Palestinian Territories:

Israel carried out deadly airstrikes in Gaza Saturday, 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 as diplomatic efforts to halt the war, which enters its tenth month on Sunday, continued with Israel saying Friday it would send a delegation next week to continue talks with Qatari mediators.

In a statement announcing the move, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson said “gaps” remained with Hamas on how to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

That came 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 spokesperson 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.

The war 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.

The Hamas press office and paramedics said four journalists working for local media outlets were killed in strikes overnight, and UNRWA said two of its employees had been killed.

UNRWA, which coordinates much of the aid delivered to Gaza, says 194 of its employees have been killed in the war.

‘Ball in Israel’s court’

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 Hamas.

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.

The war began with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. Hamas also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the military says are dead.

In response, Israel has carried out a military offensive that has killed at least 38,098 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.

The war has uprooted 90 percent of Gaza’s population, destroyed much of its housing and other infrastructure, and left almost 500,000 people enduring “catastrophic” hunger, UN agencies say.

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 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. Israel said he was part of the group’s air defence unit.

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Washington:

The United States believes Israel and Hamas have a “pretty significant opening” to reach an agreement on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held there, a senior US official said Thursday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Palestinian operative group’s latest response “moves the process forward and may provide the basis for closing the deal,” while stressing it does not mean an agreement was likely in the coming days, and that “significant work” remained on implementation steps.

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Beirut, Lebanon:

A senior Palestinian Hamas official said Saturday in Beirut that negotiations for an agreement with Israel on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal had not made any progress.

A plan presented last month by US President Joe Biden, which he said was proposed by Israel, included a six-week truce accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas and the release of some hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. 

According to US news site Axios, “three sources with direct knowledge” said Washington had presented a “new language for parts of” the proposed deal.

On Saturday, Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official based in Lebanon, confirmed that the Islamist movement had received the latest proposal on June 24, but that it included “nothing new”.

“We can say that there is no real progress in the negotiations to stop the (Israeli) aggression so far”, he said at a press conference.

The plan presented by Biden has so far failed to result in a deal, with both sides sticking to their demands.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will continue the war until Hamas is totally defeated and all hostages are freed.

Hamas insists on a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.

Hamdan said the proposals were “merely a waste of time and provide additional time for the occupation (Israel) to practise genocide”.

He also said Hamas was being pressured to accept Israel’s deal “as it is without modification”.

The war started with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

The militants also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza although the army says 42 are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,834 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

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Palestine Red Crescent Society evacuates casualties, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in the central Gaza Strip, June 16, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Armenia announced on June 21 its recognition of the State of Palestine, the latest country to do so during the war in Gaza, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“Armenia supports a U.N. resolution on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and is in favour of a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” the same statement said.

Also read | 145 countries now recognise a Palestinian state

“Based on the above and confirming its commitment to international law, equality of nations, sovereignty and peaceful coexistence, the Republic of Armenia recognises the State of Palestine,” Yerevan said.

Israel’s war in Gaza since the October 7 attack has revived a global push for Palestinians to be given a state of their own.

The other countries who recognised a state of Palestine are Norway, Spain and Ireland, breaking with the long-held view of Western powers that Palestinians can only gain statehood as part of a negotiated peace with Israel.

(With inputs from agencies)

Hamas on Friday said it “considers positively” an Israeli roadmap towards a full Gaza ceasefire announced by U.S. President Joe Biden, who urged an end to the almost eight-month war.

But swiftly afterwards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu poured cold water on Mr. Biden’s talk of peace, insisting the army would continue fighting until it had “eliminated” Hamas’s capacity to rule Gaza and pose a military threat.

Mr. Biden’s intervention, which had been heavily trailed, came as Israeli troops pushed into central Rafah, escalating the war with Hamas despite international objections to any assault on the southern Gaza city.

In his first major address outlining how the Gaza war might end, Mr. Biden said Israel’s three-stage offer would begin with a six-week phase that would see Israeli forces withdraw from all populated areas of Gaza.

It would also see the “release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, the wounded, in exchange for (the) release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners”.

Israel and the Palestinians would then negotiate during those six weeks for a lasting ceasefire — but the truce would continue while the talks remained underway, Mr. Biden said.

The U.S. president urged Hamas to accept the Israeli offer. “It’s time for this war to end, for the day after to begin,” he said, in comments echoed by British Foreign Secretary David Cameron.

Hamas in a statement on Friday evening said it “considers positively” Mr. Biden’s speech regarding “a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, reconstruction and the exchange of prisoners”.

UN chief Antonio Guterres “strongly hopes” the latest development “will lead to an agreement by the parties for lasting peace”, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the The Israeli offer “provides a glimpse of hope and a possible path out of the war’s deadlock”.

Israel insists on war aims

But Netanyahu took issue with Mr. Biden’s presentation of what was on the table, insisting the transition from one stage to the next in the proposed roadmap was “conditional” and crafted to allow Israel to maintain its war aims.

