Israel to renew talks on Gaza ceasefire while advancing plans for Rafah offensive

Israel is to send a team to Doha on Sunday to renew talks on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal whileit advances plans for a military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

The Israeli move to renew proximity talks with Hamas came after the militant group on Thursday night sent its response to Qatar to a truce framework drawn up by Qatari, Egyptian and American mediators. The decision to re-enter talks came despite Israeli criticism that the Hamas positions remains “unrealistic”.

Both Qatar and the US welcomed the Israeli decision to renew the truce talks with Hamas but stressed the gaps between the two remained wide.

Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday he had approved plans for a military operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where more than a million war refugees have sought shelter. “The IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] is making operational preparations and is getting ready for the evacuation of civilians,” it said.

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US secretary of state Antony Blinken responded that Washington needed to see a “clear and implementable plan” for Rafah, including getting civilians out of harm’s way. He told reporters in Austria that the US had not yet seen such a plan.

Israel believes it will take two to three weeks to transfer civilians from Rafah to what it terms “humanitarian islands” in central Gaza. This will only happen after the military operation in Gaza’s second largest city Khan Younis, just north of Rafah, is completed, in the coming days or weeks. This indicates that an attack on Rafah, if there is no truce, will not happen until towards the end of April at the earliest.

Critically for the chances of a new ceasefire, the first Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan passed off peacefully. More than 40,000 worshippers attended prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque at the Haram al-Sharif noble sanctuary in Jerusalem’s Old City, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount.

The number of worshippers was significantly lower than in previous years, partly because of tension from the Gaza war and because the Israeli authorities prevented West Bank Palestinians under the age of 50 from arriving at the site.

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Amid reports of growing hunger in Gaza, a ship loaded with 37 million meals arrived off the coastal enclave on Friday, in a test run for a new aid route by sea from Cyprus. The ship, arranged by the World Central Kitchen charity, delivered the meals that were unloaded via a temporary jetty. A second ship is ready to sail from Cyprus if the operation is completed without problems.

The Israeli military spokesperson said a reported shooting at an aid convoy in Gaza city on Thursday, which the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said killed 21 people and injured about 150 others,was not carried out by Israeli soldiers. An Israeli army investigation determined that Palestinian gunmen, trying to seize the humanitarian supplies, were responsible, it said. The Gaza health ministry described the incident as a as a “new, premeditated massacre” by Israel.

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Israeli defence officials say there is an increasing likelihood that the third most important Hamas figure in Gaza, Marwan Issa, the deputy to military commander Mohammad Deif was killed in an air strike on a tunnel in the Nussierat refugee camp last weekend. Mr Netanyahu called it “a significant and important achievement for Israel”.