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Israel offers Hamas leaders safe exit if group disarms

Netanyahu insists military pressure on the militant group proving effective

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This screen grab taken from AFPTV shows one of the Israeli hostages exiting a vehicle surrounded by Hamas militants to be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) during the hostage-prisoner exchange operation in Saraya Square in western Gaza City on January 19, 2025.

AFP

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday offered to let the leaders of Hamas leave the Gaza Strip but demanded the group abandoned its arms, as his country kept up its bombardment of the Palestinian territory.

On Sunday morning, an Israeli air strike that hit a house and a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians killed at least eight people, including five children, the Gaza civil defence agency said.

Also Read: Hamas says spokesman killed in Israeli strike on Gaza

The strike in Khan Yunis came on the first day of Eid Al Fitr, the festival marking the end of Ramadan.

Israel resumed large-scale bombing in the Palestinian territory on March 18 and then launched a new ground offensive, ending a nearly two-month ceasefire in the war with Hamas.

Netanyahu rejected claims Israel was not engaging in negotiations aimed at releasing hostages held in Gaza and insisted military pressure on Hamas was proving effective.

“We are negotiating under fire... We can see cracks beginning to appear”, he said at the beginning of a cabinet meeting.

“Hamas must lay down its arms. Its leaders will be allowed to leave,” said Netanyahu.

“The military pressure is working,” he said, arguing Israel’s strategy was weakening Hamas and increasing pressure for hostage releases.

Hamas has expressed a willingness to hand over Gaza’s administration, but has warned its weapons are a “red line”.

Egypt, Qatar and the United States are attempting to again broker a ceasefire and secure the release of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.

A senior Hamas official stated on Saturday that the group had approved a new ceasefire proposal put forward by mediators and urged Israel to support it.

Netanyahu’s office confirmed receipt of the proposal and stated that Israel had submitted a counterproposal in response.

However, the details of the latest mediation efforts remain undisclosed.

Yemen missile

Gaza medics and witnesses reported that Israeli air strikes continued in Khan Yunis and some other parts of Gaza throughout the day.

An air strike in the southern city of Rafah wounded two children, according to medics.

Netanyahu said Israeli forces were working towards a plan proposed by US President Donald Trump to displace all of Gaza’s 2.4 million people to other countries.

The premier said Israel would ensure overall security in Gaza and “enable the implementation of the Trump plan - the voluntary migration plan”.

Trump proposed that Gazans be removed from the territory that would then be owned by the United States and redeveloped, with no right of return for the Palestinians.

He later said he was “not forcing” the widely condemned plan but would “sit back and recommend it”.

Hundreds have been killed since the fighting restarted, with the Hamas-run health ministry saying on Saturday that at least 921 people had been killed.

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign against has killed at least 50,277 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.

The resumption of the war in Gaza has also prompted the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen to resume launching missiles and drones at Israel.

On Sunday morning, the Israeli military said it had intercepted a missile fired from the impoverished country “prior to crossing into Israeli territory”.

The Houthis say they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinian people and have also attacked shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden on the same basis.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s office said he would visit Hungary on April 2 for a multi-day trip in defiance of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court against the Israeli premier for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban publicly extended an invitation to Netanyahu in November shortly after the ICC issued the warrant.

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