U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken believes there remains “room for an agreement” on the hostages between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
Netanyahu, however, seemed to bury any hope of a truce earlier in the evening, announcing that he had asked his troops to “prepare” an offensive on Rafah, the town located in southern Gaza. “Any military campaign undertaken by Israel must first and foremost” protect civilians, he insisted, noting that there were “ways to do that”