Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that there can be no peace until Hamas authorities are eliminated and Palestinian society is “deradicalized.”
Shortly after Natanyahu made the remarks, Israeli forces bombed Gaza.
As intensive ground warfare continued, the army said it had struck more than 100 targets in 24 hours, including military structures and tunnel shafts in central Jabalia and Khan Yunis in the south.
Global alarm has grown, and international calls for a cease-fire have intensified, but Netanyahu promised to stick to his guns in an op-ed published late Monday in the Wall Street Journal.
“Hamas must be destroyed, Gaza must be demilitarized, and Palestinian society must be deradicalized,” he argued. “These are the three prerequisites for peace between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors in Gaza.”
Once the fighting ends, he said, “for the foreseeable future, Israel will have to retain overriding security responsibility over Gaza” and build a “temporary security zone on the perimeter” of the territory.
Earlier, Netanyahu visited his troops inside Gaza, then reportedly told a meeting of his conservative Likud party that “we’re not stopping… We’re intensifying the fighting in the coming days.”.
The worst Gaza war in history started on October 7, when Hamas assaulted southern Israel, killing around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP calculation based on Israeli numbers.
They terrorists kidnapped 250 people; 129 of them are still in Gaza.
![Rev. Fr. Anthony Odiong, a US-based Nigerian Louisiana Catholic priest, was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for possessing child pornography, according to law authorities. The suspect is reportedly accused of many other cases of sexual assault. The Waco, Texas, Police Department announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that officers detained Father Anthony Odiong in Ave Maria, Florida, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service. Waco police announced in March that they had received "credible information" about a sexual assault allegedly committed by Odiong in Texas in 2012. “During the subsequent investigation, a case of possession of child pornography was uncovered,” the police said. The priest was apprehended in Florida by the Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Waco Police Department said that he will be extradited to Texas. Odiong had previously served in the Archdiocese of New Orleans before being removed as priest in December of last year due to controversy over homilies in which he claimed, among other things, that the Catholic Church was being taken over by "the gays." At the time, the priest was also accused of abusive behaviour; a Louisiana lady claimed in U.S. bankruptcy court that Odiong had committed both financial and sexual abuse against her. Prior to joining the New Orleans Archdiocese, Odiong served in at least two Texas parishes. On Tuesday, Waco police stated that during their sexual assault investigation, "the presence of other survivors was revealed." “Multiple women have come forward to tell similar experiences as the sexual assault survivor who reported the initial allegation,” the police department said. “Survivors’ experiences ranged from sexual assault and indecent assault, more commonly recognised as groping, and financial abuse, with some survivors experiencing every element of Anthony Odiong’s manipulation.” The police said they “believe there may be more survivors, and we wish to speak with anyone who [has] had similar encounters” with the priest. The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a brief news release on Tuesday noting Odiong's arrest in Florida. The archdiocese “encourages anyone with any information to contact law enforcement,” the release said.](https://chronicle.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ezgif-6-4730550ede-450x300.jpg "Odiong: US-based Nigerian Catholic priest convicted over sexual assault")
