Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called on Sunday for “painful concessions” to secure the release of captives held in the Gaza Strip.
“Not every objective can be achieved through military means alone; force is not the answer to everything,” Gallant said at a memorial day for those killed in a Hamas attack last year.
“When it comes to fulfilling our ethical duty of bringing hostages home, painful concessions will be required,” he added.
The defense minister acknowledged that the ongoing Gaza war was “complex and unprecedented in its challenges.”
Gallant claimed that Israel has achieved “unprecedented victories” on all fronts, “struck our enemy, and created a new security reality around us”.
However, Gallant’s remarks came amid Israeli army announcements that 88 soldiers were injured in the last 48 hours in Lebanon and 22 soldiers were killed over the past week.
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Moreover, the Gaza battlefield, despite the total destruction and extermination of northern Gaza, is as difficult as ever.
Several soldiers were killed and wounded over the last few days, and a soldier was declared dead on Sunday after succumbing to the wounds he sustained in Gaza in previous days.
According to media reports, Israeli negotiators are set to resume prisoner exchange talks with Hamas in Qatar.
Israel estimates that around 101 captives are still held by Hamas in Gaza, with some believed to have been killed in the ongoing Israeli airstrikes on the enclave.
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Ongoing Genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 42,924 Palestinians have been killed, and 100,833 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7, 2023.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
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Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(PC, Anadolu)
