Hamas said on Wednesday that ceasefire negotiations with Israel would be suspended if Israel attacks the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, said in an interview with Lebanon-based al-Manar TV that Hamas would halt all indirect negotiations with Israel if it launches military operations against Rafah.

Accusing Israel of seeking “to blackmail all the parties by its threats of attacking Rafah,” the official said “the resistance is still having its power to defend our people.”

On Monday, a Hamas delegation left Cairo and said they would return with a written response to the latest truce proposal.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is on his seventh visit to the Middle East, on Wednesday urged Hamas to accept the truce deal which would see 33 hostages released in exchange for a larger number of Palestinian prisoners and a halt to the fighting, with the possibility of further steps towards a comprehensive deal later.

“Israel has made very important compromises,” he said. “There’s no time for further haggling. The deal is there. They (Hamas) should take it.”

A senior Hamas official said on Wednesday that Hamas was still studying the proposed deal but said Israel was the real obstacle.

Israel is holding off sending a delegation to Cairo for follow-up truce talks, pending a response from Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, an Israeli official told Reuters.

Israel’s military chief of staff Herzi Halevi on Wednesday said that the country’s offensive operation in Gaza “will continue with strength” and that Israel was “preparing for an offensive in the north.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously said that Israel will enter Rafah and eliminate the Hamas battalions there “with or without” a deal with Hamas.

With an Israeli ground operation in Rafah on the horizon, United Nations (UN) aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Tuesday that Israeli improvements to aid access in Gaza “cannot be used to prepare for or justify a full-blown military assault on Rafah.”

More than one million people face famine after six months of the conflict, the UN has said.

As night fell on Wednesday, Israeli planes and tanks pounded several areas across Gaza, residents and Hamas-linked media said.

Medics in Gaza said at least 27 Palestinians were killed in strikes on Wednesday, with others likely hurt or killed in areas they were unable to reach.

To speed the flow of humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave, the U.S. military has so far constructed over 50 percent of a maritime pier that will be placed off the coast of Gaza, according to the Pentagon.

However, U.S. lawmakers have questioned whether the pier is a worthwhile endeavor. On the one hand, it will cost the American taxpayers at least $320 million to operate the pier for only 90 days; on the other hand, the U.S. military personnel could become targets of Hamas militants, Republican Senator Roger Wicker told Reuters.

Source(s): CGTN

UNITED NATIONS, April 30 (Xinhua) — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called for a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas, and for an international investigation of the newly found mass graves in Gaza.

“I have called consistently for a humanitarian cease-fire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and a massive surge in humanitarian aid. Unfortunately, that has not happened — yet. But negotiations are once again under way,” said Guterres.

“For the sake of the people of Gaza, for the sake of the hostages and their families in Israel, and for the sake of the region and the wider world, I strongly encourage the government of Israel and the Hamas leadership to reach now an agreement,” he told reporters.

Without such an agreement, the war, with all its consequences both in Gaza and across the region, will worsen exponentially, he warned.

He raised the alarm at a possible Israeli offensive on Rafah.

Recent weeks have seen airstrikes in the Rafah area. A military assault on Rafah would be an unbearable escalation, killing thousands more civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee. It would have a devastating impact on Palestinians in Gaza, with serious repercussions on the occupied West Bank, and across the wider region, warned Guterres.

“All members of the Security Council, and many other governments, have clearly expressed their opposition to such an operation. I appeal for all those with influence over Israel to do everything in their power to prevent it,” he said.

More than 1.2 million people are now seeking shelter in Rafah governorate, most of them fleeing the Israeli bombardment that has reportedly killed over 34,000 people. They have very little to eat, hardly any access to medical care, little shelter, and nowhere safe to go, he noted.

Guterres called for an international investigation of the newly found mass graves in Gaza.

“I am deeply alarmed by reports that mass graves have been discovered in several locations in Gaza, including Al Shifa Medical Complex and Nasser Medical Complex. In Nasser alone, over 390 bodies have reportedly been exhumed,” he said.

