Holly Johnston & Thomas Helm
The National / August 4, 2024
Prime Minister says he will go ‘long, long way’ to free hostages, hours after 15 killed in strike on Gaza school compound.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened a “heavy price” against any Iranian attack against Israel and said the war in Gaza would be prolonged.
Speaking in a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said Israel was prepared “for any scenario” and is fighting a multi-arena war against what he described as “Iran’s axis of evil”.
“We will respond and exact a heavy price for any act of aggression against us, from any front,” he said in a statement released by his office.
His comments came hours after dozens of Palestinians were killed in attacks across Gaza, including strikes on tents near Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
At least 21 Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured in air strikes on Sunday.
The bloodshed follows the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh by Israel in Tehran on Tuesday, an act widely expected to freeze or wreck talks towards a ceasefire in Gaza and a deal for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Two sources familiar with the months-long Gaza ceasefire negotiations said a senior US official paid an unannounced visit to Cairo last week in part intended to urge Egyptian to try to persuade Hamas to return to the negotiations.
They told The National on Sunday that Brett McGurk, White House co-ordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, was in Cairo for several hours on Thursday when he met senior Egyptian security and intelligence officials involved in the negotiations.
They said McGurk’s talks in Cairo led to a visit to Egypt on Saturday by an Israeli delegation led by David Barnea, head of Israel’s spy agency, the Mossad. Netanyahu confirmed he had instructed an Israeli delegation to travel to Cairo.
Barnea’s talks in Egypt focused on ways to resolve differences between Egypt and Israel over the Rafah crossing and border strip between Egypt and Gaza, which were both captured by Israel in May in a move that angered Egypt.
His talks also touched on ways to resume the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, according to the sources.
“He [Barnea] offered nothing new and it’s unlikely that Hamas will agree to resume negotiations any time soon after Haniyeh’s assassination,” said one of the sources.
“Israel seems to be buying time or just going through the motions to show the Americans that it’s still interested in reaching an agreement.”
Iran and its regional proxies have vowed “harsh punishment” against Israel for the assassination of Haniyeh.
According to the Israeli government, 111 hostages are thought to be still alive and held by the group, following their capture during Hamas’s surprise attack into southern Israel on October 7.
Netanyahu said he had instructed the Israeli delegation to demand an increase in the number of living hostages to be freed in the first round of a possible ceasefire.
“I am ready to go a long, long way to release all of our abductees, while maintaining Israel’s security,” he said.
Netanyahu has faced weekly protests in Israel, where hostage relatives and their supporters have accused his government of repeatedly obstructing a ceasefire deal.
His comments threaten an even higher death toll in Gaza, where almost 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since October.
On Sunday, air strikes and shelling claimed more lives.
In Deir al-Balah, a large fire broke out at the scene of Israeli attacks which killed at least five people, engulfing tents as people searched for survivors.
Three others were killed in an attack on a refugee camp to the west of the city.
In the northern Jabalia refugee camp, eight people were killed, including children, following a strike on Al-Amoudi family home, while five were killed in later attacks on Gaza city, including on a vehicle in Al-Zeitoun neighbourhood.
That came hours after 17 people were killed in Israeli air strikes on a schools complex in Gaza city, demolishing the Hamama and Al-Huda schools in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood.
Eight schools have been hit in a wave of Israeli operations since the start of July. Israel claims in each instance that militants have been using those buildings.
Attacks were also reported on the Nuseirat refugee camp, where heavy shelling targeted the vicinity of the Indonesian school, and the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza on Sunday morning.
Heavy shelling could be heard in the southern town of Abasan al-Kabira, Wafa reported, with tanks opening fire on its eastern neighbourhoods.
Strikes and attacks were also reported in Khan Younis and Rafah, where Israeli forces opened fire near the border crossing with Egypt.
More than 39,500 Palestinians have been killed and at least another 91,280 wounded across Gaza since the war began on October 7, triggered by a Hamas attack on southern Israel which killed about 1,200 people.
Hundreds of Palestinians have also been killed in the occupied West Bank, with at least 9,000 arrested by Israeli forces in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Stabbing attack
The latest bombardments come as two Israelis were killed in a stabbing attack in the city of Holon in Israel on Sunday morning, leaving a further two injured, one of whom was in a serious condition and the other in a moderate condition, Israel’s ambulance service said.
The two victims, a woman and a man, were in their 60s and 80s respectively.
Paramedic Rami Meushar said he attended “a complex and difficult terror attack [because] the casualties were in three separate locations, approximately 500 metres from each other”.
A police officer shot the attacker, a Palestinian from the occupied West Bank. He was later declared dead by hospital officials.
Police identified him as Amar Razak Kamal Odeh, 34, from Salfit and said he entered Israel illegally.
Police warned people to “remain vigilant” due to concerns another suspect was on the loose.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the scene soon after the attack.
Ben-Gvir praised his controversial efforts to approve 150,000 gun licences for civilians after October 7 and said that the attack on Sunday was “exactly why” he did so.
He called on “all Israelis to carry firearms – it saves lives.”
“There could have been a much bigger disaster,” he added.
Holly Johnston – Breaking News reporter, Abu Dhabi
Thomas Helm is Jerusalem correspondent at The National
