Israel has reiterated its refusal to halt its Gaza offensive for a resumption of hostage-release talks with Hamas, after mediator Qatar said it had given the Palestinian militants a US-backed truce proposal.
Efforts to wind down the almost eight-month-old war have stumbled over Israel’s declared aim of eliminating Hamas as a governing and military force, while Hamas has given no sign it would step down and wants the Israeli offensive called off.
“Any negotiations with Hamas would be conducted only under fire,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in remarks carried by Israeli media after he flew abroad a warplane to inspect the Gaza front.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is prepared for very strong action in northern Israel, saying it would restore security “one way or another” in an area targeted by the Iran-backed Hezbollah during months of hostilities.
Israel has announced a new military campaign against Hamas in central Gaza, while Palestinian medics have said airstrikes there had killed dozens of people ahead of talks between US and Qatari mediators to try to finalise a ceasefire deal.
The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they had fought gun battles with Israeli forces in areas throughout the enclave and fired anti-tank rockets and shells as the two sides sought the upper hand amid pressure to lay down their arms.
At least 44 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military strikes in central Gaza areas since yesterday, health officials in the enclave said.
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Two children were among the dead laid out this morning. Mourners said they had been killed along with their mother, who had been unable to leave when others in the neighbourhood did.
The Israeli military said jets were hitting Hamas militant targets in central Gaza while ground forces were operating “in a focused manner with guidance from intelligence” in the area of Al-Bureij – one of Gaza’s long established refugee settlements.
“The forces of the 98th Division began a precise campaign in the areas of East Bureij and East Deir al-Balah, above and belowground at the same time,” an Israeli military statement said.
Residents said Israeli forces had sent tanks into Bureij and planes and tanks pounded the nearby settlements of Al-Maghazi and Al-Nuseirat as well as Deir Al-Balah city, where tanks have not invaded.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters the Bien administration was waiting for a response from Hamas through the Qatari mediators to a ceasefire proposal that US President Joe Biden revealed last Friday.
Qatar said yesterday that the proposal was now much closer to the positions of both sides.
Hamas has said it views the contents of the plan positively and has criticised Washington for what it described as attempts to blame the Palestinian militant group for hampering it.
But a spokesman for Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, reiterated it could not agree to any deal unless Israel makes a “clear” commitment to a permanent truce and complete withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it cannot do that until Hamas is wiped out.
US officials say that since it is an Israeli plan, Israelis likely to accept it. Qatar has said Israel needs to give a clear position on the plan that represents the whole government, parts of which have opposed any kind of truce.
The Hamas-allied Islamic Jihad group said a delegation led by its leader Ziad al-Nakhala arrived in Cairo for talks with Egyptian mediators on ways to “end the Zionist aggression on Gaza Strip and efforts to send aid”.
Fighting continued in Rafah, the town on the border with Egypt which Israeli forces swept into last month in what the military said was a limited operation to root out Hamas’ last intact combat units.
“The forces found combat means and eliminated armed saboteurs who operated nearby and posed a threat,” it said.
Remaining residents in Rafah – from where most of the million people who had taken refuge there have fled again – said Israeli tanks mounted raids into the centre and deeper into the west before retreating east and south again.
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The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) issued a new plea on social media for a ceasefire, describing the lasting impact of almost eight months of war.
“The war in Gaza has upended millions of Palestinian lives and caused catastrophic damage to the natural environment that they depend upon for water, clean air, food and livelihoods. Restoring environmental services will take decades – and cannot even start until a ceasefire,” it said.
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas as it launched an air and ground offensive in Gaza last October after militants stormed across the border into southern Israel on 7 October, killing around1,200 people and taking more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies. About 120 hostages remain in Gaza.
The Israeli military campaign has killed more than 36,000 people in densely populated Gaza, according to its health authorities, who say thousands more bodies are buried under rubble.
