DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza City (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israeli forces will not withdraw from their current lines in Gaza until Hamas has completely disarmed.In remarks on social media, Netanyahu suggested there were differences between Israel and the Trump administration over a recent deal announced to disarm the militant group.The agreement called for Hamas to begin disarming and for Israel to halt its strikes and begin withdrawing from Gaza. It was part of an October ceasefire agreement that ended major military operations but has stalled on other fronts. Netanyahu instead said disarmament should come first, and that Israeli forces would continue to “do whatever is necessary to protect themselves, our territory, and our citizens.”The Trump administration “sent us a draft. We did not agree. It is not our draft. We sent our comments,” Netanyahu said. “This is our position. We stand firm on our interests, I believe both wisely and resolutely.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Palestinians gathered for a mass funeral of more than 100 bodies finally recovered from a deadly Israeli strike in Gaza in 2023. More than 300 people were killed on Nov. 22, 2023, weeks into the war with Hamas, when warplanes flattened a residential block in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood.Around 40 bodies were recovered soon afterward in a frantic scramble of rough tools and bare hands, but most were buried deep beneath the rubble. Reports of the high number of victims in one of the war’s deadliest attacks took days to reach the public in the chaos just before its first ceasefire.
