AFP journalists in the Gaza Strip witnessed artillery strikes in Rafah on Friday.
Palestinian Territories:
Israel launched new attacks on the Gaza Strip on Friday after negotiators seeking a long-stalled truce agreement left talks in Cairo without reaching an agreement.
AFP journalists in the Gaza Strip on Friday witnessed artillery strikes in Rafah, on the territory’s southern border with Egypt, while witnesses reported airstrikes and fighting in Gaza City, further north.
The Israeli and Hamas negotiating teams left Cairo on Thursday after what their Egyptian hosts described as a “two-day round” of indirect negotiations over the terms of a truce in Gaza, according to Al- Qahera News, linked to Egyptian intelligence.
Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip and whose unprecedented attacks on October 7 against Israel sparked war there, said its delegation had left for Qatar, headquarters of the Palestinian fighting group’s political leadership.
“The negotiating delegation left Cairo for Doha. In practice, the occupation (Israel) rejected the proposal presented by the mediators and raised objections to it on several core issues,” Hamas said in a message to other Palestinian factions, adding that the proposal remained aside.
“So the ball is now completely in the hands of the occupation.”
Hamas said on Monday it accepted a ceasefire proposal presented by mediators.
The agreement, the group said, involved the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of Palestinians displaced by the war and the exchange of hostages held by militants for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, with the aim of a “permanent ceasefire”.
At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called the proposal “far from Israel’s essential demands” but said the government would still send negotiators to Cairo.
Israel has long resisted the idea of a permanent ceasefire, insisting it must finish the work of dismantling Hamas.
‘A way forward’
Mediator Egypt said the two sides must show “flexibility” to reach an agreement on a ceasefire and exchange of hostages and prisoners in the seven-month war, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.
CIA Director William Burns, who is also part of the truce effort, is expected to return to the United States from the Middle East on Friday, the White House said.
“That doesn’t mean there aren’t still discussions going on,” said White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
“We still believe there is a way forward, but it will take some leadership on both sides.”
But in a makeshift refugee camp in Rafah, displaced Gazan Inas Mazen al-Shami said she was fed up with the delay.
“We don’t have money and we don’t have the means to move from one place to another repeatedly. We don’t have any means,” she said.
The Gaza war began with Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP report using official Israeli data.
During the attack, the militants also captured about 250 hostages, of whom Israel estimates 128 remain in Gaza, including 36 who authorities say are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive killed at least 34,904 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-administered territory.
Focus on Rafa
All attention has turned to Rafah in recent weeks, where the population has risen to around 1.5 million after hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled fighting and shelling in other areas of Gaza in a desperate search for safety.
Countries around the world, including Israel’s main backer the United States, have urged Israel not to extend its ground offensive into Rafah, citing fears of a large number of civilian casualties.
Israel insists, however, that to achieve its war aims it must send ground troops to the city, where it claims Hamas military leaders are hiding.
Since Tuesday, Israel has conducted military operations in parts of Rafah and taken control of a key border crossing into Egypt, drawing condemnation from aid groups that rely on the crossing to send assistance to the territory.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden issued his harshest warning to Israel since the start of the war, saying he would halt some US weapons supplies to Israel if it carried out its ground attack earlier. very threatened.
Biden told CNN: “If they go to Rafah, I will not provide the weapons that were used…to deal with the cities.”
“We will not supply the weapons and artillery shells that were used,” he added.
In Israel’s first reaction to Biden’s threat, its UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, classified it as a “very disappointing statement”.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not respond directly to the US threat.
However, he said in a statement: “If we have to be alone, we will be alone.”
This has been his repeated refrain in recent days, as international and domestic criticism of his handling of the war intensified.
‘No fuel, no movement’
Israel’s military said on Wednesday it was reopening another aid crossing into Gaza, Kerem Shalom, as well as the Erez crossing into northern Gaza.
But the head of the UN humanitarian office in the Palestinian territories, Andrea De Domenico, told AFP that military activity in Kerem Shalom had made the delivery of civilian aid virtually impossible.
He said the closure of the Rafah crossing, the only one equipped for fuel deliveries, had effectively halted aid operations.
“In Gaza there are no stocks” of fuel, he said. That “means no movement. It is completely paralyzing humanitarian operations.”
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini announced on Thursday that the agency was closing its East Jerusalem headquarters after the latest in a series of attacks by “Israeli extremists” put its staff at “serious risk.”
Lazzarini said the complex will remain closed “until adequate security is restored.”
A US container ship loaded with aid for Gaza left Cyprus on Thursday in a new sea corridor test to bring aid to the besieged Palestinian territory, the Cyprus government said.
US military engineers have been setting up a temporary pier to unload aid deliveries, but work has been delayed due to rough seas.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the pier would “significantly increase” the volume of aid reaching Gaza, but said it was not a “substitute” for greater land access through Israel.
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