Hamas and Israel have accused themselves on Saturday of halt their indirect negotiations for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. More than 20 Palestinians have still been killed by Israeli attacks according to the local civil defense.
A Palestinian source close to talks launched on Sunday in Doha through foreign mediators first blamed “the insistence of Israel” for a plan to withdraw from its Gaza troops, which Hamas “rejects firmly”.
An Israeli politician responded in the evening by accusing the Palestinian Islamist movement of refusing to “make compromises” and to carry out “a psychological war aimed at sabotaging negotiations”.
Last episode of the very long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Gaza was launched by an attack on Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023. The Israeli army launched a destructive offensive, seizing vast sectors of the Palestinian coastal strip.
Israel would remain on more than 40% Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reaffirmed the objectives of his country in recent days: to release the hostages that are still retained, disarm Hamas and hunt it from Gaza.
Negotiations in Doha encounter “obstacles and complex difficulties,” the Palestinian source said, saying that Israel sticks to a card which provides “the maintenance of (its) forces on more than 40% of the area of Gaza”.
According to her, the Israeli army would plan to redeploy all around the territory of more than two million inhabitants, besieged by Israel for 21 months and living in terrible conditions according to the UN.
More fuel
Seven UN agencies warned in a joint declaration that the fuel shortage in Gaza had reached a “critical level” and constituted an “new unbearable burden” for “a population by the famine”.
Israel aims to “pile up hundreds of thousands of displaced people” in the south of Gaza, “in preparation for a forced displacement of the population to Egypt or other countries,” accused the same Palestinian source.
“Continue the war of extermination”
“Hamas demanded a total withdrawal of Israeli forces from all areas taken up by Israel after March 2, 2025, a second Palestinian source told AFP, accusing Israel” of delaying and hindering the agreement, in order to continue its war of extermination “.
She still reported “progress” on issues related to the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Of the 251 people kidnapped in the attack on October 7, 49 are still retained in Gaza, 27 of whom were declared dead by the Israeli army.
Before his return from a visit to the United States, where he met President Donald Trump, Netanyahu said Thursday that he was ready to negotiate a permanent ceasefire in Gaza after a possible 60-day truce.
But he conditioned a permanent ceasefire to a disarmament of Hamas and to an abandonment by this movement of the governance of the territory.
A whole family killed in his tent
In the Gaza Strip, among the more than 20 reported dead, a man, his wife and their child died in their tent after an Israeli night strike on a Deir al-Balah displaced camp, according to Mahmoud Bassal, spokesperson for civil defense.
The Israeli army said it “struck around 250 terrorist targets” in the past 48 hours through Palestinian territory.
These targets included “fighters, trapped buildings, arms deposits, launching posts of anti-tank missiles, snipers, tunnels and other terrorist infrastructures”, she detailed.
Media prevented from working by Israel
Given the restrictions imposed on the media in Gaza and the difficulties of access to the field, AFP is not able to independently check the balance sheets and affirmations of the various parties.
According to data from the Ministry of Health of the Government of Hamas, deemed reliable by the United Nations, at least 57,882 Palestinians, mainly civilians, were killed by the Israeli army in Gaza.
This article was published automatically. Sources: ATS / AFP