Israeli negotiators were in Cairo yesterday for talks on a Gaza truce, a spokesman said, but a dispute over the presence of Israeli troops on Gaza’s southern border remained among sticking points.
Mossad spy agency chief David Barnea and Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet domestic security service, were in the Egyptian capital and “negotiating to advance a hostage (release) agreement”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Omer Dostri told AFP.
Egypt with fellow mediators Qatar and the United States are trying to reach a deal that would end more than 10 months of offensive in the enclave.
A Hamas official yesterday accused Israel’s prime minister of refusing to agree to a final truce accord for Gaza. But Hamas representatives were not taking part and an official from the movement, Hossam Badran, told AFP that Netanyahu’s insistence that troops remain on the Philadelphi border strip reflects “his refusal to reach a final agreement”.
Witnesses yesterday reported combat in the Gaza Strip’s north, heavy shelling in the centre, and tank fire in the far south near Rafah city. Israeli attacks have killed 18 Palestinians since yesterday morning in Gaza, as it continues to expand its ground operation in Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah.
Israel’s military campaign has killed 40,283 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
The United Nations said tens of thousands of civilians have been on the move again this week from Deir el-Balah and the southern city of Khan Yunis after Israeli military evacuation orders, which precede military operations.
The offensive has displaced about 90 percent of Gaza’s population, often multiple times, leaving them deprived of shelter, clean water and other essentials as disease spreads, the UN said.
“Civilians are exhausted and terrified, running from one destroyed place to another, with no end in sight,” Muhannad Hadi, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said late Thursday. “This cannot continue,” he said.
Israel’s military yesterday said that over the past day troops had “eliminated dozens of militants” around Khan Yunis and Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza.
In April the military had pulled troops out of Khan Yunis after months of devastating fighting, yet has found itself having to resume operations there, leaving civilians feeling they have nowhere to turn.
“Every time we arrive somewhere, we get a new evacuation order two days later. This is no way to live,” said Haitham Abdelaal.
The Israeli military recovered the remains of six hostages from a tunnel in the Khan Yunis area this week, and on Thursday said bullets had been found in their bodies.
