JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel’s overseas minister stated on Saturday {that a} deliberate incursion into the southern Gaza metropolis of Rafah might be suspended ought to a deal emerge to safe the discharge of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
The feedback got here as worldwide mediators push for a deal to attain a ceasefire within the six months of devastating preventing in Gaza and the discharge of Israeli hostages taken throughout Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault that sparked the struggle.
“The discharge of the hostages is the highest precedence for us,” Overseas Minister Israel Katz stated throughout an interview with native Channel 12 tv.
Requested if that included laying aside a deliberate operation to get rid of Hamas battalions within the metropolis of Rafah, Katz answered, “Sure.”
He went on to say: “If there can be a deal, we are going to droop the operation.”
Although Katz is a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s safety cupboard, he isn’t a member of the narrow-forum struggle cupboard overseeing the Gaza offensive.
Israel, which launched its struggle to annihilate Hamas after the Islamist group’s Oct. 7 assaults on Israeli cities, says Rafah is house to 4 Hamas fight battalions bolstered by hundreds of retreating fighters, and it should defeat them to attain victory.
However Rafah, which abuts the Egyptian border, is sheltering greater than 1,000,000 Palestinians who fled the Israeli offensive by means of the remainder of Gaza and say the prospect of fleeing but once more is terrifying.
Earlier on Saturday, Hamas stated it had obtained Israel’s official response to its newest ceasefire proposal in Egyptian- and Qatari-mediated negotiations and can research it earlier than submitting its reply.
take away adverts
.
On Thursday, the USA and 17 different international locations appealed to Hamas to launch all of its hostages as a pathway to finish the disaster.
Hamas desires to parlay any deal right into a everlasting finish to the preventing – in need of a proper peace, because the Islamist group is sworn to Israel’s destruction. Israel plans to pursue the struggle till Hamas’s governing and army capacities are dismantled.
Greater than 130 hostages are nonetheless being held in Gaza captivity, together with ladies and youngsters.
As Hamas issued a brand new video exhibiting two of the hostages pleading for his or her launch and sending like to their households, hundreds of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv in protest, demanding that the federal government do extra to safe their launch.
Some 1,200 individuals had been killed on Oct. 7, in response to Israeli tallies, within the deadliest single assault in Israel’s historical past. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed greater than 34,000 Palestinians, in response to well being authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
