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“In terms of how this is playing out, I think one thing that’s important to keep in mind is deterrence is not a light switch,” the White House deputy national security adviser, Jon Finer, told ABC News “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz on Sunday. “It requires a pattern and a practice of activity over time and can’t be accessed based on a snapshot of what’s happening at any given moment.”

Raddatz had asked Finer: “Where does this end? It’s in this stage of tit for tat.”

President Joe Biden acknowledged to reporters last week that the strikes weren’t stopping the Houthis but that they would continue.

“The purposes here go well beyond deterrence,” Finer told Raddatz. “We are also seeking to degrade the Houthis’ ability to continue launching these attacks.”

Since strikes on Red Sea ships began escalating in recent weeks, the U.S. has also announced an international task force to, essentially, help police the Red Sea area from further attacks.

The U.S. has taken diplomatic steps, too, Finer said on “This Week.”

“We’ve imposed sanctions on the Houthis, we have gotten dozens of countries to issue statements condemning their attacks,” he said.

Last week, the Biden administration announced that the Houthis would once again be classified as a terrorist organization, reimposing a designation the White House had earlier lifted out of concerns about how it could affect Yemen’s ongoing civil war.

“This is not an attack just on the United States,” Finer said. “This is an attack on the entire global economy and the world is standing up and saying they won’t tolerate that.”

Both the Houthis in Yemen and Iran, whom the U.S. calls a key backer of the Houthis, have said they are carrying out strikes in response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in order to take out Hamas in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack.

The altercations in the Red Sea, at Israel’s border with Lebanon and at U.S. military sites in Iraq and Syria, as well as elsewhere in the Middle East, have raised concerns that Israel’s war with Hamas could spill into a wider regional conflict.

That’s something the U.S. has maintained it doesn’t want.

At the same time, U.S. officials have said they must respond to strikes from Iranian-allied groups like the Houthis and others.

Storm Isha had also forced 24 aborted landings by 1700 GMT, while 27 flights opted to divert to other airports, Dublin Airport said in a post on social media platform X.

Ireland’s national meteorological service Met Eireann issued an orange weather warning early on Sunday for most of the country, including Dublin, meaning the winds could significantly impact people, property and activity in an area.

Parts of the west and northwest were placed under a more severe red warning.

Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport cancelled 130 flights scheduled for Monday as a preventive measure because of strong winds expected when Storm Isha reaches the Netherlands, the airport said on Sunday.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin, Editng by Angus MacSwan)

Storm Isha had also forced 24 aborted landings by 1700 GMT, while 27 flights opted to divert to other airports, Dublin Airport said in a post on social media platform X.

Ireland’s national meteorological service Met Eireann issued an orange weather warning early on Sunday for most of the country, including Dublin, meaning the winds could significantly impact people, property and activity in an area.

Parts of the west and northwest were placed under a more severe red warning.

Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport cancelled 130 flights scheduled for Monday as a preventive measure because of strong winds expected when Storm Isha reaches the Netherlands, the airport said on Sunday.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin, Editng by Angus MacSwan)

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected conditions presented by Hamas to end the war and release hostages that would include Israel’s complete withdrawal and leaving Hamas in power in Gaza.

As Israeli planes resumed bombing Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters the Israeli leader’s refusal to end the military offensive in Gaza “means there is no chance for the return of the (Israeli) captives.”

“In exchange for the release of our hostages, Hamas demands the end of the war, the withdrawal of our forces from Gaza, the release of all the murderers and rapists,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “And leaving Hamas intact.”

“I reject outright the terms of surrender of the monsters of Hamas,” Netanyahu said.

Under a deal brokered in late November by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, more than 100 of the estimated 240 hostages taken captive to Gaza during an attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 were freed in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Since then, Netanyahu has faced mounting pressure to secure the release the 136 hostages who remain in captivity.

The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum demanded in a statement that Netanyahu “clearly state that we will not abandon civilians, soldiers, and others kidnapped in the October debacle.”

“We must advance the deal now,” it said. “If the prime minister decides to sacrifice the hostages, he should show leadership and honestly share his position with the Israeli public.”

Relatives of the hostages at a protest outside Netanyahu’s residence demanded action.

