Talks on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip are expected to resume this week, and several officials said the devastation caused by Israel’s nine-month offensive likely helped Hamas soften its demands.
Over the weekend Hamas appeared to abandon its long-standing demand for Israel to promise to end the war as part of any ceasefire agreement. The sudden change has raised new hopes for progress in internationally negotiated negotiations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted on Sunday that military pressure – including Israel’s current two-month offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah – “is what has led Hamas to enter into negotiations.” ”.
Netanyahu’s office said a team of Israeli negotiators will resume talks this week on a ceasefire with Hamas that had been stalled for weeks, signaling progress toward an agreement to end the war in Gaza. But he said “there are still gaps between the parties.”
Hamas wants a deal that ensures Israeli troops completely leave Gaza and the war ends, while Israel says it cannot stop the war before the Palestinian militant group is eliminated. Postwar governance and security control of the enclave have also been contentious issues.
Israel launched war in Gaza after Hamas attack on October 7in which militants swept into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 250.
Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombings have killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s report. Ministry of Healthwhich does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
The war has caused massive devastation across the besieged territory and displaced most of its 2.3 million inhabitants. often several times. Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and breakdown of law and order have restricted humanitarian aid efforts, causing widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine. The highest UN court has concluded that there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza – an accusation that Israel strongly denies.
At the moment:
— The destruction of Gaza probably helped pressure Hamas to soften ceasefire demandssay several officials.
— Rafah is a dusty, rubble-filled ghost town Two months after Israel invaded to eradicate Hamas.
—Gaza The football stadium is now a shelter. for thousands of displaced Palestinians.
— A look at how settlements have grown in the West Bank over the years.
— Reformist Pezeshkian defeats hardliners to win Iran’s presidential elections, promising rapprochement with the West.
— Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza on https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here’s the latest:
TEL AVIV, Israel – A group representing the families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Monday urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to postpone his speech to the US Congress until an agreement is signed to release to their relatives.
Netanyahu will deliver a speech to a joint session of Congress on July 24. Israel and Hamas are currently locked in some of the most serious talks in months over a deal that would stop the war in exchange for the release of hostages and hundreds of people. of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
The group of hostage families called on Netanyahu to prioritize an agreement before traveling abroad.
“A speech without concrete actions to seal the agreement and bring our loved ones home is premature and misses the target of the highest priority of this war: the return of all hostages,” he said in a statement.
The hostages’ families are increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu and the inability or unwillingness of Netanyahu and his government to bring the captives home. Protests across the country on Sunday demanded that Netanyahu conclude a deal that frees the hostages and called for his resignation.
Impatience was also felt on Monday, when the brother of a hostage was forcibly removed from a parliamentary committee meeting. The video showed half a dozen security guards dragging Danny Elgarat by his arms and legs as he went on a rampage in the room, with participants shouting, “Shame on you!”
Elgarat was asked to leave the room after arguing with another relative of a hostage and accusing the committee chairman, an ultra-nationalist lawmaker, of funding a fringe advocacy group for hostage families that opposes stopping the war in exchange for to free the captives, Israeli media reported.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Several officials in the Middle East and the United States believe that the level of devastation in the Gaza Strip caused by a nine-month Israeli offensive has likely helped pressure Hamas to soften its demands for a ceasefire agreement. fire.
Over the weekend Hamas appeared to abandon its long-standing demand for Israel to promise to end the war as part of any ceasefire agreement. The sudden change has raised new hopes for progress in internationally negotiated negotiations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted on Sunday that military pressure – including Israel’s current two-month offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah – “is what has led Hamas to enter into negotiations.” ”.
Netanyahu’s office said a team of Israeli negotiators will resume talks this week on a ceasefire with Hamas, signaling progress toward an agreement to end the war in Gaza. He said Friday that negotiators will emphasize to American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators that “there are still gaps between the parties” during talks in Doha, Qatar’s capital.
