The Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday’s events as they happen.
US official: Netanyahu demurred when Blinken asked him to publicly reject ‘General’s Plan’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top aides sidestepped US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s request during a meeting Tuesday to publicly clarify that Israel is not seeking to lay siege to northern Gaza, a US official tells The Times of Israel.
Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer insisted during the meeting that Israel is not implementing the so-called General’s Plan aimed at isolating northern Gaza and argued that claims to the contrary have been detrimental to Israel’s public image, the US official says.
Blinken urged Netanyahu to clarify this publicly, but he and his aides demurred, the official adds.
The back-and-forth highlighted a long-held US frustration with the Israeli premier, who Washington feels offers private assurances that he knows the US wants to hear while failing to follow through in public due to fear of alienating the far-right coalition partners he relies on to remain in power.
Hostage families urge Blinken to pressure mediators, ‘especially Qatar,’ after Sinwar’s death
Families of captives held by Hamas meet with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging the renewal of efforts to swiftly secure a hostage deal after Israeli forces killed the terror group’s leader in Gaza last week.
According to a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the group asked Blinken to “apply more pressure on the mediating countries, especially Qatar, to restart negotiations and leverage Sinwar’s elimination into a deal for releasing all hostages,” noting the Gulf emirate hosts Hamas leaders.
Lebanon says Israeli strikes hit Beirut southern suburbs after evacuation call
At least three Israeli strikes targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs Tuesday evening, following calls to evacuate, Lebanon’s official ANI news agency reports, hours after a strike flattened a building in the Hezbollah stronghold.
Two of the strikes hit the Laylake district, near a stadium, ANI reported, while AFP footage captured plumes of smoke rising from the area regularly shelled by Israel since intensifying its offensive last month.