The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice will replace Netanyahu when he undergoes general anesthesia (file photo)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will undergo hernia surgery on Sunday as fighting continues to rage in Gaza for nearly six months, his office said.
The news comes as Netanyahu faces growing domestic pressure over his failure to bring home all the hostages still held by Palestinian militants.
Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Yariv Levin will act on behalf of Netanyahu while the 74-year-old Netanyahu undergoes general anesthesia, his office said.
The statement added that doctors discovered the hernia during a routine check-up on Saturday and after consultation, it was decided that the prime minister would undergo surgery after completing his daily schedule.
Armistice talks between Israel and Hamas are set to resume in Cairo on Sunday, Egyptian TV reported, as deadly airstrikes hit the Gaza Strip again, but Hamas officials expressed pessimism about the process.
To help alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s 2.4 million people, an aid ship was part of a small flotilla carrying 400 tons of food from the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus.
Foreign powers have stepped up aid airdrops, but U.N. agencies and charities have warned it falls far short of urgent needs and say trucks are the most efficient way to deliver aid.
Many people have died in stampedes or drowned while retrieving packages from the sea.
Pope’s Easter Appeal
On Thursday, the world’s highest court ordered Israel to immediately “secure emergency humanitarian aid” in Gaza, saying “famine is coming.”
The health ministry in the Hamas-ruled region said at least 77 people, mostly women and children, had been killed in bombings and fighting in the past 24 hours.
On March 25, a UN Security Council resolution called for an “immediate ceasefire” and the release of all hostages held by militants, but the binding resolution failed to curb the fighting, including in or around hospitals.
Tensions between Israel and its main backer, the United States, have increased as the civilian death toll continues to rise, particularly as Israel threatens to send ground troops into Gaza’s crowded southern city of Rafah.
Washington has approved billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets to Israel in recent days, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed officials.
In his Easter message, Pope Francis reiterated his call to “ensure humanitarian access to Gaza and reiterated his call for the immediate release of the hostages taken when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, triggering the war.”
Speaking at the Vatican, Francis once again called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.
Massive protests in Tel Aviv
Hamas attacks killed about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, Israeli retaliation has killed at least 32,782 people, mostly women and children.
Palestinian militants also held approximately 250 Israeli and foreign hostages. Israel believes around 130 people remain in Gaza, 34 of whom are presumed dead.
Under intense pressure to bring the captives home, Netanyahu on Friday approved a new round of ceasefire talks in Doha and Cairo.
Egyptian television station Al-Qahera, which has close ties to the country’s intelligence services, said talks would resume in Cairo on Sunday.
But a Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP the Islamist group had not yet decided whether to send a delegation to the new round of talks “in Cairo or Doha”.
The official also expressed doubts that the process would bring results because Netanyahu was “not interested.”
Netanyahu vowed to send troops to continue the fight against Hamas militants in Rafah, where about 1.5 million civilians have taken refuge.
Relatives and supporters of Hamas hostages hold regular protests, including in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, where police used water cannon against demonstrators who set fires and blocked highways.
Raz bin Ami, a survivor of Hamas captivity, said: “On behalf of the men and women who were abducted, and on behalf of the people of Israel, the prime minister issued an order to Qatar’s negotiators: Do not return without an agreement.”
Anti-government demonstrators and supporters of the hostages planned to rally again outside Jerusalem’s parliament on Sunday night and every night until Wednesday, organizers said.
Fighting near the hospital
In Gaza, large areas have been reduced to rubble-strewn wastelands, with fierce fighting rocking the area around several Gaza hospitals.
Israel accuses Palestinian militants of hiding inside medical facilities and tunnels and using patients and medical staff as cover, but the groups deny the accusations.
The military said on Saturday it had “continued to neutralize” militants around Gaza City’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, after it earlier reported about 200 people were killed in an operation that began two weeks ago on Monday.
Gaza’s health ministry said there were still 107 patients in Al-Shifa, including 30 disabled people, and the army had stopped trying to evacuate them.
The military said that soldiers who raided the hospital’s delivery room found “many weapons hidden in pillows, beds, ceilings and courtyard walls, including dozens of mortars, explosive devices, sniper rifles, Kalashnikov rifles, pistols, bullets, etc.” boxes, mortars and pistols”. Extra Ammunition”.
While sweeping the compound, troops encountered “senior terrorists” in a stairwell and killed them in the ensuing firefight, the statement added.
Israel is also conducting military operations at two hospitals in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to the Hamas government press office, and at the Nasser hospital, according to the Hamas government press office; according to the Red Crescent, Israel is also conducting military operations at Amal Hospital.
The United Nations World Health Organization has warned that Gaza now has only 10 “minimally functional” hospitals, down from 36 before the war.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that 9,000 patients need to leave Gaza to receive “life-saving medical services, including treatment for cancer, injuries caused by bombing, kidney dialysis and other chronic diseases.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
