TEL AVIV\/ QATAR
\nIsrael appeared to confirm that new negotiations were under way to recover hostages held by Hamas, after a source said Israel\u2019s intelligence chief met the prime minister of Qatar, a country mediating in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a press conference on Saturday the war in Gaza was existential and must be fought until victory. He said Gaza would be demilitarised and under Israeli security control.
\nIsrael\u2019s offensive in Gaza helped clinch a partial hostage-release deal in November, Netanyahu claimed, vowing to maintain intense military pressure on Hamas. He has vowed to destroy the resistance Palestinian group, which runs the densely populated strip.
\n\u201cThe instruction I am giving the negotiating team is predicated on this pressure, without which we have nothing,\u201d he said.
\nIsrael\u2019s horrifying assault has killed close to 19,000 Palestinians, and left thousands buried in the rubble. The brutal counter-offensive comes in the wake of a cross-border raid into Israel by Hamas that Israel\u2019s revised estimates claim took 1,200 peoples\u2019 lives and captured 240 hostages.
\nAid organisations say the destruction of Gaza and the displacement of most of its 2.3 million people – many living in tents and makeshift shelters without food or clean water – is a humanitarian crisis.
\nThe head of Israel\u2019s Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, met Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani late on Friday, according to a source with knowledge of the matter, as attention turned to a possible Gaza truce and a prisoner and hostage deal.
\nThe meeting in Europe was apparently the first between senior officials from Israel and Qatar, which has been acting as a mediator, since the collapse of a seven-day ceasefire in late November.
\n\u2018Get them out of hell\u2019
\nNetanyahu sidestepped a question about the meeting but confirmed he had given instructions to the negotiating team.
\n\u201cWe have serious criticisms of Qatar,\u201d he said, alluding to the gas-rich Gulf state\u2019s ties to Hamas and Israel\u2019s arch-foe Iran. \u201cBut right now we are trying to complete the recovery of our hostages.\u201d
\nHamas said in a statement it \u201caffirms its position not to open any negotiations to exchange prisoners unless the aggression against our people stops once and for all,\u201d adding: \u201cThe movement communicated this position to all mediators.\u201d
\nThe accidental killing of three hostages by Israeli forces has put increased pressure on Netanyahu to find a way to secure the release of those held.
\nAs Netanyahu spoke, several hundred people staged a protest in Tel Aviv, with some holding placards, including one saying \u201cget them out of hell.\u201d A speaker shouted: \u201cBring them home now!\u201d
\nAt nightfall on Saturday, residents reported intensified fighting in the centre of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, with Israeli planes and tanks bombing and shelling and the sound of rocket grenades, apparently fired by Hamas fighters.
\n\u201cEvery day the situation gets worse. Food gets less, water gets worse. Only death, fear and destruction get greater,\u201d said Samira, 40, a mother of four, who is displaced in Rafah, near the southern border with Egypt.
\nIn signs of the wider ramifications of the conflict, Yemen\u2019s Iranian-backed Houthis said they had attacked the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat with a swarm of drones, one of several drone incidents reported in the region on Saturday.
\nTwo major freight firms said they would avoid the Suez Canal as the Houthis stepped up attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
\nThe US Central Command said the destroyer Carney had shot down 14 Houthi drones in the Red Sea. Britain said one of its warships had shot down a suspected attack drone targeting merchant shipping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TEL AVIV\/ QATAR Israel appeared to confirm that new negotiations were under way to recover hostages held by Hamas, after a source said Israel\u2019s intelligence chief met the prime minister of Qatar, a country mediating in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a press conference on Saturday the war in Gaza was existential […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-375131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n