Israel has intensified its attacks across the Gaza Strip while the negotiations resumed, carrying out daily assaults in areas sheltering displaced Palestinians.
A quartet meeting involving Qatar, the United States, Egypt and Israel is due to take place in Doha on Wednesday in an effort to secure a ceasefire and a captives release deal, as Israel intensifies its war in the Gaza Strip.
A high-level source told Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News on Tuesday that CIA Chief Bill Burns and Egyptian Intelligence director Abbas Kamel will be at the meeting.
It would also come after Burns visited Cairo on Tuesday for another round of talks, where he met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. According to the Egyptian Presidency, the meeting dealt with the latest efforts aimed at reaching “an agreement on a ceasefire and calm in the Gaza Strip”.
On the same day, a prominent Egyptian source told Al-Qahera News that Israel and Hamas agreed “on many points” while noting that the negotiations will resume in Doha on Wednesday and then in Cairo on Thursday.
The latest development comes after Israel sent its negotiators to the Gulf state over the weekend for a fresh round of talks after Hamas sent mediators, Qatar and Egypt, an amended proposal on July 3.
The latest talks are taking place under a state of cautious optimism, especially as negotiations have stalled since the expiration of last year’s week-long truce, brokered by Qatar and Egypt.
The truce resulted in the release of 109 Israeli captives out of 251 held by Hamas and 240 Palestinians from Israeli prisons, some of whom have since been re-arrested by Israeli forces.
Since the truce expired, Israel intensified its attacks on the Gaza Strip while expanding its ground invasion.
On May 6, Israeli occupation forces began the ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, where at least 1.1 million displaced Palestinians were sheltering after it was declared as a so-called safe zone.
Israeli forces have also destroyed the vital Rafah Crossing that enabled evacuations and the entry of life-saving aid via neighbouring Egypt.
Evacuations and aid entry have since been disrupted, depriving the Gaza Strip’s 2.1 million population of aid amid a significant shortage of basic resources.
Aid trucks barely entered the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war, with fewer than 200 trucks crossing over from Egypt. The number is significantly lower than the pre-war daily average of 500 trucks, which also included fuel.
Another high-level source who spoke to Al-Qahera News on Sunday said Egypt denied reports that claimed it would build a new border crossing next to the Israel-controlled Karem Abu Salem crossing.
Israeli attacks intensify
Israel has intensified its attacks across the Gaza Strip while the negotiations resumed.
On Wednesday overnight, Israeli occupation forces killed at least 20 Palestinians, bringing up the death toll to at least 38,243. Israel carried out a significant attack on Tuesday in a school housing displaced people in the city of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, killing 29 people.
The intensified attacks have forced already displaced Palestinians to seek shelter across the Gaza Strip under non-stop bombardment, without transportation.
According to the UN, the war has destroyed more than 80 percent of the Strip’s commercial facilities and more than 60 percent of residential buildings while displacing 1.9 million out of the 2.1 million population.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Palestinian factions warned against the occupation forces’ forced displacement of Palestinians. The joint statement said the Israeli army “is betting on continuing military pressure against civilians in horrific massacres.”
It noted that the non-stop “massacres” have only revealed “the bad intentions” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government “towards the efforts of the mediators in Qatar and Egypt to reach a ceasefire agreement.”
The Palestinian National Initiative added that Israel’s crimes “stand as an obstacle to reaching a ceasefire and stopping the barbaric aggression against” Palestinians.
“Netanyahu is repeating the sabotage operations he is accustomed to because he knows that stopping the aggression against Gaza means its political end,” it said.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command echoed, saying “Netanyahu is exploiting the mediators” of the negotiations under the U.S.’ continued military support for the war.
