Disagreement between Hamas and Israel over talks as Israeli strikes intensify on Gaza by Reuters

Written by Nidal Al-Maghribi

CAIRO (Reuters) – Disagreements broke out between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Sunday over the details of an agreement to stop fighting in the Gaza Strip and return hostages to their homes, while Palestinian officials said intense Israeli bombing had killed more than 100 people over the weekend. .

A Hamas official said that the movement had agreed to a list of 34 Israeli hostages who would be returned as part of an agreement that could eventually lead to a ceasefire. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office quickly issued a statement saying that Hamas had not provided a list of hostages.

Later on Sunday, a Hamas official provided Reuters with a copy of the list showing the names of 34 hostages that the movement agreed to release in any potential ceasefire agreement with Israel.

Renewed efforts are underway to reach a ceasefire in the 15-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, and to return Israeli hostages taken to Gaza, before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.

These efforts come amid an escalation in Israeli military operations in the Strip. Medics said that Israeli air strikes in Gaza this weekend killed 105 Palestinians. The Israeli army said it killed dozens of Hamas activists.

The US State Department said that Israel must abide by international law and do “more to ensure the protection of civilians.” But she added that she supports Israel’s right to defend itself.

Israeli negotiators were sent on Friday to resume talks in Doha mediated by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, and the administration of US President Joe Biden, which is helping mediate, urged Hamas to agree to an agreement.

Hamas said on Friday that it was committed to reaching an agreement as soon as possible, but it was not clear how close the two sides were.

A Hamas official told Reuters that any agreement to return the Israeli hostages would depend on an agreement for Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire or an end to the war.

The official, who requested anonymity, said, “But until now, the occupation remains stubborn about reaching an agreement on the issues of ceasefire and withdrawal, and has not taken any step forward.”

Netanyahu has consistently said that the war will not end until Hamas is eliminated as a military and ruling force.

Israel launched its attack on Gaza in response to an October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas militants on communities in southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage, according to Israeli statistics.

Since then, the Israeli military campaign has leveled vast swaths of the Strip, displacing most people from their homes, and killing 45,805 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Fighting fury

Israeli military raids continued across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, with an airstrike killing five people in a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Gaza health officials, and killing four others in Jabalia in the northern Strip.

Later in the day, medics said that an air strike hit a police station in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, killing five people. It was not immediately clear whether all those killed were police officers.

As night fell, medics said that an Israeli air strike killed three people in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, bringing the death toll on Sunday to 17.

The Israeli army said it struck Hamas activists working from the humanitarian zone in Khan Yunis, and an Islamic Jihad activist who it said carried out attacks from the humanitarian zone in Deir al-Balah.

In the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, relatives and neighbors rushed to the Zuhd family home, which was subjected to an Israeli air strike late Saturday evening, killing seven people, medics said. Searches continued on Sunday morning for four others believed to be trapped under the rubble.

Three men dug through the rubble with their bare hands to retrieve bodies and search for possible survivors.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that its forces attacked more than 100 targets across Gaza over the weekend, killing dozens of Hamas activists. It added that it also destroyed rocket launch sites that were used to launch attacks on Israel in recent days.

Later on Sunday, she said that last week in the Jabalia area, she killed an Islamic Jihad activist who participated in the October 7 attack on Israel.

(Reporting and writing by Nidal Al-Mughrabi. Additional reporting by Daoud Abu Al-Kass in Gaza and Maytal Angell in Jerusalem; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Emilia Sithole Matarese, Helen Popper and Diane Craft)