Hamas to attend talks in Cairo
THE leader of Hamas was expected in Cairo yesterday for talks on a proposed truce in Gaza, as Israel kept up its offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Hamas was reviewing a proposal for a six-week truce in its war with Israel, a source said, after mediators gathered in Paris, with international efforts towards a new pause in the devastating war gathering pace.
In Gaza, there was no let-up in fighting or aerial bombardment, with the focus of combat in the southern city of Khan Yunis, where Israel claims leading Hamas militants are hiding.
Overnight, witnesses said several Israeli air strikes hit the city, while aid and health workers have reported heavy fighting, particularly around two hospitals. According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, 119 people were killed in the latest strikes.
“There’s a massacre taking place right now,” said Leo Cans, head of mission for NGO Doctors Without Borders for the Palestinian Territories.
Israel accuses Hamas of operating from tunnels under hospitals in Gaza and of using medical facilities as command centres, a charge denied by the Islamist group.
Owing to constraints on the delivery of humanitarian aid, the population is “starving to death”, the World Health Organization’s emergencies director Michael Ryan said on Wednesday.
“The civilians of Gaza are not parties to this conflict and they should be protected, as should be their health facilities,” he said.
In its latest update, the UN reported heavy bombardment across the Gaza Strip, particularly in Khan Yunis, while it said 184000 Palestinians from the city were registered to receive assistance after fleeing their homes.
As Qatari and Egyptian-led mediation efforts intensified, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was due to discuss a truce proposal thrashed out in Paris last weekend with CIA chief William Burns. A Hamas source said the threestage plan proposed would start with an initial six-week halt to the fighting that would see more aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip.
Only “women, children and sick men over 60” held by Gaza militants would be freed during that stage in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the source said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.
There would also be “negotiations around the withdrawal of Israeli forces”, with possible additional phases involving more hostage-prisoner exchanges, said the source, adding the territory’s rebuilding was also among issues addressed by the deal.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.
Israel retaliated with its military launching a withering air, land and sea offensive that has killed at least 26 900 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Tens of billions of dollars, and seven decades, would be required to rebuild Gaza, which “currently is uninhabitable” as half its structures are damaged or destroyed, the UN Conference on Trade and Development said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out pulling forces from Gaza and repeatedly vowed to destroy Hamas in response to the October attack.
With the families of scores of Israeli hostages still trapped in Gaza not knowing when their loved ones will return home, there has been mounting criticism of Netanyahu’s government – sparking protests and even calls for early elections.
For people in Gaza, access to aid has been further hampered by a major controversy surrounding the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after Israel accused several of its staff of involvement in the Hamas attack.
Netanyahu told UN ambassadors in a meeting in Jerusalem that UNRWA had been “totally infiltrated” by Hamas. He said other agencies should replace it. The claims saw several donor countries, led by key Israel ally the US, freeze funding for the agency.
UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai said the agency supported “an independent investigation” into the Israeli claims that led to the funding crisis. |