“The prime minister authorised the negotiating team to present an outline for achieving (the return of hostages), while insisting that the war will not end until all of its goals are achieved,” Mr. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Those aims include “the return of all our hostages and the elimination of Hamas’s military and governmental capabilities”, it added.

“The exact outline proposed by Israel, including the conditional transition from stage to stage, allows Israel to maintain these principles.”

Hamas has been careful about commenting on ceasefire proposals put to it by Egyptian, Qatari or US mediators. It accepted one earlier this year only for it to be disavowed by Israel.

Earlier on Friday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh accused Israel of “using negotiations as a cover to continue its aggression”, saying Hamas “refuses to be a part of these manoeuvres”.

Israel has repeatedly vowed to destroy Hamas since the Palestinian militant group attacked southern Israel on October 7.

Israel sent tanks and troops into Rafah in early May, ignoring concerns over the safety of displaced Palestinian civilians sheltering in the city on the Egyptian border.

On Friday, soldiers were operating in the city centre where they uncovered rocket launchers and tunnel shafts and dismantled a Hamas weapons storage facility, the army said.

Blinken says aid situation ‘dire’

A stream of civilians has flooded out of Rafah, taking their belongings on their shoulders, in cars or on donkey-drawn carts.

Before the Rafah offensive began, the United Nations said up to 1.4 million people were sheltering in the city.

Since then, one million have fled the area, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has said.

The Israeli seizure of the Rafah crossing has further slowed sporadic deliveries of aid for Gaza’s 2.4 million people and effectively shuttered the territory’s main exit point.

Israel said at the weekend that aid deliveries had been stepped up.

But US Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged on Friday that the humanitarian situation was “dire” despite US efforts to bring in more assistance.

The World Food Programme said daily life had become “apocalyptic” in parts of southern Gaza since Israel began its assault on Rafah in early May.

Jordan announced it will host a summit on June 11, jointly organised with Egypt and the United Nations, bringing together aid agency chiefs and heads of donor governments to discuss the humanitarian response.

‘Everything is ashes’

The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,189 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.

Hamas released a video on Telegram Friday featuring the audio of a woman’s voice, who they said was one of the hostages. The audio file could not immediately be verified.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,284 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

A medical official at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah said eight people, including two children, were killed in an air strike that hit a house in Al-Bureij refugee camp.

Another source at Nuseirat’s Al-Awda Hospital reported three deaths in a strike on a car.

In northern Gaza, witnesses said that after carrying out a three-week-long operation in the town of Jabalia and its neighbouring refugee camp, troops had ordered residents of nearby Beit Hanoun to evacuate ahead of an imminent assault.

The Israeli army said troops “completed their mission in eastern Jabalia and began preparation for continued operations in the Gaza Strip”.

Jabalia shopkeeper Belal al-Kahlot said there was nothing left of his store after the Israeli operation. “Everything is ashes.”

The Israeli military announced the deaths of two soldiers in Gaza, taking to 294 the number of Israeli troops killed since the start of ground operations in late October.

The Hague:

South Africa has urged the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order Israel to halt its assault on Rafah as part of its case accusing Israel of genocide against the Palestinians, Al Jazeera reported on Thursday.

South Africa, which filed its case in January over Israel’s war on Gaza, is seeking additional emergency measures over its offensive on Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip where more than one million displaced Palestinians had sought shelter from Israeli attacks on other parts of the enclave.

It told the court in The Hague on Thursday that the Palestinian people are facing “ongoing annihilation” and the assault on Rafah was “part of the endgame in which Gaza is utterly destroyed”.

Israel is pressing on with its attacks in Rafah despite “explicit warnings” that they could carry “genocidal” consequences, South African lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said.

Israel, which has rejected South Africa’s claim that it is violating the 1949 Genocide Convention as baseless, will respond on Friday, Al Jazeera reported.

Minutes before the court hearings opened, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the widely criticised operation in Rafah “will continue as additional forces will enter” the area.

Rafah is a tiny, overcrowded city where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have taken shelter in tents and are facing the rapid spread of diseases and a severe lack of food and clean water. The only hospital in the area has shut down, leaving only a small facility that has been overwhelmed, Al Jazeera reported.

Judges at the ICJ have previously issued provisional measures, ordering Israel to take actions to limit humanitarian suffering in Gaza.

Among those provisions was for Israel to ensure basic food supplies arrive without delay to the Palestinians in Gaza, all of whom are suffering from severe hunger–some have even faced famine–as a result of Israel’s total siege.

This month, the Israeli army seized and shut down the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, a vital entry point for humanitarian aid. Aid agencies have warned that the closure has significantly hindered their operations.

Because it is Gaza’s primary hub for humanitarian assistance, “if Rafah falls, so too does Gaza,” South Africa said in a written submission to the court.

