Israeli strike kills at least 19 more Gaza civilians as Hamas demands truce, not new talks
PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — Smoke rises following Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip August 8, 2024. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) - Hamas is sticking to its demand that Gaza truce talks focus on a deal already discussed with Israel and mediators rather than starting anew, an official said on Tuesday, after Israeli airstrikes killed at least 19 Palestinians in the enclave.
The U.S. said on Monday that it expected peace talks slated for Thursday to go ahead as planned, and that a ceasefire agreement was still possible. Axios reported that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned to set off on Tuesday for discussions in Qatar, Egypt and Israel.
The Israeli government said it would send a delegation to Thursday's talks, but Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that ran Gaza before the war, requested a workable plan to implement a proposal it has already accepted rather than more talks.
A Hamas official told Reuters that a CNN report saying the group planned to attend on Thursday was wrong.
"Our statement the other day was clear: what is needed is the implementation, not more negotiation," said the official, who declined to be named owing to the sensitivity of the issue.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes killed 19 Palestinians in the central and southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, medics said.
One strike killed six people in Deir Al-Balah, including a mother and her twin four-day-old babies, while seven other Palestinians were killed in a strike on a house in the nearby Al-Bureij camp.
Four people were killed in two separate strikes on the Al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip and Rafah in the south, and two were killed in a strike on a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City in the north, medics said.
The Israeli military and the armed wings of Islamic Jihad and Hamas said they were fighting in several areas, 10 months into a war in which almost 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, including many commanders and fighters.
The Israeli military said it had killed Palestinian gunmen and dismantled military structures in Khan Younis, located weapons and explosives in Rafah, and struck rocket launchers and sniper posts in central Gaza.
A ceasefire deal would aim to end fighting in Gaza and ensure the release of Israeli hostages held in the enclave in return for many Palestinians jailed by Israel.
Hamas wants a deal to end the war while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it can only end when Hamas is eradicated.
In Deir Al-Balah, one of the most overcrowded places in Gaza with hundreds of thousands of displaced, many were desperate for a truce.
"Enough, we are no longer able to tolerate the war, the starvation and the frequent displacement," said Ghada, a mother of six who two days ago had to leave her tent in Khan Younis under new Israeli evacuation orders.
"I hope this time they will reach a ceasefire. If they don't, I don't know how much longer we can survive," she told Reuters via a chat app.
A Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7 killed some 1,200 people, with more than 250 taken into captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies, in one of the most devastating blows against Israel in its history.
In response, Israeli forces have razed much of Gaza, displaced most of the population, and killed around 40,000 people, according to the Palestinian health ministry, in a war that has caused horror around the world. Israel says it has lost more than 300 soldiers.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
