Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke with President Donald Trump over the weekend about his plans in Syria and efforts to secure the release of hostages amid a spate of attacks in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli Prime Minister said in a speech Sunday night: “We had very friendly, warm and important discussions. We discussed the need for a complete victory for Israel and discussed in detail the efforts we are making to free the hostages. .”
Prime Minister Netanyahu said he had discussed the issue with Trump on Saturday night, and the issue is likely to emerge as one of the major foreign policy challenges facing Trump when he takes office on January 20. . “We will continue to act decisively to bring home all hostages, living and dead,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said.
During a visit to the region last week, President Trump's special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, warned that “it will not be a good day” if hostages held in Gaza are not released before Trump's inauguration.
President Trump's press secretary on Sunday did not provide further details about the call. President Trump said earlier this month that if the hostages were not released before he took office, “hell will pay” in the Middle East.
Efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the United States to reach a ceasefire agreement that would include a hostage deal have gained momentum in recent weeks, but there has been no news of a breakthrough.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday that Israeli forces will destroy “capabilities that the Assad regime has built over decades” in Syria and attack Hezbollah's supply routes through Syria to prevent the group from rearming. He said he had taken intensive action.
In the days since Assad's ouster, Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks against Syria's strategic weapons stockpiles and moved troops into Syria's demilitarized zone.
The attacks continued over the weekend, despite Syrian opposition leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani saying his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group was not interested in a conflict with Israel. It continued.
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, a representative of Ahmed al-Shara, told Syrian state media: “Now that the Iranians have withdrawn, there is no excuse for foreign intervention in Syria. Not while I’m waking up.”
Jolani said Israel was using false pretexts to justify its attack on Syria, but that the country was focused on rebuilding after the end of Assad's regime and did not want to get drawn into a new conflict. .
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced early Sunday that he had approved plans to expand settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. He justified his announcement by citing “the wars and new fronts facing Syria” and a desire to double the Israeli population in the region.
The United Nations has called on Israel to withdraw from the buffer zone between Syria and Israeli-occupied territory. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “deeply concerned by the recent widespread violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 53 Palestinians, including journalists and rescue workers, in the Gaza Strip, medical officials said Sunday, and Israeli airstrikes have killed dozens of Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip. It announced that it had killed several militants and captured others.
An airstrike on a civilian emergency center in the Nuseirat market area in central Gaza Strip killed five people, including Al-Jazeera TV video journalist Ahmed al-Rouh, doctors and fellow journalists announced. Doctors said five people, including a child, were killed in an attack on a house in Nuseyrat camp.
The television network said Al Lowe was at work when he was killed. criticized Israeland called on the international community to address what he called the “alarming trend” of targeting journalists.
The Israeli military said the attack targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants operating from the Gaza Civil Defense Authority's Nuseirat office. Without providing evidence, he named al-Rowe as a member of the extremist group Islamic Jihad.
At least 11 people were killed in three Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) airstrikes on houses in Gaza City, while nine people were killed and two others were killed when residential complexes were bombed or set on fire in the towns of Beit Rahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia Camp. did. He died in Rafah, doctors and residents said.
The Israeli military says three homes in Gaza City belong to militants planning an imminent attack. It said steps had been taken to reduce the risk to civilians, including the use of precision weapons and aerial surveillance. The Israel Defense Forces released photos showing explosives and weapons, including dozens of grenades, seized in Beit Rahiya. The Israel Defense Forces said it attacked dozens of militants in Beit Hanoun from the air and on the ground and captured other fighters.
In Khan Yunis, south of Gaza, an airstrike on a shelter housing displaced families killed at least 20 people, including women and children, medics said.
The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately comment on Khan Younis' attack.
Reuters
