Israeli PM: We Want to Mend Relations with Regional Countries

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. (AFP file photo)
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. (AFP file photo)
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Israeli PM: We Want to Mend Relations with Regional Countries

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. (AFP file photo)
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. (AFP file photo)

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he would meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah a-Sisi soon, adding that relations with Jordan are moving on a very positive path.

At the start of a weekly cabinet meeting, Bennett said: “I will travel to Egypt to meet President Abdel Fattah a-Sisi, who extended his invitation to solidify and bolster relations with nations in the Middle East.”

The Prime Minister’s office had announced last week that Sisi had invited Bennett to an official visit to Egypt in the coming weeks.

Egypt’s intelligence minister conveyed the invitation from Sisi during a meeting with Bennett in Jerusalem last week.

The PM also addressed strained relations with Jordan, saying they are on a very positive path, after years of crisis, which were “completely unjustified”, under former PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We are now mending relations” with all regional countries, he added, citing efforts by Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and other ministers.

The efforts aim to form a coalition of nations to confront Iran’s extremism, said the premier.

Bennett’s predecessor, Netanyahu, was the last Israeli prime minister to pay an official visit to Egypt. He met with late President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 when he was still in power.



More than 43,000 Palestinians Killed in Yearlong War in Gaza, Palestinian Health Ministry Says

 Displaced Palestinians ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate the northern part of Gaza take a rest as they flee amid an Israeli military operation, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip October 23, 2024. REUTERS/Hassan Al-Zaanin/File Photo
Displaced Palestinians ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate the northern part of Gaza take a rest as they flee amid an Israeli military operation, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip October 23, 2024. REUTERS/Hassan Al-Zaanin/File Photo
TT

More than 43,000 Palestinians Killed in Yearlong War in Gaza, Palestinian Health Ministry Says

 Displaced Palestinians ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate the northern part of Gaza take a rest as they flee amid an Israeli military operation, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip October 23, 2024. REUTERS/Hassan Al-Zaanin/File Photo
Displaced Palestinians ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate the northern part of Gaza take a rest as they flee amid an Israeli military operation, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip October 23, 2024. REUTERS/Hassan Al-Zaanin/File Photo

The number of Palestinians killed in the yearlong war in Gaza has passed 43,000, more than half of them women and children, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Monday.

The tally includes 96 dead who arrived at hospitals in Gaza over the past two days, the ministry said.

Israeli troops have launched an ongoing operation in northern Gaza that included a raid on a hospital over the weekend. The military said it detained 100 suspected Hamas militants in a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya on Friday.

The World Health Organization accused Israel of detaining 44 male hospital staff. Palestinian medical officials said the hospital, which was treating some 200 patients, was heavily damaged in the raid, Reuters reported.

Israel has raided several hospitals in Gaza over the course of the yearlong war, saying Hamas and other militants use them for military purposes. Palestinian medical officials deny those allegations and accuse the military of recklessly endangering civilians.

An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with regulations, said there was heavy fighting around Kamal Adwan Hospital, though not inside it, and that weapons were found inside the facility.

The official said medical staff were detained and searched because some of the militants had disguised themselves as medics.

According to the official, the military had helped international organizations relocate 88 patients and medical staff to other hospitals in the weeks leading up to the raid, and that during the raid itself, troops had brought 30,000 liters of fuel and medical supplies from international organizations to help keep the facility running.

The Israeli military has called on Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, where it has been waging a large offensive for more than three weeks. The official said the operation in the northern Gaza city of Jabaliya would last “several more weeks.”

The UN said earlier this month at least 400,000 people are still in northern Gaza and hunger is rampant as the amount of humanitarian aid reaching the north has plummeted over the past month.

The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 43,020 people have been killed and 101,110 others wounded since the war started on Oct. 7, 2023.