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Israel army spokesman says Hamas can’t be eliminated

“Hamas is an ideology, we cannot eliminate an ideology.”

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Israel's top army spokesman said Wednesday that Hamas cannot be eliminated, prompting a knee-jerk reaction from the government which quickly reiterated it remains committed to the group's destruction.

More than eight months of war, sparked by Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, have failed to oust Hamas from Gaza but have brought widespread devastation.

"To say that we are going to make Hamas disappear is to throw sand in people's eyes. If we don't provide an alternative, in the end, we will have Hamas," Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told Israel's Channel 13 broadcaster, AFP reported.

"Hamas is an ideology, we cannot eliminate an ideology."

His comments were quickly rebuffed by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose cabinet has stated its Gaza offensive will not end until Hamas is defeated.

"The political and security cabinet headed by Prime Minister Netanyahu defined as one of the goals of the war the destruction of Hamas' military and governmental capabilities," his office said in a statement.

"The IDF is of course committed to this."

In a separate statement on its Telegram channel, the military clarified that Hagari had addressed Hamas "as an ideology... and his statements were clear and explicit".

"Any other claim is taking the statement out of context."

The October 7 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Hamas also seized 251 hostages. Of these, 116 remain in Gaza, although the army says 41 are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive aimed at eliminating Hamas has killed at least 37,396 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

 

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Trump says US is making progress with Russia, declines to discuss talks with Putin

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are seen by Russia as possible venues for a summit, Reuters reported earlier this month.

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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he believed the United States was making progress in its talks to end thewar between Russia and Ukraine, but declined to provide details about any communications he had had with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Reuters reported.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump indicated that the two men had been in contact; that would mark the first officially acknowledged conversation between Putin and a U.S president since early 2022.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he believed the United States was making progress in its talks to end thewar between Russia and Ukraine, but declined to provide details about any communications he had had with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump indicated that the two men had been in contact; that would mark the first officially acknowledged conversation between Putin and a U.S president since early 2022.

Trump has promised to end the war but not set out yet in public how he would do so.

In a Friday interview with the New York Post, Trump said that he had "better not say" how many times he and Putin had spoken and did not disclose when the latest conversation had taken place.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the TASS state news agency that "many different communications are emerging."

"I personally may not know something, be unaware of something," Peskov said when asked by TASS to comment. "Therefore, in this case, I can neither confirm nor deny it."

U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz also declined to elaborate when asked about communications between the two countries, read the report.

"There certainly are a lot of sensitive conversations going on," Waltz said on NBC News.

Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war and that he will meet with Putin to discuss it, though the date or venue for such a meeting has not been announced. Trump told reporters on Sunday that he would meet with Putin at an appropriate time.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are seen by Russia as possible venues for a summit, Reuters reported earlier this month.

In the coming days, a flurry of U.S. officials are heading to Europe in part to discuss the war, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and Keith Kellogg, the special envoy for the Ukraine war.

Waltz indicated that Trump would be willing to use sanctions and tariffs to coax Putin to the negotiating table.

Waltz said U.S. and Ukrainian officials would discuss the United States gaining access to Ukraine's rare earth resources as compensation for U.S. aid to the eastern European ally.

On June 14, Putin set out his opening terms for an immediate end to the war: Ukraine must drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia, Reuters reported.

Reuters reported in November that Putin is open to discussing a Ukraine peace deal with Trump but rules out making any major territorial concessions and insists that Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.

The Kremlin has repeatedly urged caution over speculation about contacts with the Trump team over a possible peace deal.

Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian parliament's international affairs committee, was cited by the state RIA news agency on Thursday as saying that preparations for such a meeting were at "an advanced stage" and that it could take place in February or March.

Putin last spoke to former U.S. President Joe Biden in February 2022, shortly before Putin ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine.

Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward in his 2024 book "War" reported that Trump had direct conversations as many as seven times with Putin after he left the White House in 2021.

