Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh claimed his group was close to a “truce” agreement with Israel amid the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
The Doha-based Hamas politburo head, Haniyeh declared that Hamas had given its response to Qatar and other mediators.
The movement delivered its response to the brothers in Qatar and the mediators, and we are close to reaching a truce agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the families of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip and reaffirmed his commitment to securing their release, calling it “a sacred and supreme mission.”
“We will not let up until they are returned, and this is the responsibility of me and the war cabinet. I listened to the pain of the families. We spoke heart-to-heart. I shared with them as much as I could about the diplomatic, intelligence and operational efforts we are leading around the clock.”
He added that Israel “will not stop fighting until we bring our hostages home, destroy Hamas and ensure there will no longer be a threat from Gaza.”
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) announced the deaths of two more soldiers killed in fighting in the north of the enclave, bringing the death toll in the ground operation against Hamas to 68. The deceased soldiers were identified as Captain Arnon Moshe Avraham Benvenisti Vaspi (26) and Staff Sergeant Ilya Senkin (20).
The military stated that two reservists and three other soldiers were seriously wounded in the fighting.
Earlier on Friday, the IDF conducted a pre-emptive artillery barrage in southern Lebanon amid repeated attacks by Hezbollah. Nahal Brigade soldiers identified a group of Hamas militants heading to a building near them in the Gaza Strip. The structure was being used as a weapons depot and was destroyed in an airstrike, The Times of Israel reported.
On Sunday, 30 infants were evacuated from Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip, prompting several international agencies to rush newborns by ambulance amid intense fighting.
