Hamas urges mediators to implement Biden truce plan
Reuters
Israel issued a relocation order for southern Gaza’s Khan Younis residents on Sunday, following a deadly air strike on a school in Gaza City
Hamas has said that any resumption of ceasefire talks about the conflict in Gaza should be based on previous plans rather than holding new rounds of negotiations.
Last week, international mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the US urged Israel and Hamas to attend negotiations on a ceasefire and hostage release deal on 15 August.
Israel responded on Thursday, saying it would send a team of negotiators to take part in the meeting.
Negotiations faltered last month, after new terms were introduced to the framework presented by US President Joe Biden in May.
In a joint statement last week, mediators said talks could take place on 15 August in Doha or Cairo.
It called on Israel and Hamas “to close all remaining gaps and commence implementation of the deal without further delay”.
It said a “framework agreement” based on “principles” previously outlined by Mr Biden on 31 May was ready – which proposed a deal that would start with a full ceasefire and the release of a number of hostages.
In a statement, Hamas responded to pressure from mediators by calling for a plan to be drawn up based on Mr Biden’s “vision” from May – essentially agreeing to resume negotiations from the point where they stopped rather than on any new initiative.
“The mediators should enforce this on the occupation (Israel) instead of pursuing further rounds of negotiations or new proposals that would provide cover for the occupation’s aggression and grant it more time to continue its genocide against our people,” the Hamas statement said.
Sources told the BBC that the introduction of new Israeli conditions – that displaced Palestinians should be screened as they return to the north of Gaza, as well as the question of control of the Philadelphi corridor that borders Egypt – had been sticking points.
The BBC understands that Hamas is open to resuming talks at the point prior to which the new conditions were introduced.
Recent fighting in Gaza and the killings of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh and a senior Hezbollah commander have risked escalating tensions across the region.
Aftermath of Israeli strike on Gaza City school
On Sunday, the Israeli military ordered thousands of Palestinians in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, to relocate to what it has designated “humanitarian zones”.
The relocation order followed an Israeli air strike against a school building in Gaza on Saturday, which killed more than 70 people according to a local hospital director.
Fadl Naeem, head of al-Ahli Hospital where many of the casualties were taken, said around 70 victims were identified in the hours after the strike – with the remains of many others so badly disfigured that identification was difficult.
A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the school “served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility”, which Hamas denies.
IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said “various intelligence indications” suggest a “high probability” that the commander of Islamic Jihad’s Central Camps Brigade, Ashraf Juda, was at al-Taba’een school school when it was struck.
He said it is not yet clear whether the commander was killed in the attack.
The BBC cannot independently verify casualty figures from either side.
The air strike has been criticised by Western and regional powers, with Egypt saying it showed Israel had no desire to reach a ceasefire or end the Gaza war.
Israel claims that Hamas is using civilian infrastructure to plan and carry out attacks, and that is why it has been targeting hospitals and schools – sites protected under international law.
Hamas has consistently denied the accusations.
Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people in an attack on Israel on 7 October, taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages.
That attack triggered a massive Israeli military offensive against Gaza and the current war.
More than 39,790 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli campaign, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
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