TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Friday with security officials to discuss Gaza ceasefire talks, an Israeli official told The Associated Press.
The prime minister and security officials received an update from negotiators and instructed them to continue the talks in Qatar, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been mediating the indirect talks that have stalled repeatedly during 15 months of war. Just one brief ceasefire has been achieved, occurring in the earliest weeks of the fighting.
The recovery of the bodies of two hostages in Gaza this week again put pressure on Netanyahu from families and others to reach a deal to bring the remaining hostages home.
Also Friday, an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed at least two people and wounded two others, the country’s Health Ministry said. Lebanon’s state media reported the strike hit a car in the town of Tayr Debba.
Amid a tenuous ceasefire, Israel insists it has the right to attack Hezbollah anywhere in response to alleged truce violations. Both sides have until Jan. 26 to pull their forces out of southern Lebanon.
Lebanese state media reported that Israel carried out new home demolitions and explosions in several southern villages on Friday. This adds to the near-daily Israeli operations in Lebanon since the ceasefire took effect in late November — gunfire, demolishing buildings, tank shelling and airstrikes — that according the Health Ministry have killed at least 29 people and wounded more than 32.
Israel’s military also says it has carried out new airstrikes against what it calls Houthi rebel targets inside Yemen.
Its statement Friday said fighter jets struck “on the western coast and inland Yemen,” and targets included what it called military infrastructure sites in the Hizaz power station as well as military infrastructure in the Hodeida and Ras Isa ports on the west coast.