“We need the government to now fix the problem that they have created and get these hostages home immediately, said Jon Polin, father of Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

Netanyahu also took a stronger line on the issue of Palestinian statehood than before.

“I will not compromise on full Israeli security control of all territory west of the Jordan River,” he said.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday he spoke with Netanyahu about possible solutions for creation of an independent Palestinian state, suggesting one path could involve a non-militarized government.

Netanyahu appeared on Saturday to push back against Biden’s remarks about Palestinian statehood after the war against Hamas in Gaza ends as the two men do not see eye-to-eye on Palestinians having a state, a solution Biden has advocated to achieve long-term peace.

In the statement on Sunday, Netanyahu repeated that he would insist upon “full Israeli security control over all the territory west of Jordan.”

Netanyahu said he had firmly stood up to “international and internal pressures” to change this position and would continue to do so.

“My insistence is what prevented for years the establishment of a Palestinian state that would have posed an existential danger to Israel,” he said.

(Reporting by Emily Rose; additional reporting by Reuters TV and David Brunnstrom in Washington; editing by Giles Elgood and Richard Chang)

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected conditions presented by Hamas to end the war and release hostages that would include Israel’s complete withdrawal and leaving Hamas in power in Gaza.

As Israeli planes resumed bombing Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters the Israeli leader’s refusal to end the military offensive in Gaza “means there is no chance for the return of the (Israeli) captives.”

“In exchange for the release of our hostages, Hamas demands the end of the war, the withdrawal of our forces from Gaza, the release of all the murderers and rapists,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “And leaving Hamas intact.”

“I reject outright the terms of surrender of the monsters of Hamas,” Netanyahu said.

Under a deal brokered in late November by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, more than 100 of the estimated 240 hostages taken captive to Gaza during an attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 were freed in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Since then, Netanyahu has faced mounting pressure to secure the release the 136 hostages who remain in captivity.

The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum demanded in a statement that Netanyahu “clearly state that we will not abandon civilians, soldiers, and others kidnapped in the October debacle.”

“We must advance the deal now,” it said. “If the prime minister decides to sacrifice the hostages, he should show leadership and honestly share his position with the Israeli public.”

Relatives of the hostages at a protest outside Netanyahu’s residence demanded action.

“We need the government to now fix the problem that they have created and get these hostages home immediately, said Jon Polin, father of Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

Netanyahu also took a stronger line on the issue of Palestinian statehood than before.

“I will not compromise on full Israeli security control of all territory west of the Jordan River,” he said.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday he spoke with Netanyahu about possible solutions for creation of an independent Palestinian state, suggesting one path could involve a non-militarized government.

Netanyahu appeared on Saturday to push back against Biden’s remarks about Palestinian statehood after the war against Hamas in Gaza ends as the two men do not see eye-to-eye on Palestinians having a state, a solution Biden has advocated to achieve long-term peace.

In the statement on Sunday, Netanyahu repeated that he would insist upon “full Israeli security control over all the territory west of Jordan.”

Netanyahu said he had firmly stood up to “international and internal pressures” to change this position and would continue to do so.

“My insistence is what prevented for years the establishment of a Palestinian state that would have posed an existential danger to Israel,” he said.

(Reporting by Emily Rose; additional reporting by Reuters TV and David Brunnstrom in Washington; editing by Giles Elgood and Richard Chang)

The strike appeared to be part of a shift in Israeli strategy toward targeted killings in Lebanon after more than three months of near-daily clashes with Hezbollah militants on the border against the backdrop of the war in Gaza.

Hezbollah announced that one of its members, identified as Fadel Shaar, had been killed in the strike in the town of Kafra.

Several hours later, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that a civilian woman wounded in the strike, Samar al-Sayyed Mohammed, had died of her injuries.

Local civil defense and hospital officials said several others were wounded.

Video from the scene showed a passenger sedan in flames next to a small truck stopped in the middle of the road.

The Israeli military did not comment on the strike.

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, Hezbollah forces have engaged in near-daily clashes with Israeli troops along the border.

While the clashes had previously been limited mainly to a narrow strip within a few kilometers (miles) from the border, Israel in recent weeks appears to have moved to a strategy of targeted killings of figures from Hezbollah and allied groups, sometimes hitting in areas relatively far from the border, as was the case in Sunday’s strike.

