Hamas agrees to hostage talks amid truce talks; Israel protests erupt
Hamas has accepted a proposal from the US to begin talks on releasing Israeli hostages, after protests erupted as Israel carried out deadly airstrikes and truce talks are ongoing.
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Hamas has accepted a proposal from the US to begin talks on releasing Israeli hostages, including soldiers and men, 16 days after the first phase of an agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war.
A senior Hamas source told Reuters on Saturday. the militant Islamist group has dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before signing the agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase.
A Palestinian official said the proposal could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel.
CIA Director William Burns will travel to Qatar next week for negotiations, a source told Reuters.
It comes as Israel carried out deadly airstrikes in Gaza, including one on a UN-run school that killed 16 people according to the Hamas-run authorities, and as violence also gripped its northern border with Lebanon.
The fighting raged on Saturday as diplomatic efforts to halt the war, which enters its tenth month on Sunday, continued after a delegation led by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency chief David Barnea held a first round of talks with mediators in Doha.
“It was agreed that next week Israeli negotiators will travel to Doha to continue the talks. There are still gaps between the parties,” the spokesman said.
There has been no truce since a one-week pause in November during which 80 Israeli hostages were freed in return for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Protests broke out in Tel Aviv Saturday night, where protesters called for the release of hostages by Hamas, as they also rallied against the Israeli government.
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16 KILLED IN SCHOOL STRIKE
The war has continued unabated, with Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry saying 16 people were killed in a strike on a school run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, that was sheltering displaced people in Nuseirat in central Gaza.
The Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted “terrorists” operating around the Al-Jawni school.
The military earlier said it had conducted operations across much of the Gaza Strip, including Shujaiya in the north, Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and Rafah in the south.
Shujaiya is among the areas the military had previously declared to be cleared of Hamas, but where fighting is again taking place.
Paramedics on Saturday reported 10 deaths in a separate air strike on a house in Nuseirat refugee camp.
PROTESTS ERUPT IN TEL AVIV
Israeli mounted police were forced to act and disperse left-wing protesters during an anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv Saturday night, where water canons were used.
Flares were lit and anti-government protesters were covered in red paint to symbolise blood as they called for Hamas to release hostages and for the Israeli government to stop the war.
US TALKS UP TRUCE DEAL
The United States, which has mediated talks alongside Qatar and Egypt, has talked up the prospects of a deal saying there is a “pretty significant opening” for both sides.
US President Joe Biden announced a pathway to a truce deal in May that he said had been proposed by Israel.
This included an initial six-week truce, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza population centres and the freeing of hostages by Palestinian militants.
Talks subsequently stalled, but a US official said Thursday that a new proposal from Hamas “moves the process forward and may provide the basis for closing the deal”.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP that new ideas from the group had been “conveyed by the mediators to the American side, which welcomed them and passed them on to the Israeli side. Now the ball is in the Israeli court.” Pressure has mounted domestically for a hostage release deal, with regular protests and rallies in Israel.
“It’s important that we reach a deal so that all the mothers can embrace their children and husbands, just as I hug my mother every morning now,” rescued hostage Almog Mair Jan said in a recorded message to a rally in Tel Aviv Saturday.
HAMAS’ DEMAND AND HOSTAGES
The main stumbling block to a truce deal has been Hamas’s demand for a permanent end to the fighting, which Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners strongly reject.
The veteran hawk demands the release of the hostages and insists the war will not end until Israel has destroyed Hamas’s ability to fight or govern.
SIRENS AND MORE AIR STRIKES
Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement have exchanged cross-border fire almost daily since the Gaza war began, but attacks have escalated over the past month.
This has raised fears of a major conflagration between the staunch enemies that could draw in others including Iran.
Early Saturday, sirens blared over northern Israel and the military said it had downed a “suspicious aerial target” and two “hostile aircraft” launched from Lebanon hit open ground.
The military said earlier it had attacked “a number of Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon” overnight, all near the border.
A source close to Hezbollah said an Israeli drone strike targeted a vehicle in eastern Lebanon Saturday, killing an official from Hezbollah.
14 KILLED AS ISRAEL CONTINUES TO HUNT HAMAS MILITANTS
Israeli troops killed seven Palestinians – with Hamas claiming five as members – in a raid on Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Friday, officials said.
At least 14 Palestinians have now been killed in Israeli operations this week in the West Bank, where the Gaza war has fuelled tensions October.
The Israeli military said the raid was carried out to find militants behind an attack last week in which an Israeli captain was killed. Hamas said one of the latest seven dead was a “commander” in the group.
An Israeli military statement said there was a gunbattle in the Jenin refugee camp and then troops surrounded a building in which “terrorists barricaded themselves”.
The Wafa official Palestinian news agency said military vehicles surrounded a house and demands were made by loudspeaker for one occupant to surrender.
MOTHER OF HOSTAGE DIES AFTER REUNION WITH DAUGHTER
The mother of freed hostage Noa Argamani has tragically died just weeks after her daughter was saved by Israeli forces in a daring operation involving hundreds of soldiers.
Liora Argamani, who had waged a long battle against cancer, had previously revealed her dying wish was to see her 26-year-old daughter one last time.
Noa’s plight was one of the most harrowing and recognisable images of the October 7 atrocity.
The university student was seen being loaded onto a motorbike as she pleaded with them “don’t kill me”.
Liora, 61, previously told The Times of Israel: “I want to see her one more time. Talk to her one more time.
“I don’t have a lot of time left in this world.”
Noa paid tribute to her mother, who was suffering stage four brain cancer, at her funeral.
“My mother is the best friend there is, the most beautiful and strong person I have ever known in my life,” Noa said.
“I stand here today and still have a hard time digesting. Against all odds I was privileged to be with you in the last moments and to hear the last words.
“Thank you for being strong and holding on so that I could see you at least one more time and so that father would not be left alone.”
ISRAEL CARRIES OUT DEADLY STRIKES
Israeli forces carried out deadly strikes on southern Gaza and battled militants after the army again ordered Palestinians to leave areas near the besieged territory’s border with Israel and Egypt.
Witnesses reported intense bombing and shelling around Khan Yunis, southern Gaza’s main city from which Israeli forces withdrew in early April after a devastating months-long battle.
A hospital source in the city said shelling killed eight people and wounded more than 30 others.
The bombardment came after a rocket barrage at southern Israel claimed by the militant group Islamic Jihad, which has fought alongside Hamas.
This was followed by an order to evacuate most areas east of the cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah, including the towns of Al-Qarara and Bani Suhaila.
Bani Suhaila resident Ahmad Najjar said the Israeli order has spurred “fear and extreme anxiety”, and “there is a large displacement of residents”.
Six consecutive days of intense battles followed a similar evacuation order issued last week for the Gaza City district of Shujaiya.
An AFP correspondent reported artillery shelling in the northern area on Tuesday, and witnesses said gunbattles raged on.
The military said its forces were operating in Shujaiya, central Gaza and Rafah, where aircraft carried out strikes and troops “ambushed an armed terrorist squad” in a car and killed them.
Over the past day, the Israeli air force “struck approximately 30 terror targets” across Gaza, said a military statement.
In Shujaiya, Palestinian militants “were eliminated and dozens of terrorist infrastructure sites above and below ground were dismantled, including tunnel shafts”, it added.
– with AFP
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