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Gaza ceasefire talks held up by Israel withdrawal plans: Palestinian sources

Indirect talks between Hamas and Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza are being held up by Israel’s proposals to keep troops in the territory, two Palestinian sources with knowledge of the discussions told AFP on Saturday.Delegations from both sides began discussions in Qatar last Sunday to try to agree on a temporary halt to the 21-month conflict sparked by Hamas’s deadly October 2023 attack on Israel.Israel has meanwhile kept up its strikes on Gaza and the territory’s civil defence agency said more than 20 people were killed on Saturday, including in an air strike on an area sheltering the displaced.”We all generally came here because we were told it was a safe area,” Bassam Hamdan told AFP after the overnight attack in an area of Gaza City.”While we were sleeping, there was an explosion… where two boys, a girl and their mother were staying. We found them torn to pieces, their remains scattered,” he added.In southern Gaza, bodies covered in white plastic sheets were brought to the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis while wounded in Rafah were taken for treatment by donkey cart, on stretchers or carried, AFP photographs showed.If an agreement for a 60-day ceasefire were reached, both Hamas and Israel have said 10 hostages taken in 2023 who remain alive in captivity would be released.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was prepared then to enter talks for a more permanent end to hostilities.But one Palestinian source, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the talks, said Israel’s refusal to accept Hamas’s demand to withdraw all of its troops from Gaza was holding back progress.A second source said mediators had asked both sides to postpone the talks until the arrival of US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in the Qatari capital.”The negotiations in Doha are facing a setback and complex difficulties due to Israel’s insistence, as of Friday, on presenting a map of withdrawal, which is actually a map of redeployment and repositioning of the Israeli army rather than a genuine withdrawal,” the first source said.- Enclave plans? – They added that Israel was proposing to maintain military forces in more than 40 percent of the Palestinian territory, forcing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians into a small area near the city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt.”Hamas’s delegation will not accept the Israeli maps… as they essentially legitimise the reoccupation of approximately half of the Gaza Strip and turn Gaza into isolated zones with no crossings or freedom of movement,” they said.There was no immediate comment from the Israeli government.The second Palestinian source accused the Israeli delegation of having no authority, and “stalling and obstructing the agreement in order to continue the war of extermination”.The Gaza war began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of at least 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.Of the 251 hostages seized, 49 are still being held, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. At least 57,882 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.Seven UN agencies warned in a joint statement on Saturday that if fuel runs out in Gaza, it would be “an unbearable new burden on a population teetering on the edge of starvation”.- Military operations – The Israeli military said on Saturday it had attacked “approximately 250 terrorist targets throughout the Gaza Strip” in the previous 48 hours. Targets included “terrorists, booby-trapped structures, weapons storage facilities, anti-tank missile launch posts, sniper posts, tunnels and additional terrorist infrastructure sites”, it added.Two previous ceasefires — a week-long truce beginning in late November 2023 and a two-month one from mid-January this year — led to the release of 105 hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.The second Palestinian source said “some progress” had been made in the latest talks on plans for releasing Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and getting more aid to Gaza.Netanyahu, who is under domestic and international pressure to end the war, said this week that neutralising Hamas as a security threat was a prerequisite for any long-term ceasefire talks.That included the group giving up weapons, he said, warning that failure to do so would mean Israel would have to do so by force.burs-az/phz/kir

UN says hundreds killed in recent weeks while seeking aid in Gaza

Ten Palestinians were reported killed Friday while waiting for rations in Gaza, adding to nearly 800 similar deaths in the last six weeks, according to the UN, with Israel’s army saying it issued new instructions to troops following repeated reports of fatalities.Friday’s reported violence came as negotiators from Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas were locked in indirect talks in Qatar to try to agree on a temporary ceasefire in the more than 21-month conflict.Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he hoped a deal for a 60-day pause in the war could be struck in the coming days, and that he would then be ready to negotiate a more permanent end to hostilities.Hamas has said the free flow of aid is a main sticking point in the talks, with Gaza’s more than two million residents facing a dire humanitarian crisis of hunger and disease amid the grinding conflict.Israel began easing a more than two-month total blockade of aid in late May. Since then, a new US- and Israel-backed organisation called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has effectively sidelined the territory’s vast UN-led aid delivery network.There are frequent reports of Israeli forces firing on people seeking aid, with Gaza’s civil defence agency saying 10 Palestinians were killed Friday while waiting at a distribution point near the southern city of Rafah.- ‘Unacceptable’ -The UN, which refuses to cooperate with GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives, said Friday that 798 people have been killed seeking aid between late May and July 7, including 615 “in the vicinity of the GHF sites”.”Where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food and medicine, and where… they have a choice between being shot or being fed, this is unacceptable,” UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday’s deaths, but has previously accused militants of firing at civilians in the vicinity of aid centres.Asked about the UN figures, the military said it had worked to minimise “possible friction” between aid seekers and soldiers, and that it conducted “thorough examinations” of incidents in which “harm to civilians who arrived at distribution facilities was reported”.”Instructions were issued to forces in the field following lessons learned,” it added in a statement.GHF called the UN report “false and misleading”, claiming that “most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys”.Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence agency, told AFP that Israeli forces killed 45 people overall in the territory on Friday.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the agency and other parties.- Truce talks -In Gaza’s south, a witness said Israeli tanks were seen near Khan Yunis, reporting “intense gunfire, intermittent air strikes, artillery shelling, and ongoing bulldozing and destruction of displacement camps and agricultural land”.Israel’s military said troops were operating in the area against “terrorist infrastructure sites, both above and below ground”.Hamas has said that as part of a potential truce deal it was willing to release 10 of the hostages taken during its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the Gaza war.Netanyahu, who is under pressure to end the war after mounting military losses, said that would leave 10 living hostages still in captivity.”I hope we can complete it in a few days,” he said of the initial ceasefire agreement and hostage release in an interview with US outlet Newsmax.”We’ll probably have a 60-day ceasefire, get the first batch out, then use the 60-day ceasefire to negotiate an end to this.”Netanyahu has said that a key condition of any deal is that Hamas first gives up its weapons and its hold on Gaza, warning that failure to do so on Israel’s terms would lead to further conflict.Another issue holding up a deal is disagreement on the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for hostages, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said.Hamas has said it wants “real guarantees” for a lasting truce and Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza, and that it opposes any Israeli moves to push Palestinians into “isolated enclaves”.The group’s 2023 attack on Israel led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.Out of 251 hostages seized in the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.At least 57,823 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.