Israeli defense chief says temporary truce with Hamas possible

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s defense minister says the window is closing on an opportunity to reach a temporary cease-fire deal with the Hamas terrorist group that he believes could also bring calm to the country’s volatile northern border with Lebanon.

Speaking to reporters, Yoav Gallant said that conditions are ripe for at least a six-week pause in fighting that would include the release of many of the hostages held in Gaza. However, he would not commit to a permanent end to the fighting, as Hamas has demanded.

“Israel should achieve an agreement that will bring about a pause for six weeks and bring back hostages,” he said. After that period, he said, “we maintain the right to operate and achieve our goals — including the destruction of Hamas.”

The United States, along with mediators Egypt and Qatar, has been working for months to broker a cease-fire to end the war between Israel and Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has raised a new sticking point in recent weeks, saying that Israel must remain stationed in a strategic corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt indefinitely.

Israel: Activist killed by mistake

The Israeli military said Tuesday an American activist killed in the West Bank last week was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by its soldiers, drawing a strong rebuke from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and her family.

Israel said a criminal investigation has been launched into the killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old activist from Seattle who was taking part in a demonstration against settlements in the Palestinian territory. Doctors who treated Eygi said she was shot in the head.

Blinken condemned the “unprovoked and unjustified” fatal shooting when asked about the Israeli inquiry at a news conference in London, and said the U.S. would make clear to its ally that such actions are “not acceptable.”

“No one — no one — should be shot and killed for attending a protest,” he said. “Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way they operate in the West Bank.”

Israeli strike targets senior leaders

Israel said it targeted senior Hamas terrorists with precise munitions early Tuesday in a strike that Palestinian officials said hit a crowded Palestinian tent camp, killing at least 19 people and wounding 60.

The strike occurred in Muwasi, a sprawl of camps along the coast that Israel designated as a humanitarian zone.

The Israeli military said it struck Hamas terrorists in a command center embedded in the area. It identified three of the terrorists, calling them senior operatives who were directly involved in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas-led terrorists that triggered the war and other recent attacks.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesperson, said in a post on the social media platform X that the initial casualty reports did “not line up with the information available to the (Israeli army), the precise weapons used and the accuracy of the strike.”

Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack. They abducted another 250 people and are still holding around 100 hostage after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire last November. Around a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead.

Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry says over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and terrorists in its count.