Netanyahu Refuses Post-War Talks As Israel Widens Offensive In Gaza With Death Toll Over 21,000 — Top Points

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has been reported to refuse post-war talks while expanding offensive in Gaza, where over 21,000 Palestinians have been killed so far since October 7.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused requests from security officials to make plans for Gaza after the end of war with Hamas while the Israeli forces expanded its ground offensive in the coastal strip, reported Guardian.

Meanwhile the death toll in Gaza since the start of war on October 7 has reached 21,000, as per the local health ministry with thousands more trapped under rubble, and 55,000 others injured. About 85 per cent of Gaza’s  2.3 million people have been displaced while a latest food security assessment by the UN said that 90 per cent of Gaza is starving.  

• According to Israel’s Channel 12, three requests were conveyed to the prime minister’s office on behalf of the directors of the Mossad, the Shin Bet, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff and the defence ministry for a meeting to discuss “the day after” Israel declares it has achieved its goals against the Palestinian militant group in control of the Gaza Strip. 


• All the requests have been refused, the network reported. “Time is running out and decisions need to be made already about how to act with regard to all the relevant actors inside and outside the Gaza Strip. The Americans want explanations,” an unnamed security official was quoted as saying. 


• There are allegations against Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, that they have also turned down the requests to discuss the long-expected transition from the current “high intensity” stage of fighting to a new phrase focused on the more precise targeting of Hamas’s leaders. 


• The Israeli PM has also not allowed Gallant to hold detailed discussions with the Mossad about a possible hostage release deal, according to the Guardian report. 


• As per the report, Netanyahu is stalling any such discussion because any solution for Gaza that involves Palestinian actors, such as the return of the West Bank’s Palestinian Authority, threatens the stability of his far-right coalition government.


•  Meanwhile life for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is “ miserable in every sense of the word." Since the start of the fighting, Palestinians are ferrying across the besieged terriroty in search of ever-elusive safety.


• Emad Jameel, a resident of Sheikh Radwan in north of Gaza, for whom his entire life has been defined by fighting said: “All I want is to return to my home, even if it is in ruins. I want to live in a tent there and not in unfamiliar places with strangers.”


• “Life is miserable in every sense of the word. We are unsure what to do or where to go. Our existence is marked by humiliation, standing in queues, and asking people for food and drink,” reported Guardian quoting Jameel as saying. 
  


• The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, in his first interview since the break out of hostiliites said that the war was “beyond a catastrophe”, accusing Netanyahu of planning “to get rid of the Palestinians”.