Netanyahu again rules out ceasefire until Hamas returns hostages from Gaza
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday again rejected calls for a ceasefire in Gaza until all of the more than 240 hostages captured by Hamas during its 7 October attack were returned.
“There will be no ceasefire without the return of our hostages, we say this to both our enemies and our friends. We will continue until we beat them,” Reuters Netanyahu told air and ground crews at the Ramon air force base in southern Israel, reiterating the government’s position.
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Helena Smith has more details on the Cyprus plan for delivering aid to Gaza:
Authorities said once the situation on the ground permitted it and, if agreed, the sea corridor proposal would allow vital humanitarian aid to be transferred from the island’s main port of Limassol to the Gaza Strip.
A humanitarian pause in the fighting could offer the “window of opportunity” needed to deliver the assistance, officials in Nicosia say. The idea is believed to be backed by Cyprus’s fellow EU member states as well as Egypt, Jordan and other Arab nations.
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was described as being onboard after speaking by phone with the Cyprus president, Nikos Christodoulides.
As the nearest EU member state to the conflict zone, Cyprus has sought to play a diplomatic balancing act, rushing to support Israel and expressing outrage over the 7 October Hamas assault, while also showing solidarity with Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza strip.
The US state department said Antony Blinken had also wanted to thank Christodoulides during his brief visit for the island’s role in temporarily housing US citizens who fled Israel in the first weeks of the Gaza war.
Cyprus, which is bracing for as many as 100,000 refugees if the conflagration spreads, has prepared a massive evacuation plan in the event of western civilians fleeing Israel and Lebanon.
Commando units and special forces from several Nato member states have already set up base on the island’s two sovereign British base areas in anticipation of the operation being enacted.
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