Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed in New York City on Thursday ahead of his address to the United Nations General Assembly. During his flight to New York onboard Wing of Zion, Israel's state aircraft, Netanyahu authorized the airstrike which eliminated the commander of Hezbollah's aerial unit. A member of Netanyahu's entourage discussed the situation in the north and ruled out the possibility of a ceasefire. "We committed and we will remain committed to returning the residents of the north to their homes. There was no vote in the cabinet on a ceasefire and the issue did not even arise. The direction is that we are not going to have a ceasefire, we will continue fighting Hezbollah." The official also discussed the state of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. "We don't know that Sinwar's dead, he is cut off from communications. But if Sinwar is indeed dead, we think that could be significant for advancing a deal. Factually, we have not heard anything from Hamas about what is being said, I don't know if that's because of Sinwar or not." Regarding a hostage deal, the official said that "the Director of the Mossad is trying to move things along. There has been an attempt recently to discuss less problematic things, like the identities of the terrorists who will be released, to try to pull out an agreement from Hamas, but it doesn't respond even to that. The mediators receive answers from us and they don't come back with answers."
