Tel Aviv
\nIsrael is ready to negotiate a lasting deal with Hamas to end the Gaza war when a temporary halt to hostilities begins, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.
\nBut Netanyahu said the militants must first give up their weapons and their hold on the Palestinian territory, warning that failure to reach a deal on Israel\u2019s terms would lead to further conflict.
\nHis comments came as Gaza\u2019s civil defence agency said eight children \u2013 killed as they queued for nutritional supplements outside a health clinic \u2013 were among 66 people who died in Israeli strikes across the territory Thursday.
\nThe UN children\u2019s agency said one victim was a one-year-old boy who according to his mother had uttered his first words only hours earlier.
\nEfforts to secure a 60-day halt in the 21-month war have dominated Netanyahu\u2019s talks with US President Donald Trump in Washington.
\nIndirect negotiations have been taking place between the two sides in Qatar, and the militants have agreed to free 10 of the 20 hostages still alive in captivity since the October 7, 2023 attack which sparked the war.
\nSticking points include Hamas\u2019s demand for the free flow of aid into Gaza and Israel\u2019s military withdrawal from the territory. It also wants \u201creal guarantees\u201d on a lasting peace, the group said.
\nIsraeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said \u201cprogress has been made\u201d but admitted in an interview with Austrian newspaper Die Presse that ironing out \u201call complex issues\u201d would likely take \u201ca few more days\u201d.
\nThere was no agreement on the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for hostages, he told the newspaper.
\nHe said that \u201cinitially, eight hostages are to be released, followed by two more on the 50th day\u201d of the 60-day ceasefire.
\n\u201cAdditionally, 18 bodies of hostages are to be handed over,\u201d he was quoted as saying.
\nSaar said a lasting ceasefire would be discussed but added: \u201cThere are still major differences, especially regarding the question of how Hamas will be prevented from controlling Gaza after the war.\u201d
\nHe said Israel was ready to grant Hamas leaders safe passage into exile.
\nNetanyahu, who is under domestic pressure to end the war as military casualties mount, said disarming and neutralising Hamas were \u201cfundamental conditions\u201d for Israel.
\n\u201cIf this can be achieved through negotiations, great,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it cannot be achieved through negotiations within 60 days, we will have to achieve it through other means, by using… the force of our heroic army.\u201d
\nSenior Hamas official Bassem Naim told AFP that it would not accept \u201cthe perpetuation of the occupation of our land\u201d or Palestinians being herded into \u201cisolated enclaves\u201d in the densely populated territory.
\nThe group was particularly opposed to Israeli control over Rafah, on the border with Egypt, and the so-called Morag Corridor between the southern city and Khan Yunis, he added.
\nIsrael announced this year that the army was seizing large areas of Gaza to be incorporated into buffer zones cleared of their inhabitants.
\nNaim said the group also wanted to end the delivery of aid by a US and Israel-backed group, a system which has seen scores of people killed while seeking food rations.
\nThe Palestinian territory\u2019s civil defence agency said eight children were among 17 people killed in an Israeli strike outside a medical clinic in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
\n\u201cThe ground shook beneath our feet and everything around us turned into blood and deafening screams,\u201d said Yousef Al-Aydi, who was in the queue for nutritional supplements when he heard a drone approaching then a blast.
\nRabih Torbay, the head of US medical charity Project Hope which runs the facility, called it \u201ca blatant violation of humanitarian law\u201d.
\nIsrael\u2019s military said it had struck a Hamas militant in the city who had infiltrated Israel during the 2023 attack and that it \u201cregrets any harm to uninvolved individuals\u201d.
\nOverall, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 57,762 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the start of the conflict.
\nHamas\u2019s October 2023 attack led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
\nA total of 251 hostages were seized in the attack. Forty-nine are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tel Aviv Israel is ready to negotiate a lasting deal with Hamas to end the Gaza war when a temporary halt to hostilities begins, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday. But Netanyahu said the militants must first give up their weapons and their hold on the Palestinian territory, warning that failure to reach a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365154,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-489728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n