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Agencies

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered a reward of US$5 million for each hostage that is released from Gaza.
Netanyahu also promised that anyone who helps Israel with freeing the hostages will get help leaving the besieged Palestinian territory.
“To those who want to leave this entanglement I say: whoever brings us a hostage, will find a safe way out for himself and his family. We will also give US$5 million for every hostage,” Netanyahu said in a video filmed inside Gaza, according to his office on Tuesday.
“The choice is yours but the result will be the same: we will bring them all back.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, together with IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi and ISA Director Ronen Bar visited the Netzarim Corridor in the Gaza Strip.
Further information >>https://t.co/CKrEO3PLQf pic.twitter.com/79VYaCQL6p
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) November 19, 2024

Wearing a helmet and a bulletproof jacket, Netanyahu spoke with his back to the Mediterranean in the Netzarim Corridor, Israel’s main military supply route which carves the Gaza Strip in two just south of Gaza City.
“Anyone who dares to do harm to our hostages is considered dead – we will pursue you and we will catch up with you,” he said.
It’s the latest twist in Netanyahu’s frustrated attempts to deliver on pledges to the families of hostages to bring home those seized when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Hamas, which rules Gaza, killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostage during that attack.
More than 100 hostages were released during a ceasefire a year ago, and a small number have been rescued by the military. About 100 remain in Gaza, including about 40 believed to be dead.
Talks between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas to free hostages have stalled after months of efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement. Qatar said this month that it’s stepping back from efforts to mediate that have also involved the US and Egypt.

Hamas has said the remaining hostages would only be released as part of an agreement to end the war, lift the blockade and reconstruct the strip.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll from the resulting war had reached 43,972 people, the majority civilians. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.
Families of the hostages have accused Netanyahu of not doing enough to bring their loved-ones home, and tens of thousands of Israelis regularly take to the streets calling on him to reach a deal. Netanyahu rejects the criticism and says he is doing his utmost to free them.
Netanyahu also said that under no circumstances would Hamas rule the Gaza Strip in the future.
“We are dismantling its military capabilities in a very impressive manner. We are now targeting its governing capabilities, and this is just the beginning. Hamas will not remain in Gaza,” he said.
Meanwhile, US special envoy Amos Hochstein said Tuesday in Beirut that an end to the Israel-Hezbollah war was “now within our grasp” as he met officials to discuss a truce plan largely endorsed by Lebanon.

The United States and France have spearheaded efforts for a ceasefire, which escalated in late September after nearly a year of deadly exchanges between Hezbollah and Israeli troops.
Israel expanded the focus of its operations from Gaza to Lebanon, vowing to secure its northern border to allow tens of thousands of people displaced by the cross-border fire to return home.
After meeting with Hezbollah-allied parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation on behalf of the group, Hochstein told reporters he saw “a real opportunity” to end the fighting.
“I’m here in Beirut to facilitate that decision, but it’s ultimately the decision of the parties … It is now within our grasp.”
Berri told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat after the meeting that “the situation is good, in principle”, adding his team and US representatives still had “some technical details” to settle.
Hochstein also met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and army chief Joseph Aoun.

A Lebanon-based diplomat, requesting anonymity, said “progress” had been made in the talks.
A Lebanese official said Monday that the government had “a very positive view” of the truce plan.
But Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would continue to conduct military operations against Hezbollah even if a ceasefire was reached.
“We will be forced to ensure our security in the north (of Israel) and to systematically carry out operations against Hezbollah’s attacks … even after a ceasefire”, to keep the group from rebuilding, he told parliament.
Hezbollah began its cross-border attacks in support of its ally Hamas. Since expanding its operations to Lebanon in September, Israel has conducted extensive bombing campaigns primarily targeting Hezbollah strongholds.
Israel has also sent ground troops into southern Lebanon, where it said Tuesday one soldier had been killed in combat and three wounded.
More than 3,544 people in Lebanon have been killed since the clashes began, authorities have said, most since late September. Among them were more than 200 children, according to the United Nations.
Hezbollah strikes have killed 43 civilians in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, while 73 soldiers have been killed in strikes in northern Israel and the Golan Heights and in combat in southern Lebanon, according to Israeli figures.
dpa, Bloomberg, Reuters and Agence France-Presse


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Israel-Gaza war

Israel’s Netanyahu offers US$5 million reward for each Gaza hostage freed

Israeli Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu visiting Netzarim Corridor in the Gaza Strip. Photo: Ma’ayan Toaf/GPO/dpa 

Families and supporters of hostages protest in Jerusalem, Israel. Photo: Reuters

US special envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut, Lebanon. Photo: AP

A woman stands amid the rubble of a damaged building in the aftermath of an Israeli strike, in Chiyah, Lebanon. Photo: Reuters

Nearly 100 food aid trucks violently looted in Gaza, UN agencies say

A truck carrying Gaza humanitarian aid, at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel. Photo: Reuters

People queue to receive humanitarian aid in the central Gaza Strip. Photo: AFP

Trucks carrying Gaza humanitarian aid, at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel. Photo: Reuters

Pope Francis calls for genocide investigation into Israel’s attacks in Gaza

Pope Francis leads mass for the World Day of the Poor at St Peter’s basilica in The Vatican, on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Demonstrators hold a banner reading ‘Stop Genocide’ during a protest organised by Pro-Palestinian associations and French leftist parties in solidarity with the Palestinian and Lebanese people in Paris, France, on Wednesday. Photo: EPA-EFE

A Palestinian boy sits by a UN World Food Program box of food items, in Gaza City on Thursday. Gaza has been in the grips of a dire humanitarian crisis. Photo: AFP

Israeli strikes kill 12 in Gaza overnight as Netanyahu faces his critics

Smoke and flames rise over Beirut’s southern suburbs, after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Hadath, Lebanon, on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid of the political party Yesh Atid, speaks at the opening of the 25th Parliament session in Jerusalem on October 28. Photo: AFP

A man stands amid the rubble of a building hit by an overnight Israeli strike in Beit Lahya in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday. Photo: AFP

UN special committee says Israel warfare in Gaza ‘consistent with genocide’

A fire at a school sheltering displaced people, after it was hit by an Israeli strike, in Gaza City. Photo: Reuters

Palestinians inspect the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, after it was hit by an Israeli strike, in Gaza City. Photo: Reuters

Displaced Palestinians flee the northern part of Gaza amid an Israeli military operation, in Gaza City. Photo: Reuters

Palestinians gather to receive meals cooked by a charity kitchen in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters

US hits Israeli settler group with sanctions over West Bank violence

Palestinians look through a window after an Israeli settler attack in Al-Bireh city, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on  November 4. Photo: Reuters

Jewish settlers attack the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus in the West Bank. Photo: Apaimages/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

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The prime minister also promised a ‘safe way out’ of Gaza for the family of anyone who brings an abductee back to Israel


The prime minister also promised a ‘safe way out’ of Gaza for the family of anyone who brings an abductee back to Israel.


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