“The thwarting of humanitarian aid cannot be seen as anything but the deliberate snuffing-out of Palestinian lives. Starvation to the point of famine,” lawyer Adila Hassim said.

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah at Kuwait international airport in Kuwait City.
| Photo Credit: AFP

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on My 12 appealed for an immediate halt to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the return of hostages and a “surge” in humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian territory.

“I repeat my call, the world’s call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and an immediate surge in humanitarian aid,” Mr. Guterres said in a video address to an international donors’ conference in Kuwait. “But a ceasefire will only be the start. It will be a long road back from the devastation and trauma of this war,” he added.

Israeli strikes on Gaza continued on May 12 after it expanded an evacuation order for Rafah despite international outcry over its military incursion into eastern areas of the city, effectively shutting a key aid crossing.

“The war in Gaza is causing horrific human suffering, devastating lives, tearing families apart and rendering huge numbers of people homeless, hungry and traumatised,” Mr. Guterres said.

His remarks were played at the opening of the conference in Kuwait organised by the International Islamic Charitable Organization (IICO) and the UN’s humanitarian coordination organisation OCHA.

On May 10, in Nairobi, the UN head warned Gaza faced an “epic humanitarian disaster” if Israel launched a full-scale ground operation in Rafah.

Gaza’s bloodiest-ever war began following Hamas’ 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.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a retaliatory offensive that has killed more than 34,971 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Jerusalem:

The Israeli army said the Kerem Shalom crossing, which has been key to Gaza aid operations, was again targeted on Wednesday by rocket fire that “lightly injured” one soldier.

“Eight launches were identified crossing from the area of Rafah into the area of Kerem Shalom”, a military statement read, adding that “as a result of the launches, an IDF (army) soldier was lightly injured.”

The Israeli army said that it reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing on Wednesday morning.

It was closed for three days following a Hamas rocket attack on Sunday that killed four soldiers. Another rocket launch had targeted the crossing Monday.

“Trucks from Egypt carrying humanitarian aid, including food, water, shelter equipment, medicine and medical equipment donated by the international community are already arriving at the crossing,” the army said Wednesday in a joint statement with COGAT, the defence ministry body that oversees Palestinian civil affairs.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said the crossing remained closed.

Overnight Monday-Tuesday, Israeli troops seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt after launching an incursion into the eastern sector of the city.

UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma said the Rafah crossing is crucial for UNRWA, the main aid agency operating in Gaza.

“We normally get fuel through Rafah,” not Kerem Shalom, Touma said.

Without fuel entering Gaza through Rafah, trucks cannot pick up aid from Kerem Shalom, she added.

“There’s not been humanitarian supplies for the past three days. We have started rationing fuel,” she said, adding that the territory needed 300,000 litres (79,250 gallons) of fuel a day for humanitarian purposes.

Israel’s staunchest ally the United States too called for the reopening of both crossings.

jd-lba/ami

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Cairo:

Egypt is hosting delegations from Hamas, Israel, Qatar and the US in Cairo with the aim of reaching a “comprehensive truce” in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli delegation, which arrived in Cairo on Tuesday afternoon, included members of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and Shin Bet security agency, an Egyptian source who asked to remain anonymous told Xinhua news agency.

In a video statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the delegation to “continue to stand firm on the conditions necessary for the release of our hostages, continue to stand firm on the essential requirements to ensure Israel’s security.”

However, he noted that the ceasefire proposal, brokered by Egyptian and Qatari mediators and approved by Hamas on Monday, fell short of Israel’s essential requirements.

Egypt is “making every effort to reach a comprehensive truce,” state-affiliated Al-Qahera News quoted an unnamed high-ranking source as saying. The source added that Egypt was engaged in communication with various parties in order to contain the crisis.

The Israeli army on Tuesday launched a military operation in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where more than 1 million internally displaced Palestinians have sought refuge since Israel’s offensive began on October 7 last year.

At least 20 people have been killed in Israel’s attacks on Rafah since Tuesday morning, Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported.

On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on both Israel and Hamas to end the ongoing conflict.

“We are at a decisive moment for the Palestinian and Israeli people and for the fate of the entire region,” said the UN chief.

“An agreement between the government of Israel and the leadership of Hamas is essential to stop the unbearable suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and of the hostages and their families,” Guterres added.

Cairo, Doha and Washington mediated a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas that ended in late November 2023, which included a swap between Palestinian prisoners and Israeli hostages and more humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza.

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Doha:

Hamas agreed to the latest proposal that Israel had made on April 27 and there were no major changes since then, an official briefed on the ceasefire talks said, adding the Qatari mediators had spoken to Hamas about this on Sunday and Monday.

“What happens next depends on Israel to accept or reject Hamas’ response. The ball is in Israel’s court,” the source told Reuters, asking not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

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