There are competing narratives around several of these mass graves, including serious allegations that some of those buried had been unlawfully killed, he told reporters. “It is imperative that independent international investigators, with forensic expertise, are allowed immediate access to the sites of these mass graves, to establish the precise circumstances under which hundreds of Palestinians lost their lives and were buried, or reburied.”

The families of the dead and missing have a right to know what happened. And the world has a right to accountability for any violations of international law that may have taken place, he said.

Hospitals, health workers, patients and all civilians must be protected. The human rights of all must be respected, said Guterres.

Guterres also called for more humanitarian assistance in Gaza.

“In northern Gaza, the most vulnerable — from sick children to people with disabilities — are already dying of hunger and disease. We must do everything possible to avert an entirely preventable, human-made famine,” he said. “We have seen incremental progress recently. But much more is urgently needed, including the promised opening of two crossing points between Israel and northern Gaza, so that aid can be brought into Gaza from Ashdod port and Jordan.”

Under international humanitarian law, civilians must be protected and they must be able to receive the essentials they need to survive, including food, shelter, and health care, he noted.

A major obstacle to distributing aid across Gaza is the lack of security for humanitarians and the people in need. Humanitarian convoys, facilities and personnel, and people in need, must not be targets, he said.

Guterres called on the Israeli authorities to allow and facilitate safe, rapid and unimpeded access for humanitarian aid and humanitarian workers throughout Gaza.

He called for support for the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, saying the agency has an irreplaceable and indispensable role in supporting millions of people in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Most countries that had suspended contributions to UNRWA following Israel’s allegations that a dozen UNRWA staff members participated in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, have resumed their aid. The United Nations is optimistic that other countries will follow suit. But a funding gap remains, he said. “I call on member states, both traditional and new donors, to pledge funds generously to ensure the continuity of the agency’s operations.”

Guterres reaffirmed the world body’s commitment to a two-state solution — the only sustainable path to peace and security for Israelis, Palestinians, and the wider region.

“The United Nations is totally committed to supporting a pathway to peace, based on an end to the (Israeli) occupation and the establishment of a fully independent, democratic, viable, contiguous, and sovereign Palestinian state, with Gaza as an integral part,” he said.

Source(s): Xinhua

Israel is set to send a delegation to Cairo for talks with Hamas on a new ceasefire proposal aimed at securing the release of hostages held in Gaza as the conflict lingers on for nearly seven months now.

The delegation, composed of security officials, will depart on Tuesday to discuss the deal with Egyptian brokers, an Israeli government source told Xinhua.

A Hamas delegation left Egypt after the talks and will “return with a written response” to the latest truce proposal, according to Egyptian sources quoted by Al-Qahera News, a site also linked to Egyptian intelligence services.

Abdul Latif al-Qanou, a spokesman for Hamas, said on Monday in a statement that “ensuring a permanent ceasefire is a fundamental cornerstone for moving towards the details of negotiations and the success of the agreement with the Israeli occupation.”

According to the Israeli state-owned Kan TV, in the revised proposal, Israel has agreed to reduce the number of hostages it demands to be released to 33.

Israel initially insisted that Hamas release a minimum of 40 hostages but altered its position upon learning that the actual number of surviving hostages was below 40.

Speaking on Monday at a World Economic Forum meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Egypt was hopeful about a proposal for a truce and the release of hostages, but awaiting responses from Israel and Hamas.

“We are hopeful the proposal has taken into account the positions of both sides, has tried to extract moderation from both sides, and we are waiting to have a final decision,” Shoukry said.

A Palestinian official close to mediation efforts told Reuters: “Things look better this time,” but declined to say whether an agreement was imminent.

Israel’s military operation to eradicate Hamas has killed at least 34,480 Palestinians and wounded 77,643, according to Gaza’s health authorities. It has displaced most of the Palestinian enclave’s 2.3 million people and laid much of the area to waste.

The campaign was triggered by the October 7 attack on Israel in which Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The conflict has brought Gaza to the brink of famine, United Nations and humanitarian aid groups say, while reducing much of the territory to rubble and raising fears of a wider regional conflict.

High temperatures in crowded Rafah have turned makeshift shelters made from plastic tarps into sweltering ovens. The UN has warned of diseases spreading.

Source(s): CGTN