Live Updates: Israel's Netanyahu sets new demands on Gaza prisoner swap deal

Monday, August 5, 2024

0016 GMT — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has added new conditions to a proposed hostage swap deal with Hamas, including exiling around 150 Palestinian prisoners from the country, according to local media.

Among the conditions is the deportation of some Palestinian prisoners who will be released from Israeli prisons to foreign countries, Israel’s Channel 13 reported, citing unnamed sources.

For months, the US, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to ensure a prisoner exchange and cease-fire and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.

But mediation efforts have been stalled due to Netanyahu’s refusal to meet Hamas’s demands to stop the war.

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0205 GMT — US, Israeli chiefs discuss Washington’s Middle East force moves

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant discussed Washington’s force posture moves in the Middle East in a phone call Sunday.

"They discussed US force posture moves that the Department (of Defense) is taking to bolster protection for US forces, support the defence of Israel, and deter and de-escalate broader tensions in the region," the Pentagon said in a statement.

During the call, Austin reiterated the US’s "ironclad" support for Israel's security and right to self-defence against threats from Iran, Lebanon’s Hezbollah group and Yemen’s Houthi group.

0125 GMT — Stopping escalation depends on ending Israeli aggression in Gaza: Iraq

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani has said that preventing a regional escalation is solely dependent on stopping Israel’s aggression against Gaza and preventing its expansion to Lebanon.

His remarks came during a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss regional and international developments, according to a statement from the Prime Minister's media office, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.

Al-Sudani added that preventing escalation in the region also relies on deterring and curbing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, stopping Israeli occupation authorities from attacking regional countries, ending repeated breaches of international law and sovereignty and halting attempts to spread conflicts and widen crises.

The call also covered Iraq's role in promoting international peace and stability and preventing current events from escalating further, the statement said.

0059 GMT — Israeli army shares war scenarios with northern mayors

The Israeli army has shared a document with the mayors of Israel’s northern cities detailing the scenarios of an “all-out war” with Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, an Israeli news portal has said.

“The document envisages a potential three-day power outage in some cities; breakdowns in water supply that could last days; a disconnection of landlines for up to eight hours and cellphone communications for up to 24 hours; and brief local disruptions to radio and internet,” The Times of Israel reported.

According to the media outlet, the Israeli security establishment assesses that Israel could face “an unprecedented attack with hundreds of rockets carrying warheads ranging from payloads of 50 kilograms to 10 times that.”

The army expected Hezbollah to “attack targets far to the south of Haifa, including Tel Aviv, possibly forcing the evacuation of large numbers of people to Jerusalem and to the south.”

For our live updates from Sunday, August 4, 2024, click here.