Israel says no ceasefire in Gaza as of now; Rubio calls for end of bombing

An Israeli government spokesperson said on Sunday that there was no ceasefire in place in Gaza, only a temporary halt in certain bombings.

The military can continue to act in Gaza for defensive purposes, Shosh Bedrosian said.

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However, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that Israel needs to stop bombing Gaza for the hostage release by the militant group Hamas to take place.

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"I think the Israelis and everyone acknowledge you can't release hostages in the middle of strikes, so the strikes will have to stop," Rubio told CBS News talk show "Face the Nation."

"There can't be a war going on in the middle of it," the top US diplomat said.

In further comments, Rubio stated that the war in Gaza has "not yet" ended.

Rubo further described the release of the hostages held by Hamas as the first phase, while details on what happens after that still need to be worked out.

He said Hamas had "basically" agreed to President Donald Trump's proposal and the framework for releasing the hostages, while meetings were underway to coordinate the logistics of that.

"They have also agreed, in principle and generalities, to enter into this idea about what's going to happen afterwards," he said. "A lot of details are going to have to be worked out there."

He said the US would know "very quickly" whether Hamas was serious or not during the current technical talks to coordinate the release of the hostages.

"Priority number one, the one that we think we can achieve something very quickly on hopefully, is the release of all the hostages in exchange for Israel moving back" to the yellow line - where Israel stood within Gaza in the middle of August - Rubio said.

He described the second phase of the long-term future of Gaza as "even harder."

"What happens after Israel pulls back to the yellow line, and potentially beyond that, as this thing develops? How do you create this Palestinian technocratic leadership that's not Hamas?" Rubio said. "How do you disarm any sort of terrorist groups that are going to be building tunnels and conducting attacks against Israel? How do you get them to demobilise?"

"All that work, that's going to be hard, but that's critical, because without that, you're not going to have lasting peace," he added.

(With inputs from AFP)