Hamas on Thursday called on the United States to “put real pressure” on Israel to reach a Gaza ceasefire deal, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said no deal was in the works. Both sides have blamed each other for blocking talks on a ceasefire and hostage swap, as Netanyahu comes under pressure to reach a compromise following the deaths of six Gaza hostages.
Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s Qatar-based chief negotiator, called on the US to “put real pressure on Netanyahu and his government” and “abandon its blind prejudice” toward Israel.
But Netanyahu said “there is no going to be a deal.”
“Unfortunately, the deal is not that close, but we will do everything we can to get them to a point where they can do a deal,” he told US media.
Netanyahu has been insistent that Israel must retain control of the Philadelphia Corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border to prevent the smuggling of weapons to Hamas, which started the war by attacking Israel on October 7.
Hamas is demanding Israel’s full withdrawal from the territory and on Thursday said Netanyahu’s stance was “obstructing the ability to reach an agreement”.
Palestinian militant groups say the new deal is unnecessary because they agreed to the cease-fire deal outlined by Biden months ago.
“We warn against falling into the trap of Netanyahu… who uses the negotiations to escalate aggression against our people,” Hamas said in a statement.
Washington is pushing a proposal it says could bridge the gap between the warring sides, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying there is “90 per cent agreement on it”.
“It’s imperative for both sides to say yes on these remaining issues,” Blinken said during a visit to Haiti.
Signing the ‘Make ‘Em’ Agreement
Israeli protests have swept across several cities this week, with Netanyahu’s critics blaming him for the deaths of the hostages and saying he has refused to make concessions needed for a ceasefire deal.
“We will do everything so that all the hostages stay with us. And if the leaders don’t want to sign the agreement, we will force them to sign it,” said Gil Dikman, a cousin of Carmel Gat, one of six hostages whose bodies were found in a Gaza tunnel last week.
Dikman attended a rally in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening, where a crowd of protesters carried a symbolic coffin, an AFP journalist said.
Lead mediator Qatar has said Israel’s approach is “based on an attempt to mislead world public opinion by falsifying facts and repeating falsehoods”.
Qatar’s foreign ministry warned that such moves would “ultimately undermine peace efforts”.
According to official Israeli figures, the attack by Hamas on 7 October killed 1,205 people, most of them civilians, including some hostages who were murdered.
Of the 251 hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the assault, 97 remain in Gaza, 33 of whom the Israeli military says are dead. Many hostages were released during a week-long ceasefire in November.
At least 40,878 people have been killed so far in Israel’s retaliatory strikes in Gaza, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry.
According to the United Nations Human Rights Office, most of the dead are women and children.
Israel continued bombing into Friday night, with an AFP correspondent reporting a large explosion east of Gaza city.
Six people were killed and others wounded in an Israeli air strike on a house in the southeast of the city, Gaza’s civil defense agency said on Friday.
Deadly attack on the West Coast
As Israel continues its offensive on Gaza, Defense Minister Yoav Galant said the army must use its “full force” against Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank.
“These terrorist organisations, which have various names, whether they are in Nour al-Shams, Tulkarem, Fara or Jenin, must be wiped out,” he said, referring to the cities and refugee camps where Israeli military operations are ongoing.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that its aircraft “carried out three targeted strikes on armed terrorists” in the Tubas region, which includes the Fara refugee camp.
The region’s health ministry said five people aged between 21 and 30 were killed and two others injured in the attack on a car.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said the Israeli army handed over the body of a 17-year-old after medics were prevented from reaching him due to his injuries.
Israel has killed at least 36 Palestinians, including children and militants, in the northern West Bank since the offensive began on August 28, according to figures released by the Health Ministry.
An Israeli soldier was killed in Jenin, where most of the Palestinian soldiers have been killed.
Polio vaccination campaign
Israel’s bombing of Gaza has devastated the area, and the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure has led to the spread of disease.
The humanitarian crisis has seen the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years, prompting a mass vaccination campaign to launch on Sunday, and a local “humanitarian pause” in the fighting.
The World Health Organization said nearly 200,000 children in central Gaza have already been given the first dose, and a second phase began on Thursday in the south before moving to the north.
Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), however warned that the vaccination drive in the south would not reach all children, as some of them do not live in designated areas that Israel has agreed not to attack.
The campaign aims to fully vaccinate more than 640,000 children, with the second dose to be administered in about four weeks.
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