Netanyahu says Gaza war will continue until Hamas fully disarms
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Saturday night interview on a right-wing Israeli TV channel that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza will continue until Hamas is completely disarmed.
His remarks came as the U.S. State Department announced it had received “credible reports” suggesting Hamas was planning an attack on Gaza civilians, warning such an act would constitute a violation of the current ceasefire. The U.S. provided no further details about the alleged threat.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Saturday that the Gaza war would not end until Hamas was fully disarmed and the Palestinian territory completely demilitarized, News.Az reports citing the France 24.
On Sunday, Israel announced the identity of one of two dead hostages returned by Hamas the previous day as 54-year-old Ronen Engel.
The military "informed the family of hostage Ronen Engel... that their loved one has been returned to Israel and his identification has been completed", Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
Israel would spare no effort "until all the fallen hostages are repatriated", it added.
Netanyahu cautioned that completing the ceasefire's second phase was essential to ending the war and involved the disarming of Hamas and the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip.
"When that is successfully completed -- hopefully in an easy way, but if not, in a hard way -- then the war will end," he added in an appearance on right-wing Israeli Channel 14.
Hamas has so far resisted the idea and since the pause in fighting has moved to reassert its control over Gaza.
The US State Department on Saturday said it had "credible reports" that Hamas was planning an imminent attack against civilians in Gaza, warning that would be a "ceasefire violation".
"Should Hamas proceed with this attack, measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire," it said in a statement, without elaborating on the nature or target of such an attack.
Rafah crossing closed
Under the ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, Hamas has so far released all 20 living hostages, along with the remains of nine Israelis and one Nepalese.
In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and 135 other bodies of Palestinians since the truce came into effect on October 10.
Hamas has said it needs time and technical assistance to recover the remaining bodies, which it says are buried under Gaza's rubble.
Netanyahu's office said he had "directed that the Rafah crossing remain closed until further notice".
"Its reopening will be considered based on how Hamas fulfils its part in returning the hostages and the bodies of the deceased, and in implementing the agreed-upon framework," it said, referring to the week-old ceasefire deal.
Hamas warned late Saturday that the closure of the Rafah crossing would cause "significant delays in the retrieval and transfer of remains".
Digging latrines
Further delays to the reopening could also complicate the task facing Tom Fletcher, the UN head of humanitarian relief, who was in northern Gaza on Saturday.
"To see the devastation -- this is a vast part of the city, just a wasteland -- and it's absolutely devastating to see," he told AFP.
Fletcher said the task ahead for the UN and aid agencies was a "massive, massive job".
He said he had met residents returning to destroyed homes who were trying to dig latrines in the ruins.
"We have a massive 60-day plan now to surge in food, get a million meals out there a day, start to rebuild the health sector, bring in tents for the winter, get hundreds of thousands of kids back into school."
Gaza killings continue
Some violence has persisted despite the ceasefire.
Gaza's civil defence agency, which operates under Hamas authority, said on Saturday that it had recovered the bodies of nine Palestinians -- two men, three women and four children -- from the Shaaban family after Israeli troops fired two tank shells at a bus.
Two more victims were blown apart in the blast and their remains have yet to be recovered, it said.
At Gaza City's Al-Ahli Hospital, the victims were laid out in white shrouds as their relatives mourned.
"My daughter, her children and her husband; my son, his children and his wife were killed. What did they do wrong?" demanded grandmother Umm Mohammed Shaaban.
The Israeli military said it had fired on a vehicle that approached the so-called "yellow line", to which its forces withdrew under the terms of the ceasefire, and gave no estimate of casualties.
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