RAFAH (AFP) – Israel’s armed forces bombarded Gaza Sunday, but officials also said diplomatic efforts were expected to resume in coming days towards a truce and hostage release deal.
Fighting has centred on the far-southern city of Rafah, where Israel has vowed to destroy the last remaining Hamas battalions despite a chorus of international opposition to a ground invasion of the city.
Israel’s assault there from early May led Egypt to shut its side of the Rafah border crossing – but yesterday, aid trucks from Egypt again rolled into Gaza, this time via the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing.
United States (US) President Joe Biden said Saturday his administration was engaged in “urgent diplomacy to secure an immediate ceasefire that brings hostages home”.
Mediator Egypt was also continuing “its efforts to reactivate ceasefire negotiations”, said Al-Qahera News, which has links with Egyptian intelligence.
Israeli media has said intelligence chief David Barnea had agreed a new framework for talks on a ceasefire in a meeting with America’s CIA chief and Qatari mediators in Paris.
An Israeli official, requesting anonymity, told AFP on Saturday that “there is an intention to renew these talks this week”.
However, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Qatar’s Al Jazeera network that so far “there is nothing practical on this issue. It is just talk coming from the Israeli side.”
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,903 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The United Nations has warned of looming famine in the besieged territory, where most hospitals are no longer functioning.
In the latest fighting, Gaza’s civil defence agency said yesterday it had retrieved six bodies after a house was targeted in a strike on Rafah’s eastern Khirbet al-Adas neighbourhood.
Witnesses said Israeli artillery had also targeted central Rafah’s Yibna camp, and that heavy artillery shelling hit the city’s Sooq al-Halal and Qishta neighbourhoods.
Elsewhere in Gaza, Israeli air strikes targeted the Nuseirat camp, and witnesses said heavy artillery shelling hit northern Gaza.
Israeli tanks in Gaza City rained heavy gunfire on targets in the Zeitun and Netzarim area, an AFP reporter said.
