Jerusalem:

Israel is fighting a “bloody and difficult war”, President Isaac Herzog said in a statement to mark the conflict reaching its half-year mark on Sunday.

“Tomorrow at 6:29 am (0329 GMT), we mark six months since the cruel terror attack and the horrific massacre,” Herzog said on Saturday, referring to Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel which started the war.

“Half a year since this crime against our sisters and brothers, against our state, this crime against humanity. Six months of a bloody and difficult war,” said the president, whose role is largely ceremonial

Herzog’s remarks come after the army announced it had recovered the body of Elad Katzir, a hostage it said had been murdered in captivity in Gaza in January.

They also came as tens of thousands of Israeli protested against right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war.

The October 7 attack by Hamas resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.

Of the 250 hostages seized by Palestinian militants, the army says 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 who are presumed dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 33,137 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrives at Ben Gurion airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 19, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Thursday that Israel has suffered an “unspeakable horrific act of terrorism” as he became the latest western leader to carry out a solidarity visit.

“I want you to know that the United Kingdom and I stand with you,” Mr. Sunak said on his arrival for meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog.

Mr. Sunak said on X, the former Twitter, that Israel was “a nation in grief” and pledged his support “against the evil that is terrorism”.

He follows U.S. President Joe Biden who was in Israel on Wednesday and Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz earlier this week. Others are expected.

Before leaving, Mr. Sunak said he would be concentrating on efforts to head off a wider conflict in the region after the October 7 attacks by Hamas which left about 1,400 people dead in Israel.

He is also expected to press the case for increased humanitarian aid to be let into Gaza, where the Hamas-controlled health ministry says around 3,500 people have died in Israeli air raids since the attacks.

Britain has increased its Palestinian aid package.

Israel has said it will allow food water and medicine into the beleaguered territory from Egypt.

In parallel, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is to visit Egypt, Turkey and Qatar “in the coming days”, according to the government.