Key events
Netanyahu rejects US Gaza plan, vows no pullout until Hamas disarms
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a Gaza plan hailed by US president Donald Trump, vowing no military pullout of Gaza until Hamas is “genuinely” disarmed.
“Israel rejects the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said, referring to a plan endorsed in late July by Hamas.
The Israeli military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting, Reuters reports.
The document, the latest stage in a US-led ceasefire announced in October that has reduced but not ended Israeli operations in Gaza, said Hamas would surrender weapons to a nascent Palestinian governing body.
The plan said Israel would begin pulling out forces in tandem with the disarmament, an idea adamantly rejected by Israel which also wants Hamas to destroy its weapons.
Netanyahu said that Israel was speaking with the US about its objections. “They have ideas; some of them are acceptable to us and some are not, and we know how to stand our ground on these matters,” he said.
Netanyahu said that Hamas must give up all of its weapons, a goal that Board of Peace members say is not realistically achievable. “We are talking about real disarmament, not fictitious disarmament,” Netanyahu said.
Opening summary: Hormuz will stay closed until US meets all our conditions, say Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corp said they will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States meets Tehran’s conditions, including compensation for war damages.
The IRGC said their strategy was to maintain the closure “until the enemy accepts all our conditions … the strait is now actually a theatre of war for us and not just a waterway”.
Iran’s security chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr on Saturday laid out a list of demands for reopening the strait, including an end to the “war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq”.
He also demanded the lifting of a US counterblockade of Iranian ports, the end of sanctions, the release of frozen assets and compensation for wartime damage, according to remarks reported by the Tasnim news agency.
Iran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait since the US and Israel attacked in late February, and wants to charge tolls for passage, striking ships it accuses of attempting to circumvent its preferred route.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said discussions with Oman over transit and management of the strait were “approaching the final stages”, but added that the reopening of Hormuz “is subject to other conditions and compensation for the violation” of an interim June agreement with the US.
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Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian has said he believes now is the best time for an agreement with the US. “There is cohesion, strength, and unity in the country, and as far as I know, Iran is considered victorious and powerful in this war,” Iranian news agencies quoted him as saying.
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Oman condemned what it described as repeated attacks on vessels while transiting the strait, without assigning blame, and said that negotiations with Iran on arrangements for shipping through Hormuz were “positive and constructive”.
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The UAE said on Saturday that Iran had attacked a carrier affiliated with the UAE’s state oil company with a missile as it transited the strait of Hormuz. No injuries were reported. The UK maritime trade monitor UKMTO said a vessel had caught fire after being hit by an unknown projectile but the fire was put out and there was no reported environmental impact. There was no immediate comment from Iranian authorities.
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US Central Command said on Saturday it had allowed more than 30 ships through for humanitarian aid since the current blockade started. US forces have turned away 53 ships, disabled two vessels and boarded two others, Central Command said in a statement on social media.
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