Rafah under fire. Israeli strikes intensify amidst ceasefire talks
The Israeli Armed Forces attacked the city of Rafah, located in the southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday night. This area is home to about 1 million refugees from the north. 13 people were killed. On Sunday, the White House announced another phone call between the President of the USA and the Prime Minister of Israel.
International news agencies report that Israeli air strikes on civilian targets in Gaza and Rafah, where currently more than a million refugees from other parts of the Gaza Strip are staying, occurred just a few hours before a planned meeting in Cairo on Monday with mediators from Qatar and Egypt and representatives from the Palestinian group Hamas. This meeting was set to discuss the possibility of signing a ceasefire with Israel.
Key hostage release
Reuters, referencing anonymous sources, states that the proposed Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement brokered with the help of Qatar, Egypt, and the USA includes, among other things, the release by Hamas of at least 40 hostages, the release of some Palestinians from Israeli prisons, and intermittent halts in hostilities in the Gaza Strip.
In the longer term, talks are focused on the potential for Israel to allow humanitarian aid for the Palestinian population, facilitate movement between the northern and southern parts of the Strip, and the partial withdrawal of Israeli troops.
On Sunday, the White House revealed details of another conversation between the President of the USA, Joe Biden, and the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden reiterated his opposition to the announced Israeli offensive on Rafah and called for an increase in humanitarian aid for the Palestinian population.
Both Biden and Netanyahu agreed that Hamas bears the responsibility for implementing peace proposals. On Monday, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is set to visit the Middle East.
Horrifying casualty toll
The suppression in the Gaza Strip by Israeli armed forces was a retaliation to an attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023. Following this attack, 1,200 people were killed, and 253 were kidnapped and held as hostages.
Palestinian sources state that due to the Israeli offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, over 34,000 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed. The conflict forced over 2.3 million Palestinians to flee.
