“It is Hamas that is preventing an agreement for the release of the hostages.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it adding that “Israel was and still is ready to conclude a truce in the fight to free our abductees.” But Hamas, he added, “remained entrenched in its extreme positions, first of all the request to withdraw all our forces from Gaza. Israel cannot accept it”. “Therefore – he underlined – Israel will not accept Hamas' demands, which mean surrender, and will continue to fight until all its objectives are achieved”.
And in the meantime, in application of the government's decision taken unanimously on stop Al Jazeera in Israel, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi ordered “the closure of the offices, the confiscation of the channel's equipment, possibly including cell phones and the blocking of access to the TV website”. The minister himself made this known, adding that “the orders have been issued now”. Decision that, for Hamas, it aims to “hide the truth” about the Gaza war.
The Israeli army also said it had closed Kerem Shalom, the main border crossing in southern Gaza, to aid trucks after Hamas launched an attack on the area.. About 15 mortar shells “were identified as they crossed the area adjacent to the Rafah crossing towards the Kerem Shalom area, about 300 meters from an area used as a refuge for displaced people”, said the IDF – which now is responding to the attack which left some injured – in a statement adding that “the Kerem Shalom crossing is currently closed to the passage of humanitarian aid trucks”.