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Netanyahu, Gallant: ‘Rafah’ and Sinwar Assassination Key Targets Before Deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Latrun, Jerusalem (DPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Latrun, Jerusalem (DPA)
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Netanyahu, Gallant: ‘Rafah’ and Sinwar Assassination Key Targets Before Deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Latrun, Jerusalem (DPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Latrun, Jerusalem (DPA)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued threats on Monday, just before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's arrival in Tel Aviv.
They vowed to pursue total victory by assassinating Hamas leaders like Yahya Sinwar and escalating the conflict to Rafah.
Netanyahu insisted they wouldn't end the war until these leaders were eliminated and rejected any prisoner release without conditions.
Netanyahu made these comments during a meeting of the Likud parliamentary bloc this afternoon, which also saw verbal clashes among party officials.
“Our goal is a complete victory over Hamas. We will kill the Hamas leadership, so we must continue to operate in all areas in the Gaza Strip. We must not end the war before then. It will take time — months, not years,” said Netanyahu, as quoted by the Times of Israel.
He noted that 110 of the 253 hostages seized in the Hamas-led massacre attack on October 7 had already been released.
Netanyahu cautioned that this time around “Hamas has demands that we will not agree to. The release formula should be similar to the previous agreement.”
He emphasized that a deal would not be made at “any cost.”
In other news, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement to the public that Hamas’s leadership, including Yahya Sinwar, is “on the run.”
“Sinwar does not lead the campaign, does not command the forces. He is busy with his personal survival,” claimed Gallant.
The minister further alleged that the IDF has beaten more than half of Hamas’s forces.
In addition, at an organizational level, he said the victory was larger, having taken apart 18 of Hamas's 24 battalions.
Gallant said that three of four Khan Yunis battalions have been taken apart, with the fourth in western Khan Yunis on the verge of falling.

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Arab World

Israeli Reservist Rams Vehicle into Palestinian Man Praying in West Bank

Israeli security forces secure a street as they leave the Palestinian village of Bizariya, in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli authorities demolished the house of a Palestinian man killed in July after he and another man reportedly killed an Israeli settler on the same day, on December 24, 2025. (AFP)
Israeli security forces secure a street as they leave the Palestinian village of Bizariya, in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli authorities demolished the house of a Palestinian man killed in July after he and another man reportedly killed an Israeli settler on the same day, on December 24, 2025. (AFP)
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Israeli Reservist Rams Vehicle into Palestinian Man Praying in West Bank

Israeli security forces secure a street as they leave the Palestinian village of Bizariya, in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli authorities demolished the house of a Palestinian man killed in July after he and another man reportedly killed an Israeli settler on the same day, on December 24, 2025. (AFP)
Israeli security forces secure a street as they leave the Palestinian village of Bizariya, in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli authorities demolished the house of a Palestinian man killed in July after he and another man reportedly killed an Israeli settler on the same day, on December 24, 2025. (AFP)

An Israeli reservist soldier rammed his vehicle into a Palestinian man as he prayed on a roadside in ​the occupied West Bank on Thursday, after earlier firing shots in the area, the Israeli military said.

"Footage was received of an armed individual running over a Palestinian individual," it said in a statement, adding the individual was a reservist ‌and his ‌military service had ‌been terminated.

The ⁠reservist ​acted "in severe ‌violation of his authority" and his weapon had been confiscated, the military said.

Israeli media reported that he was being held under house arrest.

The Israeli police did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The ⁠Palestinian man went to hospital for checks after ‌the attack, but was unhurt ‍and is now ‍at home.

Video which aired on Palestinian ‍TV shows a man in civilian clothing with a gun slung over his shoulder driving an off-road vehicle into a man praying on ​the side of the road.

This year ​was one of the most violent on ⁠record for Israeli civilian attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to United Nations data that shows more than 750 injuries.

