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‘Will return to fighting if…’ Israeli army chief's warning on Gaza as talks begin
The warning from Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir comes as Israel and Hamas have agreed to hold talks to get the remaining hostages released.
Israel's army chief on Sunday issued a warning that fighting in Gaza will resume if talks with Hamas fail.
The warning from Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir comes as Israel and Hamas have agreed to hold talks to get the remaining hostages released.
"There is no ceasefire (at the moment), but the operational situation has changed, with the political level converting the tools and achievements you have gained through military action into political gains," Zamir told a group of soldiers deployed in Gaza.
"If the political effort fails, we will return to fighting," he added, according to a statement issued by the military.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office released a statement saying that the Israeli delegation, headed by strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer, will fly to Egypt for talks on Monday.
"The delegation will leave as early as tomorrow for talks to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt," Netanyahu said in the statement.
US President Donald Trump, who tabled the 20-point peace plan that kicked off the dialogue, said the talks would last “a couple of days.”
Negotiators from Israel and Hamas were set to hold talks in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, with Netanyahu expressing hope that hostages held in Gaza could be released within days.
But US secretary of state Marco Rubio called for a halt to Israeli bombing on Gaza.
"I think the Israelis and everyone acknowledge you can't release hostages in the middle of strikes, so the strikes will have to stop. There can't be a war going on in the middle of it," Rubio told CBS News talk show "Face the Nation."
