Hamas, Israel entrench Gaza truce positions as latest Cairo talks end

Palestinians remove the body of a dead man after a military operation in the Palestinians town of Deir al-Ghusun, near the West Bank town of Tulkarem, Saturday, May 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Palestinian Territories — A Hamas official said Sunday the group’s delegation for Gaza truce talks in Cairo was leaving for “consultations” in Qatar, after public disagreement with Israel intensified over demands to end their seven-month war.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “surrendering” to a demand to end the war would amount to defeat.

The Qatar-based political chief of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, countered by accusing Netanyahu of sabotaging the talks.

READ: Hamas official: We will not accept truce that does not end Gaza war

The Hamas official, who requested anonymity to discuss the negotiations, told AFP that “the meeting with the Egyptian intelligence minister has ended and the Hamas delegation is leaving for Doha for further consultations”.

The Hamas negotiators are due back in Cairo on Tuesday, said Al-Qahera News, a site linked to Egyptian intelligence services.

CIA director Bill Burns meanwhile was headed to Doha for “emergency” talks on mediation efforts with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, a source with knowledge of the discussions told AFP.

Netanyahu on Sunday also announced a government decision to close operations in Israel of Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera, which has broadcast round-the-clock coverage of the conflict.

It went off-air a short time later.

The network condemned Israel’s decision as a “criminal act”, and said it would take legal action.

Gaza’s bloodiest-ever war began following Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Militants also seized some 250 hostages.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,683 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

‘Lost hope’ 

An AFP correspondent and witnesses reported shelling and gunfire in Gaza City Sunday, helicopter fire in central and southern Gaza, and a missile strike on a house in the Rafah area.

The Israeli military later said it struck a Hamas “command and control position” in central Gaza.

In Rafah, where about 1.2 million Gazans have sought shelter, residents told AFP they feared an upsurge in violence if truce talks collapse.

Naja Shaat, 59, said she was “extremely joyful” when she thought a ceasefire was imminent, “but today… we are on pins and needles”.

Arwa Saqr, displaced from Khan Yunis, said she has “lost hope that the negotiations will succeed”.

The Palestinian civilian toll has strained ties between Israel and its main military supplier and ally the United States.

Nonetheless, Washington’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that “the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas”.

Negotiators met in Cairo Sunday without an Israeli delegation present.

Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators had proposed a 40-day pause in the fighting and an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, according to details released by Britain.

Any truce reached would be the first since a week-long November ceasefire saw a hostage-prisoner swap.

Protests 

Netanyahu, whose coalition includes ultra-nationalist parties, faces regular protests demanding a deal to bring the hostages home.

Demonstrators, some carrying posters with images of the captives, gathered in Tel Aviv on Sunday, as Israel marked national Holocaust Remembrance Day.

According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, he told his cabinet Israel would not let Hamas “take control of Gaza again, rebuild their military infrastructure and return to threaten the citizens of Israel”.

“Israel will not agree to Hamas’s demands, which mean surrender, and will continue the fighting until all its goals are achieved,” he added.

Haniyeh said Netanyahu wanted to “invent constant justifications for the continuation of aggression, expanding the circle of conflict, and sabotaging efforts made through various mediators and parties”.

Previous negotiation efforts had stalled in part because of Hamas’s demand for a lasting ceasefire and Netanyahu’s vows to crush its remaining fighters in Rafah.

Hamas in a statement insisted it maintained a “positive and responsible approach” and said it was determined to reach an agreement.

The statement mentioned that Hamas’s key demands include “a complete end” to the fighting, Israeli withdrawal “from the entire Gaza Strip, the facilitation of the return of displaced people, the intensification of relief efforts”, reconstruction efforts and a prisoner-hostage exchange deal.

Troops killed at aid crossing 

Netanyahu has vowed to invade Rafah regardless of any truce, and despite concerns from the United States, other countries and aid groups.

At the start of the war, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said his country would impose a “complete siege” blocking food, water and other supplies.

Continuous appeals for greater access have, according to the UN, led to some improvements recently.

Israel in December reopened the southern Kerem Shalom border crossing for aid, but on Sunday the army said it was targeted with projectiles and “closed to the passage of humanitarian aid trucks”.

Hamas’s armed wing claimed the rocket fire, saying militants had targeted troops.

The army later announced three soldiers were killed in the attack and 12 were wounded, three seriously.

In Rafah, where the army said the rockets were launched from, 35-year-old Mohammed Al-Najjar said: “I expect an escalation.”

Air strikes hit Rafah again on Sunday evening, an AFP correspondent said.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which has been central to humanitarian operations in Gaza during the war, said Sunday that Israeli authorities had barred him from entering Gaza for a second time since the war began.

In a post on X, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini also called for an “independent investigation” into the rockets fired at Kerem Shalom.

Israel estimates 128 hostages abducted on October 7 remain in Gaza, including 35 who the military says are dead.

On Sunday the Hostages and Missing Families Forum appealed to Netanyahu, telling him in a statement to “disregard all political pressure”, with some far-right members of the government opposing a truce and calling for fighting to continue.