More than a thousand Palestinians were killed in the West Bank between October 7, 2023 and October 17, 2025, mostly in operations by security forces and some by settler violence, according to the UN In ‌the same period, 57 Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks.

Arab World

Deadly Blast Hits Mosque in Syria’s Homs

A Syrian flag waves in Damascus. (Getty Images/AFP)
A Syrian flag waves in Damascus. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Deadly Blast Hits Mosque in Syria’s Homs

A Syrian flag waves in Damascus. (Getty Images/AFP)
A Syrian flag waves in Damascus. (Getty Images/AFP)

A deadly explosion hit a mosque in Syria's Homs on Friday, said authorities who reported at least six people killed.

"A terrorist explosion targeted the Ali Bin Abi Talib Mosque during Friday prayers in Al-Khadri Street in the Wadi al-Dahab neighborhood of Homs," the interior ministry said in a statement, adding that six people were killed and 21 others wounded.

Syria's state news agency SANA, which also reported the blast, said its cause and nature were being investigated.

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights monitor, it was not immediately clear whether the blast "was caused by a suicide attack or an explosive device".

A local security source in Homs told AFP on condition of anonymity the explosion may have been caused by "an explosive device placed inside the mosque".

A resident of the area, requesting anonymity out of fear for his safety, told AFP people "heard a loud explosion, followed by chaos and panic in the neighborhood".

SANA published photos from inside the mosque, one of which showed a hole in a wall.

Black smoke covered part of the mosque, with carpets and books scattered nearby.

Arab World

Fuel Shortage Forces Gaza Hospital to Suspend Most Services

The sun sets behind a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians set up in an area of al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
The sun sets behind a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians set up in an area of al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
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Fuel Shortage Forces Gaza Hospital to Suspend Most Services

The sun sets behind a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians set up in an area of al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
The sun sets behind a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians set up in an area of al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)

A major Gaza hospital has suspended several services because of a critical fuel shortage in the devastated Palestinian territory, which continues to face a severe humanitarian crisis, it said.

Devastated by more than two years of war, the Al-Awda Hospital in the central Gaza district of Nuseirat cares for around 60 in-patients and receives nearly 1,000 people seeking medical treatment each day.

"Most services have been temporarily stopped due to a shortage of the fuel needed for the generators," said Ahmed Mehanna, a senior official involved in managing the hospital.

"Only essential departments remain operational: the emergency unit, maternity ward and pediatrics."

To keep these services running, the hospital has been forced to rent a small generator, he added.

Under normal conditions, Al-Awda Hospital consumes between 1,000 and 1,200 liters of diesel per day. At present, however, it has only 800 liters available.

"We stress that this shutdown is temporary and linked to the availability of fuel," Mehanna said, warning that a prolonged fuel shortage "would pose a direct threat to the hospital's ability to deliver basic services".

He urged local and international organizations to intervene swiftly to ensure a steady supply of fuel.

Despite a fragile truce observed since October 10, the Gaza Strip remains engulfed in a severe humanitarian crisis.

While the ceasefire agreement stipulated the entry of 600 aid trucks per day into Gaza, only 100 to 300 carrying humanitarian assistance can currently enter, according to the United Nations and non-governmental organizations.

The remaining convoys largely transport commercial goods that remain inaccessible to most of Gaza's 2.2 million people.

- Health hard hit -

On a daily basis, the vast majority of Gaza's residents rely on aid from UN agencies and international NGOs for survival.

Gaza's health sector has been among the hardest hit by the war.

During the fighting, the Israeli miliary repeatedly struck hospitals and medical centers across Gaza, accusing Hamas of operating command centers there, an allegation the group denied.

International medical charity Doctors Without Borders now manages roughly one-third of Gaza's 2,300 hospital beds, while all five stabilization centers for children suffering from severe malnutrition are supported by international NGOs.

The war in Gaza was sparked on October 7, 2023, following an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

In Israel's ensuing military campaign in Gaza, at least 70,942 people - also mostly civilians - have been killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.