Israel said it would attack the city if a ceasefire was not reached soon.
Paris:
Gaza truce talks opened in Paris on Friday in what appeared to be the most serious push in weeks to stop fighting in the ravaged Palestinian enclave and free Israeli and foreign hostages.
A source with knowledge of the ceasefire talks, who asked not to be named or nationalized, said talks had begun, with the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service holding separate meetings with parties including Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
“There are some signs of optimism that serious talks can begin,” the source said. Egypt’s Al Qahera TV news also reported that talks had begun.
A Hamas official said the group has ended ceasefire talks in Cairo and is now waiting to see what mediators bring back from weekend talks with Israel.
Mediators have stepped up efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, hoping to stem Israeli attacks on the Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced people have taken refuge on the southern edge of the enclave.
Israel said it would attack the city if a ceasefire was not reached soon. Washington called on its close allies not to do so, warning that if attacks on the city continued, there would be massive civilian casualties.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met with Egyptian mediators in Cairo last week to discuss a ceasefire, his first visit to Egypt since December. Israel is expected to take part in talks with U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Paris this weekend.
Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamal will travel to Paris for talks with Israel on Friday after concluding talks with Hamas leader Haniyeh on Thursday, two Egyptian security sources confirmed. Israel has yet to comment publicly on the Paris talks.
The Hamas official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the group had not made any new proposals in talks with the Egyptians but was waiting to see what mediators would bring back from upcoming talks with the Israelis.
“We discussed our proposal with them (the Egyptians) and we will wait until they return from Paris,” the Hamas official said.
The last similar talks were held in Paris in early February, where they set out the outlines for the first extension of the war’s ceasefire, which was approved by Israel and the United States. Hamas made a counter-proposal, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later rejected it as “delusional.”
Hamas, which is believed to still be holding more than 100 hostages taken in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war, said it would only be able to withdraw its troops as part of a truce ending with Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. Only then will these hostages be released. Israel says it will not withdraw its troops until Hamas is eliminated.
Late on Thursday, Netanyahu presented to his security cabinet a formal plan for Gaza once the fighting ceases. He stressed that Israel wants to maintain security control over the enclave after destroying Hamas and believes the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) has no role here.
Washington favors a role for a reformed Palestinian Authority.
Two Palestinian officials familiar with the negotiations said Hamas had not changed its position in its latest push for a deal and still demanded an Israeli withdrawal to end the truce.
Rafa is attacked
Israeli planes and tanks struck overnight across the Gaza Strip, residents and health officials said. The Gaza Ministry of Health stated that Israeli military attacks have killed 104 people and injured 160 people in the past 24 hours.
The Israeli military said it had killed dozens of militants and seized weapons across Gaza since Thursday.
In Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are in shelters, an Israeli airstrike on a house killed 10 people.
At a morgue in Rafah, a family knelt beside the body of a child killed in an overnight Israeli attack. They caressed the tiny body tenderly through the shroud.
Air strikes also killed civilians overnight in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, one of the few areas Israel has yet to strike. In video obtained by Reuters, bereaved family members packed a hospital and Ahmed Azzam held up the body of his dead young son wrapped in a shroud and shouted: “You killed them, Netanyahu. You killed this innocent child!”
Israel says it is doing its best to minimize harm to civilians when fighting Hamas in urban areas.
At least 29,514 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Friday.
Israel launched a months-long military operation on October 7 after Hamas-ruled Gaza militants killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in southern Israel.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
