Netanyahu rejects 2 key demands for truce

GAZA/JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected two key demands Hamas has made during indirect cease-fire talks, saying Israel will not withdraw from the Gaza Strip or release thousands of jailed militants.

During an event on Tuesday, Netanyahu again vowed that the war would not end without Israel's "absolute victory" over Hamas.

Netanyahu rejected the Hamas militant group's two main demands — that Israel withdraw its forces from Gaza and release thousands of Palestinian prisoners — indicating that the gap between the two sides remains wide, reported The Associated Press.

After a meeting in Paris between US, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials yielded a proposed framework for a truce, Hamas confirmed on Tuesday it had received the proposal and was "in the process of examining it and delivering its response".

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, whose government helped broker a previous truce in November, voiced hope an initial deal might lead to a permanent cease-fire.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces working undercover killed three Palestinian militants in a raid on a hospital in the West Bank, where violence has surged since the Gaza conflict.

The Israeli military said forces entered the Ibn Sina hospital in the northern city of Jenin early Tuesday and shot the three men, whom Hamas claimed as members. The military said the men were using the hospital as a hideout and that at least one was planning an attack.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said the Israeli forces opened fire inside the hospital's wards and called on the international community to stop Israeli operations in hospitals.

Call for funding restoration

At least 26,900 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct 7, the health ministry in Gaza said on Wednesday.

The Hamas' Oct 7 attack in Israel killed 1,200 people, and about 250 people were taken hostage, Israeli authorities said.

The conflict has displaced a vast majority of Gaza's population, according to the UN, which warned the humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory would only get worse if major donors didn't restore funding to the UNRWA, its main aid agency for Palestinians.

The UN's coordinator for Gaza aid, Sigrid Kaag, said on Tuesday that no other agency could "replace or substitute" UNRWA, which has thousands of employees.

The heads of several UN agencies, including the WHO, the UN rights office, UNICEF and the World Food Programme, later issued a statement warning that defunding UNRWA would "have catastrophic consequences for the people of Gaza".

Withholding the funds, they said, was "perilous and would result in the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, with far-reaching humanitarian and human rights consequences".

Agencies via Xinhua