Hamas to go to Cairo for truce talks

CAIRO/GAZA:

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was expected in Cairo on Thursday for talks on a proposed truce in Gaza as Israel continued its assault on the besieged Palestinian territory.

Hamas is reconsidering a proposal for a six-week truce in its war with Israel, a source told AFP, after mediators gathered in Paris, with international efforts for a new pause in the war’s destructive pace.

In Gaza, there has been no let up in fighting or airstrikes, with today’s focus of fighting in the main southern city of Khan Younis, where Israel says top Hamas fighters are hiding.

Overnight, witnesses said several Israeli airstrikes hit the city, while aid and health workers have reported days of heavy fighting, particularly around two hospitals.

According to the Hamas health ministry in Gaza, 119 people were killed in the last night of the raids.

“There is a massacre going on right now,” said Leo Kans, head of the international NGO Doctors Without Borders’ mission for the Palestinian Territories.

This handout photo released by the Israeli military on February 1, 2024 shows Israeli troops operating in the Gaza Strip amid ongoing fighting between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. PHOTO: AFP

Israel accuses Hamas of operating from tunnels under hospitals in Gaza and using medical facilities as command centers, a charge denied by the resistance group, which is designated a “terrorist” organization by the European Union and the United States.

Because of restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid, the population is “starving to death,” World Health Organization emergencies director Michael Ryan said on Wednesday.

“The citizens of Gaza are not parties to this conflict and should be protected, as should their health facilities,” he added.

In its latest update, the UN reported heavy shelling across the Gaza Strip, particularly Khan Yunis, and said 184,000 Palestinians from the city were registered to receive humanitarian aid after fleeing their homes.

As mediation efforts led by Qatar and Egypt intensified, the Hamas leader was due to go to Cairo on Thursday to discuss a truce proposal that was shot down in Paris last weekend with CIA chief William Burns.

A Hamas source told AFP the three-stage plan would begin with an initial six-week halt in fighting that would allow more aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip.

Only “women, children and sick men over 60” held by Gaza militants will be released during this stage in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

There will also be “negotiations around the withdrawal of Israeli forces,” with possible additional phases involving more hostage-prisoner exchanges, the source said, adding that rebuilding the area was also among the issues under consideration in the deal.

Reading Israel’s plan to destroy Hamas not working, peace talks needed – EU’s Borel

Israel’s brutal military offensive has killed at least 26,900 people in Gaza, the majority of them women and children, since Hamas’ October 7 incursion into the occupied Palestinian territories against Israeli settler colonial violence.

The attack resulted in the deaths of about 1,140 Israeli settlers, according to estimates submitted twice by Israeli authorities.

The rebels also took about 250 hostages. Israel says 132 of them remain in Gaza, including at least 29 people believed to have been killed.

Tens of billions of dollars and seven decades will be needed to rebuild Gaza, which is “currently uninhabitable” with half its structures damaged or destroyed, the UN Conference on Trade and Development said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out withdrawing forces from Gaza and has repeatedly vowed to destroy Hamas in response to the October attack.

Netanyahu has also opposed the release of “thousands” of Palestinian prisoners as part of any deal, although his office on Sunday called the ongoing negotiations “constructive”.

As the families of many Israeli hostages remain trapped in Gaza, not knowing when their loved ones will return home, there is growing criticism of Netanyahu’s government — sparking protests and even calls for early elections.

For people in Gaza, access to humanitarian aid was further hampered by a major controversy surrounding the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after Israel accused several of its staff of involvement in the Hamas attack.

The allegations last week saw several donor countries, led by Israel’s key ally the United States, freeze funding to the agency.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a UN panel that he “met with donors to hear their concerns and outline the steps we are taking”.

UNRWA spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai told AFP the agency supports “an independent investigation” into the Israeli allegations that led to the funding crisis.

Netanyahu told a meeting of UN ambassadors in Jerusalem that UNRWA had been “totally infiltrated” by Hamas. He said other agencies should replace it.

The impact of the war has been widely felt, with violence involving Iran-backed Hamas allies across the Middle East escalating since October, drawing in US forces among others.

The White House blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of pro-Iranian armed groups, for a weekend drone strike that killed three American soldiers at a base in Jordan.

The US military said a US destroyer shot down three Iranian drones along with an anti-ship missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Wednesday.

It also said it had carried out strikes in Yemen against 10 attack drones and a ground control post belonging to the Houthis, and earlier announced a surface-to-air missile strike it said posed an “imminent threat” to US aircraft.

The Houthis have repeatedly attacked ships they believe are linked to Israel in the Red Sea.

As a result, the International Monetary Fund said container traffic through the vital trade route has fallen by about a third this year.