U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris called on Tuesday for an end to the Israel-Gaza war and said that Israel must not reoccupy the Palestinian enclave once the nearly year-old conflict comes to an end.

The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed that three Israeli hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza in December were “most likely” killed as a result of an Israeli airstrike.

An inquiry into the deaths of three Israeli hostages determined that they probably died as a result of a military airstrike targeting a Hamas commander.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday that the window was closing for a diplomatic solution to the standoff with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon.

The window for a diplomatic solution in the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in the northern Israeli border region is closing, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement issued on Monday.

Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday that prospects were dimming for a halt in nearly a year of fighting with Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Israeli defence ministry statement on Monday said Gallant "reiterated Israel's commitment to the removal of Hezbollah presence in southern Lebanon,