Hamas and Israel blame each other for ceasefire delay

DUBAI/CAIRO/JERUSALEM: The Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel traded blame on Wednesday over failure to conclude a ceasefire agreement despite progress reported by both sides in past days.

Hamas said that Israel had set new conditions, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the group of going back on understandings already reached.

“The occupation has set new conditions related to withdrawal, ceasefire, prisoners, and the return of the displaced, which has delayed reaching the agreement that was available,” Hamas said.

Hamas said, however, that it was showing flexibility and that the talks, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, were going in a serious direction.

Netanyahu countered in a statement: “The Hamas terrorist organization continues to lie, is reneging on understandings that have already been reached, and is continuing to create difficulties in the negotiations.”

Israel will, however, continue relentless efforts to return hostages, he added.

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Israeli negotiators returned to Israel from Qatar on Tuesday evening for consultations about a hostage deal after a significant week of talks, Netanyahu’s office said on Tuesday.

The U.S. and Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt have stepped up efforts to conclude a deal in the past two weeks.

ISRAEL KEEPS UP MILITARY PRESSURE

Meanwhile, Israeli forces kept up military pressure on the Palestinian enclave. Medics said Israeli military strikes killed at least 24 people across Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

One of the strikes targeted a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City’s suburb of Sheikh Radwan, they added.

The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas militant operating in the area of Al-Furqan in Gaza City.

Several Palestinians were killed and wounded in the Al-Mawasi area, an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip, where the military said the strike targeted another Hamas operative operating there.

The ministry of health in the Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli forces continued to besiege the only three hospitals, barely operational in the northern edge of the enclave, surrounding Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia.

The Israeli army forced officials at the Indonesian hospital to evacuate patients and staff on Tuesday and continued to operate in the vicinity of the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital. They also ordered that hospital evacuated but officials there refused, citing risks to dozens of patients.

Israeli troops were operating in the vicinity of the hospital for the past two days and an Israeli security official said the area was a Hamas stronghold.

“Kamal Adwan is at the heart of the most complex fighting in Jabalia,” he said. “We are being very careful.”

Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate northern Gaza to create a buffer zone, which Israel denies

The war was triggered by Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed more than 45,200 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.