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Hamas has denied it is pulling out of talks over a ceasefire in Gaza after deadly Israeli air strikes that targeted the Palestinian militant group’s top commander.
Izzat al-Rishq, a Doha-based official, said on Sunday that reports that Hamas was suspending negotiations brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar were “baseless”, despite what he termed the “massacre” committed by Israel a day before in southern Gaza.
Israeli strikes on a compound near the city of Khan Younis targeted Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s military chief, along with another senior militant commander, Rafa’a Salameh. Health authorities in the Hamas-controlled enclave said over 90 people were killed and some 300 injured in the attacks on Saturday, including women, children and medical personnel.
Israel on Sunday confirmed that Salameh had been killed, although Deif’s fate is still unknown. The shadowy figure is known to have survived several assassination attempts over two decades. But a senior Israeli military official said there “was very accurate intelligence that verified” the two had been at the above-ground site when it launched the attack.
According to Israeli officials, Deif, Salameh and possibly several other Hamas operatives were located in a fenced-in group of small buildings and sheds in the western outskirts of Khan Younis, bordering what Israel has designated a humanitarian “safe zone” in al-Mawasi. Hamas denied that Deif had been killed.
Talks over a ceasefire deal that would stop the fighting and secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas resumed this month, though international mediators are still struggling to bridge the gaps between the two sides.
Rishq, the Hamas official, said part of the goal of the assassination attempt on Deif was to “block the way to reaching an agreement that stops the aggression against our people, which has become clear to everyone”.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced from fighting in other parts of the shattered territory have taken shelter in the small strip of land on the Mediterranean coast, on the orders of the Israeli military.
According to a Palestinian civil defence spokesperson, the air strikes hit a cluster of tents filled with displaced people and a separate house located some distance away.
Visiting al-Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Saturday, Scott Anderson, deputy director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said he “witnessed some of the most horrific scenes I have seen” since the start of the war in Gaza nine months ago.
“This overstretched health facility admitted well over 100 of yesterday’s severe injuries” including very young children, the UNRWA chief added. “We urgently need a ceasefire, the release of all remaining [Israeli] hostages, respite for the people of Gaza and a meaningful opportunity for healing to begin.”
US officials had expressed cautious optimism in recent weeks about the prospects for striking a deal, saying earlier this month that there was a “pretty significant opening” as negotiations resumed. Yet a final agreement remains elusive.
Israel has sought to secure the release of the remaining 120 Israeli and foreign nationals still held by the Palestinian militant group after its October 7 attack on the Jewish state triggered the war. More than 40 are believed by Israeli intelligence to no longer be alive.
Hamas has insisted that a deal would ultimately end the war, but has softened its position on some of its conditions. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently rejected any permanent ceasefire or the full withdrawal of troops from Gaza.
Netanyahu, in his first televised press conference for more than three months late on Saturday, said the war “will end only when we achieve all of its goals”. These included eliminating Hamas’s military and governing capabilities and ensuring Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.
“We have identified clear cracks in Hamas under the power of the blows we are raining on them. Today’s operation [against Deif] also contributes to this, whatever its results are,” Netanyahu added.
The long-serving premier also rejected accusations by current and former Israeli officials that he had hardened Israel’s positions in the talks, saying he had not budged “a millimetre” from the framework agreement made public by US President Joe Biden.
In recent days Netanyahu has precluded any genuine Israeli military withdrawal from the border region between Gaza and Egypt, along with a corridor held by Israeli forces bisecting the territory.
“We’re getting close to victory. We’re getting close to trampling them [Hamas],” he said on Saturday.
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