The ceasefire deal to bring an end to the fighting in Gaza is teetering on the edge of collapse, with a US official warning that an ‘full blown confrontation’ could follow.
US, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari negotiators, who are expected to meet in Cairo this weekend, have for months struggled to bridge differences between Israel and Hamas.
US President Joe Biden stressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘the urgency of bringing the ceasefire and hostage release deal to closure and discussed upcoming talks in Cairo to remove any remaining obstacles,’ a White House statement said.
But Israel and Hamas held to their demands, with Politico quoting a US official warning that ‘if we don’t get the deal there’s a chance that Iean attacks and this escalates into a full-blown confrontation’.
A man carries a child injured in an Israeli strike on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2023
A picture taken from the southern Israeli city of Sderot on October 25, 2023
The mother, and immediate family of Valentin (Eli) Ghnassia, 23, who was killed in a battle with Hamas militants at Kibbutz Be’eeri near the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, grieve during his funeral on October 12, 2023
Children wait for food being distributed at a camp for internally displaced people where they live due to the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on June 11, 2024
An Israeli army M109 155mm self-propelled howitzer fires rounds near the border with Gaza in southern Israel on October 11, 2023
‘Israel will insist on the achievement of all of its objectives for the war, as they have been defined by the Security Cabinet, including that Gaza never again constitutes a security threat to Israel,’ Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
It also said Israel had not agreed to drop its demand to maintain troops in the Philadelphi Corridor, the border strip between Gaza and Egypt, an issue that has been a major sticking point.
A Hamas statement said its officials, meeting with the head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad about progress in the talks, reiterated key Hamas demands.
These include an end to Israel’s Gaza operation, a full Israeli pullout and a deal to exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The call between Biden and Netanyahu yesterday followed a whirlwind trip to the region by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that ended on Tuesday without producing a breakthrough in the 10-month-old war.
In Gaza itself, the Israeli military said jets hit around 30 targets throughout the enclave including tunnels, launch sites and an observation post.
It said troops killed dozens of armed fighters and seized weapons including explosives, grenades and automatic rifles.
The Israeli military struck a school and a nearby house in Gaza City, killing at least four people and wounding 15, including several children, Gaza’s Civil Emergency Service said.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it hit Hamas militants operating at a command centre inside a compound that previously served as a school.
It accused Hamas of continuing to operate from civilian facilities and areas, an allegation Gaza’s dominant Islamist militant group denies.
Commenting on Israel’s attack on the UN-run school, the head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, Philippe Lazzarini, wrote on X that ‘children reported killed and injured. Some were burnt to death.’
‘Gaza is no place for children anymore. They are the first casualty of this merciless war,’ he wrote. ‘A ceasefire is beyond overdue.’
Israeli military vehicles manoeuvre, near the Israel-Gaza border, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, August 21, 2024
Displaced Palestinians travel on a cart after fleeing the western part of Khan Younis, following an evacuation order by the Israeli army, amid Israel- Hamas conflict, in the central part of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, August 21, 2024
Smoke rises over the buildings as the Israeli airstrikes continue in Al-Rimal Neighbourhood of Gaza City, Gaza on October 9, 2023
Displaced Palestinians make their way after fleeing the western part of Khan Younis, following an evacuation order by the Israeli army, amid Israel- Hamas conflict, in the central part of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, August 21, 2024
In the town of Bani Suhaila near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, an Israeli airstrike killed seven Palestinians at a tent encampment for displaced people, medics said.
The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders in the heavily overcrowded area of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the fighting have sought shelter.
The orders, which the military said were needed to clear civilians from what had become ‘a dangerous combat zone’, were soon followed by tank fire with at least one person killed and several wounded by machine gun fire, medics and residents said.
The Hamas-run Palestinian health authority said that 40,000 people were killed by the fighting in Gaza since October.
The war began on October 7 when Hamas gunmen stormed Nova festival as well as several Israeli communities and military bases, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.