Gaza hostage-related issues discussed

GAZA, Dec 17 (Reuters/BBC/AFP): Israel appeared to confirm that new negotiations were under way to recover hostages held by Hamas, after a source said Israel's intelligence chief met the prime minister of Qatar, a country mediating in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a press conference on Saturday the war in Gaza was existential and must be fought until victory. He said Gaza would be demilitarised and under Israeli security control.
Israel's offensive in Gaza helped clinch a partial hostage-release deal in November, Netanyahu said, vowing to maintain intense military pressure on Hamas. He has vowed to destroy the militant Palestinian group, which runs the densely populated strip.
"The instruction I am giving the negotiating team is predicated on this pressure, without which we have nothing," he said.
Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and captured 240 hostages in a surprise raid into Israel on Oct. 7. Israel's counteroffensive has killed close to 19,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities, and left thousands buried in the rubble.
French top diplomat in Israel
to call for Gaza truce
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna arrived in Israel Sunday where she was due to press for an "immediate and durable" truce in the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Colonna will meet her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen in Tel Aviv, as Israel presses on with its military offensive after the October 7 attacks that has left much of Gaza in ruins and sent tensions spiralling across the region.
Paris on Saturday condemned an Israeli strike in Gaza that killed a French foreign ministry employee, demanding that "light be shed" on the circumstances.
Colonna is also due to meet the families of French hostages still held in Gaza and to call for an "immediate and durable new humanitarian truce", according to a foreign ministry statement.
British, German foreign ministers
support 'sustainable ceasefire'
The British foreign secretary has said he would like to see a "sustainable ceasefire" in the Israel-Gaza conflict. Lord Cameron also warned "too many civilians have been killed" in Gaza.
More than 18,000 people have been killed, including thousands of children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. His intervention in a Sunday Times article marks a shift in tone from the UK government, but stops short of calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Penning a joint article with Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Lord Cameron said he supported a ceasefire only if it was sustainable in the long term. He said: "Our goal cannot simply be an end to fighting today. It must be peace lasting for days, years, generations.
WHO team calls Al-Shifa
hospital a 'bloodbath'
The emergency department at the Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza, devastated by Israeli bombardments, is "a blood bath" and is "in need of resuscitation", the WHO said Sunday.
A team from the World Health Organisation and other United Nations agencies was able to deliver medical supplies Saturday to the hospital, the largest in the Palestinian territory.
In a statement the WHO said that "tens of thousands of displaced people are using the hospital building and grounds for shelter", and that there is "a severe shortage" of drinking water and food.
Israeli hostages killed in Gaza
were holding white flag
Three Israeli hostages killed mistakenly in Gaza by Israeli forces had been holding up a white flag, a military official said on Saturday, citing an initial inquiry into the incident that has shaken the country.
A soldier saw the hostages emerging tens of metres from Israeli forces on Friday in Shejaiya, an area of intense combat in northern Gaza where Hamas militants operate in civilian attire and use deception tactics, the official said.
"They're all without shirts and they have a stick with a white cloth on it. The soldier feels threatened and opens fire. He declares that they're terrorists. They (the Israeli forces) open fire. Two (hostages) are killed immediately," the official told reporters in a phone briefing.
The third hostage was wounded and retreated into a nearby building where he called for help in Hebrew, the official said.