On Saturday, another strike near the Lebanese port city of Tyre killed two people in a car — one of them a Hezbollah commander — and two people in a nearby orchard. The commander, Ali Hudruj, was buried Sunday in south Lebanon. The other occupant of the car, tech sector businessman Mohammad Baqir Diab, was identified as a civilian and was buried in Beirut on Sunday.

On Jan. 2, a presumed Israeli airstrike killed a top Hamas official, Saleh Arouri, in a suburb of Beirut, the first such strike in Lebanon’s capital since Israel and Hezbollah fought a brutal one-month war in 2006.

Speaking at Hudruj’s funeral Sunday, Hezbollah Member of Parliament Hussein Jeshi said Israel had “resorted to the method of assassinating some members of the resistance” to compensate for being unable to reach a military victory against Hamas after more than 100 days of war in Gaza.

The Lebanese militant group said in a statement later Sunday that it had launched an attack against the town of Avivim in northern Israel in retaliation for the strike in Kafra and for other “attacks that targeted Lebanese villages and civilians.”

Israel did not comment on the strike specifically but announced it had struck Hezbollah targets in several locations in Lebanon on Sunday. It later said that an anti-tank missile had hit a house in Avivim and no injuries were reported.

With dangers of a regional conflict flaring on multiple fronts, officials from the United States and Europe have engaged in a flurry of shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks between Israel and Lebanon, attempting to head off an escalation of the conflict into a full-on war on the Lebanese front.

___

Sewell reported from Beirut. Associated Press journalists Ahmad Mantash in Sidon, Ali Sharaffedine in Beirut and Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

The strike appeared to be part of a shift in Israeli strategy toward targeted killings in Lebanon after more than three months of near-daily clashes with Hezbollah militants on the border against the backdrop of the war in Gaza.

Hezbollah announced that one of its members, identified as Fadel Shaar, had been killed in the strike in the town of Kafra.

Several hours later, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that a civilian woman wounded in the strike, Samar al-Sayyed Mohammed, had died of her injuries.

Local civil defense and hospital officials said several others were wounded.

Video from the scene showed a passenger sedan in flames next to a small truck stopped in the middle of the road.

The Israeli military did not comment on the strike.

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, Hezbollah forces have engaged in near-daily clashes with Israeli troops along the border.

While the clashes had previously been limited mainly to a narrow strip within a few kilometers (miles) from the border, Israel in recent weeks appears to have moved to a strategy of targeted killings of figures from Hezbollah and allied groups, sometimes hitting in areas relatively far from the border, as was the case in Sunday’s strike.

On Saturday, another strike near the Lebanese port city of Tyre killed two people in a car — one of them a Hezbollah commander — and two people in a nearby orchard. The commander, Ali Hudruj, was buried Sunday in south Lebanon. The other occupant of the car, tech sector businessman Mohammad Baqir Diab, was identified as a civilian and was buried in Beirut on Sunday.

On Jan. 2, a presumed Israeli airstrike killed a top Hamas official, Saleh Arouri, in a suburb of Beirut, the first such strike in Lebanon’s capital since Israel and Hezbollah fought a brutal one-month war in 2006.

Speaking at Hudruj’s funeral Sunday, Hezbollah Member of Parliament Hussein Jeshi said Israel had “resorted to the method of assassinating some members of the resistance” to compensate for being unable to reach a military victory against Hamas after more than 100 days of war in Gaza.

The Lebanese militant group said in a statement later Sunday that it had launched an attack against the town of Avivim in northern Israel in retaliation for the strike in Kafra and for other “attacks that targeted Lebanese villages and civilians.”

Israel did not comment on the strike specifically but announced it had struck Hezbollah targets in several locations in Lebanon on Sunday. It later said that an anti-tank missile had hit a house in Avivim and no injuries were reported.

With dangers of a regional conflict flaring on multiple fronts, officials from the United States and Europe have engaged in a flurry of shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks between Israel and Lebanon, attempting to head off an escalation of the conflict into a full-on war on the Lebanese front.

___

Sewell reported from Beirut. Associated Press journalists Ahmad Mantash in Sidon, Ali Sharaffedine in Beirut and Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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