Summary
A Hamas delegation has arrived in Cairo to hold sensitive ceasefire talks on Gaza. The delegation is being led by Hamas’ deputy chief in Gaza, Khalil Al-Hayya, and is being viewed as a potential final hurdle towards an agreement that would halt the fighting for six weeks. A senior Hamas official told AFP that if Israel were to meet its demands – which include a military withdrawal from Gaza and stepped-up humanitarian aid – this would “pave the way for an agreement within the next 24-48 hours”. A Palestinian official familiar with the truce talks told Reuters that they were not yet close to finalising a deal, when asked if one was imminent.
Benny Gantz, a retired Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff who is part of Israel’s war cabinet, headed to Washington on Sunday for talks with US officials, sparking a rebuke from Benjamin Netanyahu, according to an Israeli official. An official from Netanyahu’s Likud party said Gantz’s visit was without authorisation from the Israeli leader, the Associated Press reported. The official said Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, had a “tough talk” with Gantz about the trip and told him the country has “just one prime minister”.
Yemen’s Houthis have vowed to continue targeting British ships in the Gulf of Aden after the sinking of UK-owned vessel Rubymar. “Yemen will continue to sink more British ships, and any repercussions or other damages will be added to Britain’s bill,” Hussein al-Ezzi, deputy foreign minister in the Houthi-led government, wrote on X. “It is a rogue state that attacks Yemen and partners with America in sponsoring ongoing crimes against civilians in Gaza.”
Israel’s military has completed a preliminary review of the killing of over 100 Palestinian people near aid trucks last week, which determined that Israeli forces did not strike the convoy and that most Palestinians died in a stampede, the military spokesperson said. “The IDF has concluded an initial review of the unfortunate incident where Gazan civilians were trampled to death and injured as they charged to the aid convoy,” IDF spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari said. Palestinian authorities say, however, that Israeli forces carried out a massacre, opening fire on a crowd of people who had gathered in the hope that food would be distributed.
At least 30,410 Palestinians have been killed and 71,700 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Born about a month into Israel’s war in Gaza, infant twins Wesam and Naeem Abu Anza were buried on Sunday, the youngest of 14 members of the same family whom Gaza health authorities say were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah overnight. There are continued warnings that hunger and severe malnutrition are widespread in the Gaza Strip, where about 2.2 million Palestinians are facing severe shortages resulting from Israel destroying food supplies and severely restricting the flow of food, medicines and other humanitarian supplies.
Osama Hamdan, a Lebanon-based Hamas official, has told Qatar’s Al-Araby TV that the Palestinian militant group has insisted on a complete, rather than “temporary” ceasefire, and on “ending the aggression against our people”.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has so far rejected pulling troops out of Gaza before Hamas is “eliminated” and all hostages are freed.
The Hamas official also said the group would demand “the entry of at least 400 to 500 trucks per day” carrying food, medicine and fuel as part of a truce deal.
Israel had yet to confirm that it has accepted the truce plan or whether it would attend the Cairo talks.
