Israel’s war on Gaza : War cabinet mulls truce proposed in Paris talks
- Israeli war cabinet considering proposal for truce in Gaza and Israeli captive release after Paris talks appear to have yielded “something tangible”, reports our correspondent in Tel Aviv.
- A number of casualties reported after Israeli jets target area in Rafah, southern Gaza, and two have been killed after attack on refugee camp in Gaza City.
Arrests made at Tel Aviv protests
We’ve been reporting on ass demonstrations on Israeli streets against Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government and its failure to bring Israeli captives held in Gaza home.
Israel police say they have arrested at five people during protests in Tel Aviv.
“Five rioters were arrested near the Kariya compound in Tel Aviv … a number of protesters, who are not among the families of the abducted, blocked traffic and sat down on the road when they did not obey the police’s instructions,” the police said in a post on X.
Video verified by Al Jazeera, posted on X by an Israeli journalist, shows police in Tel Aviv arresting one of the protest leaders:
Hezbollah attacks Israeli army position, fires rockets into northern Israel
The Lebanese group says that it targeted the Israeli army’s “headquarters of the Beit Hillal Battalion of the 769th Eastern Regional Brigade” with Katyusha rockets.
In a break from the regular statements published by Hezbollah, the group says that this attack was carried out “in response to the enemy’s attacks on villages and civilian homes, especially in the town of Baraachit”.
Meanwhile, our correspondent, along with Israeli media, reports that more than 20 rockets were fired from southern Lebanon towards the Kiryat Shmona settlement in northern Israel.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent also reported that sirens sounded in several areas in the Upper Galilee on the border with Lebanon.
Netanyahu to convene cabinet next week to approve Rafah operation
“Only a combination of military pressure and firm negotiations will lead to the release of our hostages, the elimination of Hamas and the achievement of all the war’s objectives,” the Israeli prime minister says on X.
On the negotiations, under way in Paris between the US, Qatar, Egypt, Hamas and Israel, he said, “We are working to obtain another outline for the release of our hostages, as well as the completion of the elimination of the Hamas battalions in Rafah. That is why I sent a delegation to Paris and tonight we will discuss the next steps in the negotiations.”
Meanwhile, demonstrators have flooded the streets of Tel Avi protesting against his government and demanding the return of the Israeli captives still held in Gaza by Hamas and other Palestinian factions.
‘We must admit that this is Jewish terrorism’: Israeli group on settler violence
Mistaclim, a group of Israeli anti-occupation activists, has listed several incidents wherein settlers attacked Palestinians or their property in the occupied West Bank.
In the last few days, the group said, in Shaeb al-Botum, settlers hurled stones, tried to run over a flock of sheep, and took the father of the family and his son to the settlement. Other attacks, according to Mistaclim, include:
- In Burqah, they set fire to a house and injured two
- In Kafr Kadum, they defaced houses and shops by spraypainting the Star of David
- In Burin, they set fire to a car
- In Sinjil, they burned down a house
- In Asira al-Qibliya, they invaded the village
US military shoots down missile launched into Gulf of Aden: CENTCOM
The US army’s Central Command says its ship the USS Mason has shot down one anti-ship ballistic missile launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen that was likely targeting a fuel tanker.
“Neither the USS Mason nor the US-flagged, owned, and operated tanker MV Torm Thor were damaged and there were no injuries,” it added in a statement posted on X.
Israeli war cabinet to convene on potential captive deal
We do know that negotiators had come back from Paris with what they’re calling an outline and a framework to proceed with a deal to bring back the captives.
The fact that negotiators wanted the war cabinet to convene to vote on the outline that they have received from mediators means there is something tangible here, and the negotiators came back from this meeting with something to offer now.
Israel’s war cabinet will convene, discuss, and then vote on this framework. After that, the wider cabinet will meet to discuss the deal in its entirety.
According to media reports in Israel, we’re talking about a deal that would see a six-week pause in the fighting in exchange for around 40 Israeli captives, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails.
All of this comes following immense US pressure on the Israelis to send their negotiators back to the table to meet with mediators in order to secure some sort of deal to recover the captives.
Israeli army chief of staff on why fighting continues in already cleared areas of Gaza
Herzi Halevi has addressed Israel’s army, again saying that the goal of the war is the return of Israeli captives held in Gaza.
He also spoke in vague terms about why intense clashes continue in northern and central Gaza, areas that Israel’s military swept through in earlier days of the war during ground operations.
“There are areas we have already been to, and we are returning with better intelligence and making an achievement that is much higher and much deeper, literally, even into the ground, as well in hitting the enemy,” he said in a video address.
“There are places we passed through at a very high rate of combat, and we are returning to places to purify space at a very, very high level. These things bring another level of operatives, another level of commanders, more destruction of infrastructure.”
Gaza City in the north Strip, particularly its Zeitoun neighbourhood, has seen intense fighting this week.
Protests against Netanyahu across Israel
Israeli police officers are cracking down on demonstrators during a protest in Tel Aviv against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Some protesters are calling for a deal to return the captives in held Gaza, while others are chanting against the government across Israel, including in Caesarea, where protesters are gathered outside Netanyahu’s private home.
Israeli attacks hit eastern Rafah
Our colleagues at Al Jazeera are also reporting Israeli artillery shelling in the areas of Qaizan al-Najjar and Batn al-Sameen, in the southern city of Khan Younis.
International concern has in recent weeks centred on Rafah, amid fears that an Israeli army ground invasion could displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians across the frontier with Egypt.
Israel has said it has no intention of displacing residents of Gaza across the border, but the majority of Gaza’s population is currently sheltered in Rafah, after being pushed there by Israel’s complete devastation of all other cities in the Strip.
Qassam Brigades hit Israeli tank
Hamas’s armed wing says in a statement that it targeted the Merkava tank with a mortar shell in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Fighting in the area has been raging over the past 48 hours, with the Qassam Brigades announcing several attacks against Israeli soldiers and Israel responding with air raids.
