A Palestinian child sits next to a plate eating “iftar,” or breaking the fast, at a shelter for displaced people in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on March 12, the second day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In 2024, fighting continues between Israel and the militant group Hamas.
Mohamed Abed | AFP | Getty Images
Hamas said on Tuesday that an Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza war did not meet the demands of Palestinian radical factions but that it would further study the proposal and respond to mediators.
The proposal was made to the Palestinian Islamist movement during talks between Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo to find a way out of the devastating war in Gaza, which is now entering its seventh month.
Israeli forces continued airstrikes on parts of central and southern Gaza on Tuesday, including an airstrike on a home in Nusayrat that killed 14 people, residents said, Hamas al-Aqsa TV reported. Other airstrikes were reported in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza and Rafah in the far south.
Despite international calls for restraint, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly floated plans for a ground attack on Rafah, where more than a million displaced civilians are holed up.
CIA Director William Burns also attended the talks in Cairo, but so far they have been unable to achieve a breakthrough on an armistice.
“The movement (Hamas) is interested in reaching an agreement to end the aggression against our people. Despite this, Israel’s position remains stubborn and does not meet any of the demands of our people and the resistance movement,” Hamas said on the latest ceasefire proposal said in a later statement.
It said it would further examine the proposal and return its response to the mediator.
Hamas wants any deal that would ensure an end to Israel’s military offensive, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and allow displaced people to return to their homes in the small, densely populated enclave.
On March 26, 2024, a fireball erupted during an Israeli bombardment of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during the ongoing fighting between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Khatib says | AFP | Getty Images
Israel’s immediate goal is to secure the release of hostages taken by Hamas in the cross-border rampage that sparked the conflict on 7 October. It says it will not end the war until Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, is eliminated.
The United States is pushing for a ceasefire after telling its allies Israel to do more to protect civilians in Gaza and provide more aid to prevent famine.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Washington that 400 aid trucks had been allowed into Gaza the previous day, the most since the war began six months ago. He said good ceasefire offers had been made to Hamas and that Hamas should accept them.
Israel says aid is coming to Gaza more quickly after international pressure to increase aid access, but the amount is disputed and the United Nations says it remains well below the minimum required to meet humanitarian needs.
Rafa Invasion
Israel this week withdrew most of its ground troops from southern Gaza after months of fighting but still said it planned to launch an attack on Rafah in southern Gaza on the border with Egypt, where more than half of Gazans are currently sheltering.
Israeli media reported on Tuesday that the Israeli Defense Ministry was purchasing 40,000 tents before evacuating the city.
The United States warned Israel not to attack Rafah because of the high risk of civilian casualties, and that U.S. and Israeli officials would meet in person within weeks to discuss the matter, the White House said on Tuesday.
“I don’t foresee any action being taken before these talks, and for that matter I don’t think anything is imminent… We remain convinced that a major military operation in Rafah would be extremely damaging to the civilians who are harmed. Dangerous way,” Blinken told reporters in Washington.
A child reacts as Palestinians wait to receive food during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as clashes between Israel and Hamas continue in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2024.
Muhammad Salem | Reuters
Hamas seized 253 hostages in the October 7 raid, of which 133 are still being held. Negotiators said about 40 people would be released in the first phase of the deal.
According to Israeli statistics, Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in southern Israel in a lightning attack on October 7. Gaza’s health ministry said in an update on Tuesday that at least 33,360 Palestinians were confirmed dead in the six-month war, with thousands more killed in the rubble.
Most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people are homeless and many are at risk of famine.
Palestinian emergency teams, backed by international organizations, searched the ruins of Shifa hospital in Gaza city and the destroyed city of Khan Younis in the south. quit Israeli army.
Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the Hamas-run Civil Emergency Service in Gaza, said working groups had so far found the bodies of 409 Palestinians killed in and around the hospital and in Khan Younis. Israel says Shifa is being used as a base for militants, a claim Hamas denies.
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