“Israel will only gain security through the creation of a Palestinian state”: Blinken

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his country would not agree to any “temporary truce” in its war on Hamas “that doesn’t include the release” of hostages taken from Israel to Gaza. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, speaking for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war erupted, warned that a wider conflict in the Middle East was a “realistic possibility” . While the US secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that Israel will only gain security through the creation of a Palestinian state: “Two states for two peoples.

• The United Nations rights office on Friday described the situation in the West Bank as “alarming”, saying Israeli forces were increasingly using military tactics and weapons in law enforcement operations there.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his country would not agree to any “temporary truce” in its war on Hamas “that doesn’t include the release” of hostages taken from Israel to Gaza.
• In his first speech after weeks of silence, the leader of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement Hassan Nasrallah said the possibility of a wider Middle-East “total war is realistic”, as the conflicts at the Lebanon-Israel border seem to escalate day by day. “America is entirely responsible for the ongoing war on Gaza and its people,” he said in a televised broadcast, accusing Washington of impeding “a ceasefire and the end of the aggression”.
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that Israel will only gain security through the creation of a Palestinian state: “Two states for two peoples. Again, that is the only way to ensure lasting security for a Jewish and democratic Israel,” Blinken said after meeting Israeli leaders during a visit to Tel Aviv.
• The total death toll in Gaza rose Friday to 9,227 people, including 3,826 children, according to the latest figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave.

Israel’s military said Thursday its forces have surrounded Gaza City in the Hamas-run and densely populated Palestinian territory as they pressed their assault against the Islamist group. According to FRANCE 24’s Catherine Norris Trent, 

Sources: France24/News Agencies