Report: Half of the 97 Hamas hostages are dead

“According to the information in our possession, “Half of the hostages in Gaza are alive” are 97 still in Hamas hands Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Neytanyahu said today at a closed-door meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Army Radio reported.
According to earlier leaks from the same meeting, Netanyahu also denied obstructing a hostage-taking deal, accusing Hamas of demanding numerous revisions to the ceasefire proposal.

The number two of Hezbollah Naim Qassem, said that the Lebanese Islamist movement is entering “a “new phase” in the battle that he has waged against Israel since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip. “We have entered a new phase,” that of settling “open scores,” he said at the funeral of Ibrahim Aqil, a senior military official killed in an Israeli attack on Friday. “Threats will not stop us: we are ready for all military scenarios” against Israel, he added.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has sounded the alarm, this time regarding Lebanon and the growing tensions with Israel. Lebanon, he said in an interview with CNN on the eve of the General Assembly, “risks becoming a new Gaza.”

White House: Escalation Not in Israel’s Interest

A military “escalation” is not in Israel’s “interest,” White House spokesman John Kirby warned Sunday. “We do not believe that an escalation of this military conflict is in their interest,” he told ABC television. “That’s what we’re saying directly to our Israeli counterparts,” the spokesman added, once again calling for a “diplomatic” solution to the conflict.