JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Israeli troops and Palestinian militants clashed across the Gaza Strip over the weekend as mediators stepped up talks on a possible ceasefire aimed at freeing hostages held by Hamas and bringing some Ramadan respite to the battered enclave.
But prospects for securing any truce looked uncertain, with Israel saying it planned to simultaneously expand its sweep to destroy Hamas, while the Islamist faction stood firm on its demand for a permanent end to the nearly five-month-old war. .
Residents said Israeli forces shelled several areas of the enclave as tanks rolled into Beit Lahiya and soldiers and gunmen fought battles in Gaza City’s Zeitoun sector – both in the north, which was captured at the start of the offensive.
At least 86 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since Saturday, health officials said Sunday. The Israeli military said two soldiers died in fighting in southern Gaza and that its forces killed or captured Palestinian militants in Zeitoun and elsewhere.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned his war cabinet late Saturday to brief intelligence chiefs who had returned from a meeting with Qatari, Egyptian and American mediators in Paris on a possible second Gaza ceasefire.
DOHA SPEAKS THIS WEEK
Egyptian security sources said further talks would take place in Doha this week, with mediators moving between Hamas and Israeli delegates and a follow-up round in Cairo. Israel, Hamas and Qatar did not immediately confirm this.
The first lull in fighting in November saw the release of around half of the 253 people seized by Hamas during the Oct. 7 cross-border killing spree that sparked the war. As part of the deal, Israel released three times as many Palestinians from its security prisons and allowed more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Citing unnamed officials, Israeli media said there was a framework for the return of about a third of the 130 remaining hostages during the six-week ceasefire covering the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. There was no formal confirmation from either side.
Palestinian officials said Hamas insisted that Israel call off the offensive and withdraw forces as part of any deal. Israel has indicated its intention to move into one of the last cities where Hamas, which has vowed to destroy it, has an intact force.
“We are working to reach the next framework for the release of our abductees and also to complete the elimination of the Hamas battalions in Rafah,” Netanyahu said on Facebook, referring to the city in the far south of Gaza near the border with Egypt.
This week, he added, Israel’s security cabinet will approve military plans for Rafah – including the evacuation of more than a million displaced Palestinian civilians sheltering there, whose fate worries world powers.
According to Gaza doctors, nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war. A Hamas airstrike on October 7 killed 1,200 people in Israel, which also lost 241 soldiers in the ground fighting in Gaza that followed, according to official figures.