Asked if that were true in an interview to Bloomberg last year, Trump said: "If I did, it's a smart thing." The Kremlin denied Woodward's report.

Reuters, The Washington Post and Axios reported separately that Trump and Putin talked in early November. The Kremlin also denied those reports.

On Friday, Trump said he would probably meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy the following week to discuss ending the war. Zelenskiy told Reuters that he wanted Ukraine to supply the United States with rare earths and other minerals in return for financially supporting its war effort.

Putin sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022, calling it a "special military operation" to protect Russian speakers and counter what he said was a grave threat to Russia from potential Ukrainian membership of NATO.

Ukraine and its Western backers, led by the United States, said the invasion was an imperial-style land grab and vowed to defeat Russian forces.

Moscow controls a chunk of Ukraine about the size of the American state of Virginia and is advancing at the fastest pace since the early days of the 2022 invasion.

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Trump revokes security clearances for Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan

The move came a day after Trump said he had revoked the security clearance for his predecessor Joe Biden, stopping his access to daily intelligence briefings, Reuters reported.

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President Donald Trump has revoked security clearances for Antony Blinken, the former secretary of state, and Jake Sullivan, the former national security adviser, White House officials said on Saturday.

The move came a day after Trump said he had revoked the security clearance for his predecessor Joe Biden, stopping his access to daily intelligence briefings, Reuters reported.

Trump also revoked security clearances for Biden's Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who helped coordinate the Department of Justice's response to the January 6, 2021, attacks by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol, the officials said on Saturday.

They said Trump also removed the clearances of the New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, both of whom led cases against Trump.

While the revocations may not have immediate impacts, it is another sign of the growing rift in Washington. Former U.S. presidents have traditionally received intelligence briefings so they can advise incumbent presidents on national security and foreign policy, read the report.

In 2021, Biden revoked the security clearance for Trump, who was then a former president.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month revoked the personal security detail and security clearance for Mark Milley, a retired Army general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Milley, who served as the top U.S. military officer during some of Trump's first presidential term, became a leading critic of him after retiring as a four-star general in 2023 during Biden's administration, Reuters reported.

Many of Biden's diplomats had worked with incoming Trump officials in the weeks before Jan. 20, when Trump took office, on issues including Russia's war in Ukraine.

Blinken could not be immediately reached for comment.

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Hamas frees three more Israeli hostages for 183 Palestinian prisoners

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Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages on Saturday in the latest stage of a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza.

Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, both taken hostage from Kibbutz Be'eri during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, and Or Levy, abducted that day from the Nova music festival, were led onto a Hamas podium by gunmen.

Dozens of armed Hamas fighters were deployed at the site in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, as the men were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross which was to transport them to Israeli forces in Gaza, Reuters reported.

In exchange, Israel will release 183 Palestinian prisoners, some convicted of involvement in attacks that killed dozens of people and including 18 serving life sentences and 111 detained in Gaza during the war, according to Hamas.

The exchange is the latest in a series of swaps that have so far returned 13 Israeli and five Thai hostages abducted during the Hamas attack and released 583 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Despite hiccups, a 42-day ceasefire and hostage-for-prisoner exchange worked out with U.S. backing and mediation by Egypt and Qatar has held up since it took effect nearly three weeks ago.

But fears the deal might collapse before all the hostages are free have grown since U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise call for Palestinians to be moved from Gaza and for the enclave to be handed to the United States and developed into the "Riviera of the Middle East".

Arab states and Palestinian groups have rejected the proposal, which critics said would amount to ethnic cleansing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, welcomed Trump's intervention and his defence minister ordered the military to make plans to allow Palestinians who wished to leave Gaza to do so.

Under the ceasefire deal, 33 Israeli children, women and sick, wounded and older men are to be released during an initial phase in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Negotiations on a second phase began this week aimed at returning the remaining hostages and agreeing a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in preparation for a final end to the war.

Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

In response, Israel launched an air and ground war in Gaza that has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated much of the narrow enclave.

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