Hamas mulls truce proposal but sees no deal without Israeli withdrawal from Gaza
US, Qatari, Egyptian and Israeli officials meet in France for ceasefire negotiations, as Israeli undercover agents kill Palestinians in West Bank hospital
Hamas is reportedly deliberating over a peace proposal drafted in Paris with the group aiming for a permanent ceasefire but also willing to stagger any such deal into separate phases.
Hamas political bureau member Mohammad Nazzal told Al Jazeera that any such deal would only be possible with an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
“We told the mediators a permanent ceasefire is our goal, but we can do it in the second or third stages of an agreement. Without an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, we can’t accept this new proposal,” Nazzal told Al Jazeera.
Israel has dug in its heels and will not withdraw from the Gaza Strip before "eliminating Hamas", Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday, amid reports of truce negotiations.
Speaking from an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu said: "We will not compromise on anything less than total victory.
"That means eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel," he added.
The comments came after reported ceasefire talks in Paris, with the heads of the CIA, Mossad and Egyptian intelligence as well as the Qatari prime minister, where a prisoner exchange deal was discussed.
"[Netanyahu's] interested in the success of the Paris meeting and doesn't care about [Israeli] prisoners' lives," said senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, as quoted in Reuters.
Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir threatened on Tuesday to bring down the Israeli government if a “reckless” deal is reached with Hamas.
“A reckless deal = the dismantlement of the government,” the far-right minister posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Stolen bodies returned
The reports of negotiations came as 114 Palestinians were killed and 249 were wounded over the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
That brought the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza by Israeli forces since 7 October to 26,751, the ministry added.
In the besieged enclave, over 100 Palestinian bodies were returned to Gaza for mass burial in the southern city of Rafah on Tuesday.
The bodies were stolen by Israeli forces from various areas in the Gaza Strip and taken back to Israel, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Some of the bodies being buried again were already decomposed, Wafa reported. Others were unidentified.
Wafa also reported that doctors who had inspected the remains said there were signs that some bodies had missing organs.
West Bank assassinations
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli commandos disguised as medics, patients and other Palestinian civilians raided a hospital in Jenin.
The soldiers killed three people inside Jenin's Ibn Sina hospital. Footage shared online and in Israeli media showed around a dozen Israeli soldiers in the hospital, armed with assault rifles.
The three men killed have been identified as Mohammed Jalamneh, and two brothers, Basil and Mohammed al-Ghazawi.
The raid left parts of the hospital destroyed, with beds upturned and blood stains covering the floor and equipment.
Tawfiq al-Shoubaki, the medical director of the hospital, told Middle East Eye that some of the Israeli commandos were also dressed as nurses and drew their weapons as soon as they entered the hospital.
He added that some of the Israeli forces had entered Basil al-Ghazawi's room despite the fact that he was receiving treatment for wounds he sustained on 25 October, following a missile explosion in the Jenin cemetery.
“No gunshots were heard during their storming of the wounded man’s room. They immediately withdrew after a few minutes, and the hospital staff found the three young men covered in their blood, without any indication that they were alive, and the bullets were concentrated in the head,” he said.
Shoubaki says that the assassinations mark new ways Israel is targeting hospitals and medical staff in Jenin.
The Israeli military has a long history of employing undercover agents in an attempt to infiltrate Palestinian communities.
posted by Satish Sharma at
04:28
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