Hamas, an Islamic militant group that seeks the destruction of Israel, is highly secretive and little is known about its internal workings.
But in recent internal communications seen by The Associated Press, messages signed by several senior Hamas figures in Gaza urged the group’s exiled political leaders to accept the ceasefire proposal put forward by U.S. President Joe Biden.
The messages, shared by a Middle East official familiar with the ongoing negotiations, described the heavy losses Hamas has suffered on the battlefield and the dire conditions in the war-torn territory. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to share the content of Hamas’ internal communications.
CAIRO – Residents fled their homes and shelters in eastern Gaza City overnight on Monday after the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of five residential blocks in the area, where heavy clashes broke out with Palestinian militants.
It was unclear how many people had fled the area, but residents said thousands had left to seek safety. The United Nations and other aid groups did not immediately have estimates.
The new exodus occurred in the northern Gaza Strip, an area hit hard in the first weeks of the war and which Israel had previously said it had taken control of. The evacuation orders are the latest sign that Hamas is regrouping in areas said to be under Israeli control. Residents also reported heavy shelling by Israeli warplanes in the eastern and southern parts of Gaza City.
Ground fighting has also raged in and around the Shijaiyah neighborhood over the past two weeks.
“We fled in the dark amidst heavy attacks,” said Sayeda Abdel-Baki, a mother of three who was taking refuge in her relatives’ home. “This is my fifth trip.”
The Israeli military said it was carrying out “counterterrorism” operations in Gaza City after intelligence indicated militant activity there. Its statement does not specify in which areas of the city it was operating.
Fadel Naeem, director of Al-Ahli hospital, which is near the evacuated area, said patients and their companions fled the facility in panic. He said there were no evacuation orders for the hospital, but that “hundreds of patients and companions panicked and left fearing the worst.” He said patients in critical condition have been evacuated to other hospitals in northern Gaza.
The Israeli army renewed its ground offensive in Shijaiyah last month, forcing between 60,000 and 80,000 people to flee the area.
BEIRUT – Israeli airstrikes in several parts of southern Lebanon early Monday morning killed at least one person and hundreds of animals.
The attacks came as tensions continued to rise between the Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Israeli army along the Lebanese-Israeli border, and as talks on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and Israel resumed.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said an Israeli attack in Qlaileh, near the coastal city of Tyre, targeting a motorcycle killed one person and wounded another.
Three other attacks in Jabal Toura in the southeast destroyed a shepherd’s house and a cattle farm, he added.
Hussein Ammar, owner of the farm, said nearly 200 cattle died.
“Half my stock is gone,” he said.
Fighting since October 8 has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border. In northern Israel, 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have died. In Lebanon, more than 450 people have died, mostly combatants but also dozens of civilians.
TEL AVIV, Israel – Nine months into the war in Gaza, Israeli protesters blocked roads across the country on Sunday, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign and pushing for a ceasefire to bring back dozens of hostages held by Hamas.
The demonstrations come as part of long-running efforts to negotiate a truce. gained momentum last week when Hamas abandoned a key demand for an Israeli commitment to end the war. The militant group still wants mediators to ensure a permanent ceasefire, while Netanyahu vows to keep fighting until Israel destroys Hamas’s military and governance capabilities.
“Any agreement will allow Israel to return and fight until all the objectives of the war are achieved,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday that would likely deepen Hamas’ concerns about the proposal.
Sunday’s “Day of Disruption” began at 6:29 a.m., the same time Hamas militants launched the first rockets into Israel in the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war. Protesters blocked main roads and demonstrated outside the homes of government ministers.
Near the Gaza border, Israeli protesters released 1,500 black and yellow balloons to symbolize fellow citizens who were killed and kidnapped.
The United States has united the world behind a proposal for a gradual ceasefire in which Hamas would release remaining captives in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. But Hamas wants assurances from mediators that the war will end, while Israel wants the freedom to resume fighting if talks on freeing the latest group of hostages drag on.
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