{"id":67078,"date":"2025-09-16T06:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T06:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/67078\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T06:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T06:57:07","slug":"gaza-is-burning-says-israels-defence-minister-after-heavy-strikes-overnight-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/67078\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Gaza is burning,\u2019 says Israel\u2019s defence minister, after heavy strikes overnight \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/israel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/israel\/\">Israel<\/a>\u2019s defence minister said on Tuesday that \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/gaza-strip\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/gaza-strip\/\">Gaza is burning<\/a>\u201d after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/israel-hamas-conflict\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/israel-hamas-conflict\/\">heavy strikes<\/a> overnight targeted Gaza City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Israel Katz\u2019s remarks come as the country\u2019s military has been planning a new offensive targeting Gaza City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">US secretary of state <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/marco-rubio\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/marco-rubio\">Marco Rubio<\/a>, speaking to journalists while leaving Israel for Qatar, suggested the offensive had begun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He said: \u201cThe Israelis have begun to take operations there. So we think we have a very short window of time in which a deal can happen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe don\u2019t have months anymore, and we probably have days and maybe a few weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cOur number one choice is that this ends through a negotiated settlement where Hamas says: \u2018We\u2019re going to demilitarise, we\u2019re no longer going to pose a threat,\u2019\u201d the US secretary of state told reporters. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cSometimes when you\u2019re dealing with a group of savages like Hamas, that\u2019s not possible, but we hope it can happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Israeli military has not responded to questions for hours over whether the offensive had begun.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Marco Rubio speaks to the press as he departs Tel Aviv for Qatar. Photograph: NATHAN HOWARD\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images          \" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EEQAQNGPJMG6XR7X364UBXMV2U.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Marco Rubio speaks to the press as he departs Tel Aviv for Qatar. Photograph: NATHAN HOWARD\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images           <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Both prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Mr Rubio said on Monday the only way to end the conflict in Gaza is through the elimination of Hamas and the release of the remaining 48 hostages \u2013 with around 20 believed to be alive \u2013 setting aside calls for an interim ceasefire in favour of an immediate end to the conflict.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Hamas has said it will only free the remaining hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7th, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Most of the hostages have since been released in ceasefires brokered in part by Qatar or other deals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Israel\u2019s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,871 Palestinians, according to Gaza\u2019s Hamas-controlled health ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, says women and children make up around half the dead. \u2013 Agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s defence minister said on Tuesday that \u201cGaza is burning\u201d after heavy strikes overnight targeted Gaza City. Israel&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,3761,69,6,71,3857,11,12,15,16,6587,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-67078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-gaza-strip","13":"tag-hamas","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-israel-hamas-conflict","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-marco-rubio","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-world","26":"tag-world-news","27":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}