Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu on Monday (May 26, 2025) vowed to bring again all hostages, “living and dead”, as rescuers in Gaza stated Israeli strikes killed at the least 52 individuals.
Mr Netanyahu’s remarks got here after a Palestinian supply stated that mediators proposed a 70-day ceasefire and the discharge of 10 Israeli hostages alongside some Palestinian prisoners, although U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff later stated Hamas had not agreed to a proposed deal.
“If we don’t achieve it today, we will achieve it tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow. We are not giving up,” Mr Netanyahu stated of the obligation to free the captives.
“We intend to bring them all back, the living and the dead,” he added, however made no point out of a proposed deal.
His remarks got here after a Hamas supply stated on Monday (May 26, 2025) that the group had accepted a ceasefire proposal that may see 10 captives launched.
A spokesman for Mr Witkoff nonetheless advised AFP that he disputed Hamas’s declare that the group had agreed to his proposed deal and quoted the envoy as saying “What I have seen from Hamas is disappointing and completely unacceptable.”
Fighting in the meantime raged in Gaza, the place civil defence company spokesman Mahmud Bassal stated that an early-morning Israeli strike on the Fahmi Al-Jarjawi faculty, the place displaced individuals had been sheltering, killed “at least 33, with dozens injured, mostly children”.
The Israeli army stated it had “struck key terrorists who were operating within a Hamas and Islamic Jihad command and control centre embedded” within the space, including that “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians”.
Another strike killed at the least 19 individuals in Jabalia within the northern Gaza Strip, Mr Bassal stated.
Israel has stepped up a renewed offensive to destroy Hamas, drawing worldwide condemnation as help trickles in following a blockade since early March that has sparked extreme meals and medical shortages.
‘Senseless’ battle
It has additionally triggered worldwide criticism, with European and Arab leaders assembly in Spain calling for an finish to the “inhumane” and “senseless” battle, whereas humanitarian teams stated the trickle of help was not almost sufficient.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares referred to as for an arms embargo on Israel.
He additionally referred to as for humanitarian help to enter Gaza “massively, without conditions and without limits, and not controlled by Israel”, describing the territory as humanity’s “open wound”.
In Germany, Chancellor Friedrich Merz voiced unusually sturdy criticism of Israel, saying: “I no longer understand what the Israeli army is now doing in the Gaza Strip, with what goal.”
The influence on Gazan civilians “can no longer be justified”, he added.
Nevertheless, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul stated Berlin would proceed promoting weapons to Israel.
The Israeli army stated on Monday (May 26, 2025) that over “the past 48 hours, the (air force) struck over 200 targets throughout the Gaza Strip”.
It additionally stated it had detected three projectiles launched from Gaza towards communities in Israel Monday (May 26, 2025), as the nation ready to rejoice Jerusalem Day, an annual occasion marking its seize of town’s jap sector within the 1967 Arab-Israeli battle.
“Two projectiles fell in the Gaza Strip and one additional projectile was intercepted,” it stated.
Later on Monday (May 26, 2025), it issued an evacuation order for areas of Khan Yunis, saying that they had been the positioning of rocket launches.
‘Situation is devastating’
Israel final week partially eased an help blockade on Gaza that had exacerbated widespread shortages of meals and drugs.
COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry physique that coordinates civilian affairs within the Palestinian territories, stated that “170 trucks… carrying humanitarian aid including food, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical drugs were transferred” into Gaza on Monday (May 26, 2025).
While Israel has restricted help into Gaza, the battle has made rising meals subsequent to inconceivable, with the U.N. saying on Monday (May 26, 2025) simply 5% of Gaza’s farmland was now useable.
A prime World Health Organization official deplored Monday (May 26, 2025) that not one of the company’s vehicles with medical help had been allowed to enter the Gaza Strip since Israel ended its blockade.
For greater than 11 weeks, “there has been no WHO trucks entering into Gaza for medical care support”, the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean regional director Hanan Balkhy stated, including that “the situation is devastating”.
The well being ministry in Hamas-run Gaza stated on Monday (May 26, 2025) that at the least 3,822 individuals had been killed within the territory since a ceasefire collapsed on March 18, taking the battle’s general toll to 53,977, principally civilians.
Hamas’s October 2023 assault on Israel that triggered the battle resulted within the deaths of 1,218 individuals, principally civilians, in accordance to an AFP tally primarily based on official figures.
Militants additionally took 251 hostages, 57 of whom stay in Gaza, together with 34 who the Israeli army says are useless.
Published – May 27, 2025 07:35 am IST
