Palestinians obtain cooked meals rations as a part of a volunteer initiative in a makeshift displacement camp in Mawasi Khan Yunis within the besieged Gaza Strip on September 3, 2024, amid the continued battle between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas motion. (Picture by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES — Hamas known as on the USA Thursday to “exert actual strain” on Israel to succeed in a Gaza ceasefire settlement as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned there is no such thing as a deal within the making.
The 2 sides have traded blame over stalling talks for a ceasefire and hostage alternate as Netanyahu faces strain to seal a deal that might free remaining captives after Israeli authorities introduced on Sunday the deaths of six whose our bodies have been recovered from a Gaza tunnel.
“If the US administration and its President [Joe] Biden actually wish to attain a ceasefire and full a prisoner alternate deal, they need to abandon their blind bias in the direction of the Zionist occupation,” Hamas’s Qatar-based lead negotiator Khalil al-Hayya mentioned, calling on the US to “exert actual strain on Netanyahu and his authorities.”
However Netanyahu informed US discuss present Fox & Pals: “There’s not a deal within the making… Sadly, it’s not shut however we’ll do every thing we will to get them to the purpose the place they do make a deal and on the identical time we stop Iran from resupplying Gaza as this nice terror enclave.”
Netanyahu insists that Israel should retain management over the Philadelphi Hall alongside the Egypt-Gaza border to stop weapons smuggling to Hamas, whose October 7 assault on Israel began the battle.
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Hamas is demanding full Israeli withdrawal from the world and on Thursday mentioned Netanyahu’s place “goals to thwart reaching an settlement”.
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The Palestinian militant group says a brand new deal is pointless as a result of they agreed months in the past to a truce outlined by Biden.
“We don’t want new proposals,” Hamas mentioned in a press release.
“We warn in opposition to falling into the entice of Netanyahu… who makes use of negotiations to delay the aggression in opposition to our individuals,” the group mentioned.
US Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby nonetheless mentioned that Washington believes a ceasefire deal is 90 p.c agreed.
However he added that “nothing is negotiated till every thing is negotiated, and the issues which are nonetheless in play proper now are very, very detailed… points, and that’s when issues get troublesome.”
‘Not in coffins’
At Israeli protests in a number of cities this week, Netanyahu’s critics have blamed him for hostages’ deaths, saying he has refused to make mandatory concessions for hanging a ceasefire deal.
“We’ll do every thing so that every one hostages will probably be with us. And if the leaders don’t wish to signal a deal, we’ll make them,” mentioned Gil Dickmann, cousin of Carmel Gat, one of many six hostages whose our bodies have been present in a Gaza tunnel final week.
Dickmann took half in an anti-government rally at Tel Aviv on Thursday night, the place crowds of demonstrators carried symbolic coffins in a procession, an AFP journalist reported.
Key mediator Qatar has mentioned that Israel’s method was “primarily based on an try to falsify details and mislead world public opinion by repeating lies.”
Such strikes “will finally result in the demise of peace efforts,” Qatar’s overseas ministry warned.
The October 7 assault by Hamas resulted within the deaths of 1,205 individuals, largely civilians together with some hostages killed in captivity, in keeping with official Israeli figures.
Of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants throughout the assault, 97 stay in Gaza together with 33 the Israeli army says are lifeless. Scores have been launched throughout a one-week truce in November.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has up to now killed at the least 40,878 individuals, in keeping with the well being ministry within the Hamas-run territory.
A lot of the lifeless are girls and youngsters, in keeping with the UN rights workplace.
Strikes continued throughout Gaza on Thursday, with medics and rescuers reporting a complete of 12 lifeless in separate assaults within the north and south of the territory.
‘Full energy’
Whereas Israel presses its Gaza offensive, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant mentioned the army ought to use its “full energy” in opposition to Palestinian militants within the occupied West Financial institution.
“These terrorist organisations which have varied names, whether or not in Nur al-Shams, Tulkarem, Faraa or Jenin, should be worn out,” he mentioned, referring to cities and refugee camps the place an Israeli army operation is underway.
The Israeli army mentioned Thursday its plane “carried out three focused strikes on armed terrorists” within the Tubas space, which incorporates Faraa refugee camp.
A strike on a automobile killed 5 males aged 21 to 30 and wounded two others, the territory’s well being ministry mentioned.
Eyewitnesses informed AFP they noticed numerous Israeli troops storming Faraa camp, the place explosions have been heard.
The Palestinian Crimson Crescent mentioned the Israeli army handed over the lifeless physique of a 17-year-old, after medics have been prevented from reaching him when he was wounded.
Israel has killed at the least 36 Palestinians throughout the northern West Financial institution since its assault there began on August 28, in keeping with figures launched by the well being ministry, together with kids and militants.
One Israeli soldier was killed in Jenin, the place the vast majority of the Palestinian fatalities have been.
Polio vaccination drive
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has left the territory in ruins, with the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure blamed for the unfold of illness.
The humanitarian disaster has led to Gaza’s first polio case in 25 years, prompting an enormous vaccination effort launched Sunday with localized “humanitarian pauses” in combating.
Almost 200,000 kids in central Gaza have acquired a primary dose, the World Well being Group mentioned, and a second stage obtained underway Thursday within the south earlier than medics transfer north.
The marketing campaign goals to totally vaccinate greater than 640,000 kids, with second doses due in about 4 weeks.
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Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for the UN company for Palestinian refugees, warned nevertheless that the vaccination drive within the south might not attain all kids, as some don’t reside within the designated humanitarian zones the place Israel has agreed to not strike.
