A senior Hamas official said on Sunday (14) that the Islamist group had not withdrawn from ceasefire talks with Israel after this weekend’s deadly attacks in Gaza that Israel said targeted the group’s military leader Mohammed Deif.
However, Izzat El-Reshiq, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, accused Israel of trying to hamper efforts by Arab mediators and the United States to reach a ceasefire agreement by stepping up its attacks on the enclave.
On Saturday (13), an Israeli attack in the Khan Younis area of Gaza left at least 90 Palestinians dead, according to local health authorities. The incident has cast doubt on ceasefire negotiations.
In recent days, there have been hopeful signs that a deal could be reached to end the fighting and return hostages held in Gaza.
Two Egyptian security sources involved in ceasefire negotiations in Doha and Cairo said on Saturday that after three days of intense talks, discussions had broken down.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to gather his inner circle of ministers later on Sunday to discuss the negotiations.
Saturday’s strike targeted Deif and killed Rafa Salama, commander of Hamas’ Khan Younis brigade, the Israeli military said on Sunday, but there was no confirmation of Deif’s fate.
“The attack in Khan Younis was the result of surgical intelligence,” the head of the Shin Bet domestic security service said in a video released by the service from Rafah. He said 25 Hamas operatives who took part in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war were killed last week.
On Saturday, a senior Hamas official denied that Deif had been killed and the group said the Israeli allegations were intended to justify the attack.
On Sunday, Israeli forces continued air and ground bombardments against several areas of the coastal territory, where 2.3 million people live, most of whom have already been displaced by the war.
An attack on a United Nations-run school in Nuseirat camp, one of eight refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, killed 15 Palestinians and wounded dozens, health officials and Hamas media reported.
The Israeli military said the site was used as a base for Hamas fighters to attack Israeli forces and that several measures were taken to reduce the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precision munitions and intelligence.
Residents said two missiles hit the top floor of the school, which is close to the refugee camp’s local market, usually occupied by traders and where displaced families also take shelter.
Early Sunday, Israeli airstrikes on four homes in Gaza City killed at least 16 Palestinians and wounded dozens of people, medics said.
Gaza’s health ministry said that since the war began in October, at least 38,584 Palestinians have been killed and 88,881 wounded in Israel’s military offensive. The latest attack in the Gaza Strip left 141 Palestinians dead, the highest single-day death toll in many weeks.
Gaza’s Health Ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, but officials say most of those killed during the war have been civilians.
Israel has lost 326 soldiers in Gaza and claims at least a third of Palestinian casualties are combatants.
The war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, 2023, when an attack led by the Islamist group inside Israel killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli officials.
Almost the entire population of Gaza has been displaced amid the new Israeli offensive
Source: CNN Brasil
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