As the ongoing Israel-Hamas war leads to fears of an escalation into a full-fledged war, Hamas’ al-Qassam brigade, the Palestinian Resistance fighters again brutally targeted Israeli soldiers in Khan Younis and Gaza, ambushing a large force of 30 Israeli infantry troops. Another group of fighters confirmed that they targeted Israeli soldiers with thermobaric shells, resulting in the loss of lives of five members of the Israeli forces. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had his first conversation in 27 days with US President Joe Biden and discussed efforts to secure the release of all the remaining hostages from Gaza.
Drawing everyone’s attention to the ongoing violence, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar gave a “sustainable solution” to the violence in Gaza during the NAM Summit in Uganda, where many leaders have been condemning Israel for their actions in Gaza. EAM Jaishankar urged the leaders to prevent the spread of violence to other parts of West Asia. He added that understandably the Gaza conflict is uppermost in everyone’s mind, hence, the humanitarian crisis requires a sustainable solution to provide immediate relief to the ones affected. Jaishankar made it clear that terrorism and hostage-taking must be considered “unacceptable”.
The US President has also stressed that although the Israeli military has been continuously putting pressure on Hamas, it is their responsibility to make sure that there is a reduction in civilian harm in the Gaza Strip. Briefing about the discussion between the US President and Israeli Prime Minister regarding the release of hostages, John Kirby- White House National Security Council spokesman said that the two leaders discussed the efforts being made to seal a deal on further release of the hostages.
During the conversation, Biden brought up the matter of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues that Israel has been withholding from the Palestinian Authority. This issue for long infuriated the US as the money that has been withheld by Israel goes towards funding the salaries of security forces with whom Israel cooperates to combat terror in the West Bank.
Russia initiated talks with a delegation of members of the Hamas terror group in Moscow in a bid to calm the situation in the Middle East. The Hamas delegation was led by senior official Moussa Abu Marzouk and the Russian team was led by deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov. Ministry stated that it stressed the need for an immediate release of civilians, including three Russian nationals, who were held captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7, when they launched a brutal attack on Israel.
A senior minister in the Israeli war cabinet Gadi Eisenkot, who is also a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, said that only a ceasefire deal could help in releasing hostages held captive by Hamas. He underlined that Israel would unlikely be able to achieve the aim of “total victory” over the Hamas terrorists.
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