Israel fights Hamas in Gaza, but says it is ready for new truce negotiations

Rafa:

Israel’s military shelled Gaza on Sunday, but officials also said diplomatic efforts were expected to resume in the coming days toward a truce and an agreement on the release of hostages.

Airstrikes and artillery shelling rained down again overnight on northern, central and southern Gaza in the more than seven-month war sparked by the Hamas attack on October 7.

The fighting centered on the far southern city of Rafah, where Israel has vowed to destroy the last remaining Hamas battalions despite a chorus of international opposition to a ground invasion of the city.

Israel’s attack on the site since early May prompted Egypt to close its side of the Rafah border crossing – but on Sunday, Egyptian aid trucks entered Gaza again, this time through the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing.

US President Joe Biden said on Saturday that his administration was engaging in “urgent diplomacy to ensure an immediate ceasefire that brings hostages home.”

Mediator Egypt also continued “its efforts to revive ceasefire negotiations,” said Al-Qahera News, which has links to Egyptian intelligence.

Israeli media said intelligence chief David Barnea agreed to a new framework for ceasefire talks at a meeting with the head of the US CIA and Qatari mediators in Paris.

An Israeli official, requesting anonymity, told AFP on Saturday that “there is the intention to renew these negotiations this week.”

However, a senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told Qatar’s Al Jazeera network that so far “there is nothing practical on this issue. It’s just talk coming from the Israeli side.”

Bodies pulled from the rubble

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under increasing domestic pressure over the fate of the hostages, with protesters gathering again in Tel Aviv on Saturday.

In recent days, the bodies of seven dead hostages have been recovered from Gaza, increasing the fear and pain of the families of the remaining captives.

In Tel Aviv, a crowd of several thousand people observed a minute’s silence on Saturday for the dead prisoners.

“I feared this moment,” said Avivit Yablonka, whose brother Chanan was brought dead from Gaza, at the rally. “I will continue to scream, support, fight and do everything I can to ensure that all the hostages return home.”

Meanwhile, Hamas said on Saturday it had taken “prisoner” at least one Israeli soldier in an ambush in the Jabalia camp.

The allegation was denied by the army, which said there had been “no incident in which a soldier was kidnapped”.

The war broke out after the Hamas attack on October 7 in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli figures.

Agents also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 who the army says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive killed at least 35,903 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-administered territory.

The UN has warned of imminent famine in the besieged territory, where most hospitals are no longer functioning.

In the latest fighting, Gaza’s civil defense agency said on Sunday it had recovered six bodies after a house was targeted in an attack in Rafah’s eastern neighborhood of Khirbet al-Adas.

Witnesses said Israeli artillery also targeted the Yibna central camp in Rafah, and that heavy artillery shelling hit the city’s Sooq al-Halal and Qishta neighborhoods.

Elsewhere in Gaza, Israeli airstrikes targeted the Nuseirat camp and witnesses said heavy artillery shelling hit northern Gaza.

Israeli tanks in Gaza City fired heavy fire at targets in the Zeitun and Netzarim area, an AFP reporter said.

Meanwhile, Israel’s military said Sunday that aid arrivals have been stepped up, both through a new US-built pier and through its own land crossings, Kerem Shalom and Erez West.

“This week, after the pier began operating for the first time, a total of 1,806 pallets of food were transferred on 127 trucks to international aid agency logistics centers in the Gaza Strip,” he said.

“In total this week, 2,065 humanitarian aid trucks were inspected and transferred through the Kerem Shalom and Erez West crossings, which is almost double the number from the previous week.”

US Central Command said on Saturday that four US Army ships supporting the pier broke free from their moorings and ran aground in rough seas, with Israel helping in the recovery effort.

Global resistance

As the bloodiest war ever in Gaza rages, Israel faces fierce global resistance due to the rising number of civilian deaths and the destruction of vast areas of Gaza.

Last week, it faced historic measures from two international courts based in The Hague and three European governments.

Last Monday, the International Criminal Court prosecutor said he would seek arrest warrants on war crimes charges against Netanyahu and his defense minister, as well as three senior Hamas figures.

On Wednesday, Ireland, Norway and Spain said they would recognize the creation of a Palestinian state by May 28, a move Israel angrily rejected as a “reward for terrorism.”

And on Friday, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its offensive on Rafah, demanded the release of hostages and called for the “unhindered supply” of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The ICJ ruling came in a case brought by South Africa, alleging that Israel’s military operation amounts to “genocide”.

It ruled that Israel must “immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the province of Rafah, which could inflict living conditions on the Palestinian group in Gaza that could lead to its physical destruction, total or partial.”

Israel has denied any military operations in the Rafah area that “could cause the destruction of the Palestinian civilian population, in whole or in part.”

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)