Jerusalem, Dec 14: Israel will keep fighting Hamas despite international calls for a cease-fire, its prime minister said, after at least nine Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush in one of the deadliest single attacks that Palestinian militants have carried out since the ground invasion of Gaza began.
“We are continuing until the end, there is no question,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Wednesday. “I say this even given the great pain and the international pressure. Nothing will stop us.” Heavy fighting has raged for days in Shijaiyah and other areas in and around eastern Gaza City that were encircled earlier in the war. Tens of thousands of people remain in the north despite repeated evacuation orders, saying they don’t feel that anywhere in Gaza is safe or fear they may never return to their homes.
Israel has drawn international outrage and rare criticism from the United States over the killing of civilians. More than 18,400 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory, which does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Israel says 113 of its soldiers have died in its ground offensive after Hamas raided southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and taking about 240 hostages.
Mossad chief’s Qatar trip to resume hostage talks cancelled
The Israeli government has cancelled Mossad chief David Barnea’s planned trip to Qatar for the resumption of talks on a possible second hostage release deal, an informed source said on Thursday.
The 58-year-old, who became the Director of Israel’s foreign intelligence service on June 2021, will not travel to Doha, where talks on the release of hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza had taken place earlier, the source told CNN.
Israel’s Channel 13 first reported on Wednesday that the country’s war cabinet, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had called off the trip. It added that senior Israeli officials will not go to Qatar to restart negotiations.
The Mossad answers directly to the Prime Minister. (Agencies)
