the Israeli Prime Minister wrote on ‘X’ on Thursday.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday, “We won’t let Hamas’ win, we will rebuild our communities in southern Israel and we will continue to live our lives.”
The IDF said that combat engineers have uncovered and destroyed 130 Hamas tunnels in Gaza since the beginning of the ground invasion.
The IDF said that in addition to the tunnels, other underground Hamas infrastructure such as command centres were also destroyed.
“The enemy’s preparation for a prolonged stay in the tunnels can be seen based on water and oxygen means found in the tunnels,” the IDF said.
Meanwhile, Hamas on Wednesday accused the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) of “colluding” with Israel as thousands of Palestinians streamed from northern Gaza to the southern side of the Strip. Israel has called on residents of northern Gaza to move south to get away from fighting.
Hamas has blocked roads and even fired on Palestinians trying to flee, according to the IDF.
“UNRWA and its officials bear responsibility for this humanitarian catastrophe, in particular, the residents of the Gaza [City] area and north of it” who are moving along IDF-arranged displacement routes to flee south, said Hamas spokesperson Salama Maruf.
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israel will have “security responsibility” over the Gaza Strip for an indefinite period following its war against Hamas.
Netanyahu made the remarks in an interview aired Monday night, The Times of Israel reported.
The situation in Gaza post-war remains uncertain, with concerns about how Israel plans to manage it.
“I think Israel will for an indefinite period have security responsibility,” Netanyahu told ABC News. “We’ve seen what happens when we don’t have that… security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine.”
The war with Hamas began after approximately 3,000 terrorists breached the Gaza border on October 7, resulting in the deaths of around 1,400 people, mainly civilians, and the abduction of over 240 individuals, including at least 30 children.
The interview also saw Netanyahu admitting that he bore some measure of responsibility for the defence failure that allowed Hamas to commit its atrocities on October 7. When asked, “Do you believe that you should take any responsibility?” Netanyahu replied: “Of course. It’s not a question,” adding that there would be time after the war “to allocate” that responsibility.