Netanyahu Says it is Unclear if Hostage Deal Will Emerge

A displaced Palestinian girl, who fled her house due to Israeli strikes, feeds her brother at a tent camp, near the border with Egypt, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 25, 2024. REUTERS/Saleh Salem
A displaced Palestinian girl, who fled her house due to Israeli strikes, feeds her brother at a tent camp, near the border with Egypt, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 25, 2024. REUTERS/Saleh Salem
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Netanyahu Says it is Unclear if Hostage Deal Will Emerge

A displaced Palestinian girl, who fled her house due to Israeli strikes, feeds her brother at a tent camp, near the border with Egypt, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 25, 2024. REUTERS/Saleh Salem
A displaced Palestinian girl, who fled her house due to Israeli strikes, feeds her brother at a tent camp, near the border with Egypt, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 25, 2024. REUTERS/Saleh Salem

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said it was not clear yet whether a hostage deal would materialize from ongoing talks, declining to discuss specifics but saying Hamas needed to "come down to a reasonable situation."
Netanyahu, speaking in an interview with CBS News, added he was meeting with staff later on Sunday to review a dual military plan that included the evacuation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and an operation to destroy remaining Hamas battalions.

"If we have a deal, it will be delayed somewhat, but it will happen. If we don't have a deal, we'll do it anyway," he told CBS.

Netanyahu’s comments came as US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on CNN that the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Israel have come to an understanding of "basic contours" of a hostage deal for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza.

The deal is still under negotiation, said Sullivan, who added there will have to be indirect discussions by Qatar and Egypt with Hamas.

US President Joe Biden has not been briefed on Israel's plan for military operations in Rafah, but believes civilian life must be protected, Sullivan also said on Sunday in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" program.

"We do not believe that an operation, a major military operation, should proceed in Rafah unless there is a clear and executable plan to protect those civilians, to get them to safety and to feed, clothe and house them," Sullivan said.



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”