Ceasefire talks in Cairo delayed as Israel intensifies strikes on Gaza

US President Joe Biden had discussed need to secure deal in call with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu

Displaced Palestinians flee the western part of Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip. Reuters

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Gaza ceasefire talks that were to begin in Cairo on Thursday have been delayed until next week to allow delegates time to study new proposals, sources told The National, further reducing the likelihood of reaching a deal.

The sources said earlier that negotiations would take place between midlevel officials from the US, Egypt and Qatar and their Israeli counterparts, in a renewed push to conclude a deal. The possibility of that now appears remote. While Hamas was unlikely to have delegates present at the negotiations, its senior officials in Qatar were to participate virtually.

Egypt has already rejected a new proposal from Israel that provided for a gradual withdrawal of its forces from the Palestinian side of a land crossing between Egypt and Gaza and a strip that runs the length of the Egypt-Gaza border. That withdrawal, according to the offer, would begin at the start of the second phase of the plan, based on a three-phase blueprint announced by US President Joe Biden in late May.

Egypt has demanded that Israeli forces withdraw fully from both areas at the start of the first phase, which is to last 42 days. The counter-proposal also includes the deployment of US and UN forces to both areas, which were captured by Israel in May in a move that deeply angered Egypt and strained its relations with Israel.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud Taha, Hamas’s head of media relations in Beirut, said the group will not agree to any "concessions" in exchange for a ceasefire deal and is calling on its regional allies to “widen” the confrontation with Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “will not get anything from the resistance, and Hamas will not agree to any additional concessions,” Mr Taha told The National. “Hamas supports widening the confrontation with Israel and for allies to join the ongoing battles, including the Fatah movement,” added the official.

Fears that the war could escalate into a wider conflict have gripped the Middle East since the late-July assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut. Iran and the militant group have vowed to avenge their deaths.

Iran-backed armed factions in the Middle East have said that they would halt attacks against Israeli targets if a ceasefire in Gaza is reached.

“The terms of the new deal are a coup against what Hamas accepted,” said a source close to the Iran-backed factions in the region.

The source claimed that the US is betting on “buying time,” hoping that “the more time passes, the more the desire and willingness of Iran and the armed groups to retaliate will diminish”.

The US “missed a real opportunity to stop the war after the two assassinations in Tehran and Beirut,” stressed the source, adding that “what is certain is that the collapse of the chances of stopping the genocidal war on Gaza... will expedite the retaliation”.

Attacks continue

Israel, meanwhile, intensified attacks on Gaza on Thursday morning, killing more than 16 people, Palestinian media reported.

At least 11 died and dozens were wounded in an air strike on a residential building in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza early on Thursday, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported. Medical sources said that most of those killed were children and women and their charred bodies arrived at Kamal Adwan Hospital, while others are still trapped under the rubble.

Palestinian media also reported three people died and four were injured in a strike on a house in Al Moghazi camp in central Gaza, while areas in eastern Deir Al Balah were struck by Israeli artillery. Several people were killed and others injured in an attack on a residential apartment in Jabalia camp in northern Gaza.

A mother and her child died in a strike on a house east of Khan Younis in the south of Gaza, according to health officials.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed more than 40,200 people since October 7, according to health authorities in the enclave. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

The Israeli army began its offensive after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing more than 1,200 people.

Israel and Hamas have blamed each other for delays in agreeing a deal to end the fighting, free Israeli hostages and allow vital humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The US has presented ideas to bridge gaps and, through mediators Qatar and Egypt, pressed Hamas to return to talks this week in Cairo. But a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel was on board, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted by Israeli media as disagreeing on a key sticking point.

Mr Netanyahu insisted that Israel should maintain control of the Salah Al Din corridor, also known as the Philadelphi Corridor, on the border between Gaza and Egypt, which Israeli forces seized from Hamas.

Israel says the Palestinian groups relies on tunnels in the area to bring in weapons.

"Israel will insist on the achievement of all of its objectives for the war, as they have been defined by the Security Cabinet, including that Gaza never again constitutes a security threat to Israel. This requires securing the southern border," Mr Netahyahu's office said.

Mr Biden spoke to Mr Netanyahu by phone on Wednesday amid increased pressure to secure a ceasefire and hostage deal, the White House said.

Mr Biden "stressed the urgency of bringing the ceasefire and hostage release deal to closure" to Mr Netanyahu, ahead of upcoming talks in Cairo, a readout showed. Mr Biden called the Cairo meetings a chance to "remove any remaining obstacles".

The two also discussed "ongoing defensive US military deployments" to bolster security against threats by Iran and proxy groups, according to the readout.

Vice President Kamala Harris joined the call, which focused on efforts to “de-escalate” tension in the Middle East and to secure a deal that would end the 10-month conflict and see the release of Israeli hostages from Gaza, the White House said.

The US has also ordered a guided missile submarine to be deployed to the Middle East, to bolster Israel's defences.

The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group has also arrived in the Middle East, the military said on Wednesday, after US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered it move more quickly.

Bodies under rubble

Four Palestinians are still trapped under the rubble of a school in Gaza city that was hit in an Israeli strike on Tuesday, with hopes of finding them alive gradually diminishing.

Eight bodies have been recovered since the attack on Mustafa Hafez school but four remain missing, according to Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the Civil Defence in Gaza.

Mr Bassal told The National those trapped cannot be reached due to lack of proper equipment.

"Extracting them requires significant resources, which means we won’t be able to rescue them unless heavy equipment is available. The availability of such equipment is tied to international decisions to allow it into Gaza.”

Mohammed Yassin said his son Ahmad, 23, is trapped under the rubble and the Civil Defence has been unable to pull him out due to a lack of necessary equipment.

In hopes of his son still being alive, Mr Yassin has been trying to lift the rubble himself, stone by stone.

“The chances of his survival has greatly diminished … and with each minute passing, I fear he might have died.

“If he's dead, I just want to find his body so I can bury him properly."

Ahmad had been sheltering in the school, while his family was displaced elsewhere with relatives in the Al Maghrabi area of Gaza city.

Mr Bassal, meanwhile, estimates emergency workers have been unable to reach up to 10,000 people trapped under rubble since the beginning of the war.

West Bank violence

Three Palestinians were killed on Thursday in an Israeli air strike on Tulkarm refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Sources said Emmad Tayseer Shureim, 34, Moawya Al Haj Ahmed and Waseem Anbar, both 30, died from wounds sustained in the attack.

Israeli forces also bulldozed infrastructure in the streets of the camp and damaged houses and shops there, Wafa reported.

The Israeli military said it began an operation in Tulkarm on Wednesday night. An aircraft carried out an attack in the city and its forces clashed with militants, it added.

There has been a surge in violence in the West Bank since October 7. The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 637 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the start of the war.

Israeli forces carry out near-daily raids that often pre-empt gun battles with Palestinian militants, who in turn have also carried out a series of attacks on Israelis.