Israel targeted a school in Gaza on June 6, 2024 that it said contained a Hamas compound killing fighters involved in the October 7, 2023 attack which sparked the eight-month war, but Gaza media said the strike killed at least 27 people seeking shelter. Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas run government media office rejected Israeli claims that the UN school in Nuseirat in central Gaza had hidden a Hamas command post.
“The occupation uses lying to the public opinion through false and fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people, Thawabta told an international media agency. Israeli military said that before the strike by the Israeli fighter jets, the military took steps to reduce the risk of harm to the civilians. Israel said there will not be any ceasefire during the talks.
In an apparent blow to US President Joe Biden’s proposal, the Hamas leader said on June 5, 2024 the group would demand a permanent end to the war in Gaza and withdrawal of the Israeli forces as part of ceasefire plan. The remarks by Ismail Haniyeh, a leader of Hamas appeared to deliver the Palestinian militant groups reply to the Biden proposal unveiled last week.
Washington had said it was waiting to hear an answer from Hamas to what Biden described as Israeli initiative. “The movement and factions of resistance will deal seriously and positively with any agreement that is based on comprehensive ending of the aggression and the complete withdrawal and prisoner swap,” Haniyeh said. Asked whether Haniyeh’s remarks amounted to the groups reply to Biden, a senior Hamas official replied to a text message from international media agency with thumbs up emoji.
Washington is still pressing for an agreement. CIA directors William Burns met senior officials from Mediators Qatar and Egypt on June 5, 2024 in Doha to discuss the ceasefire proposal. Since a brief long truce in November, all attempts to arrange a ceasefire have failed and with Hamas insisting on a demand for a permanent end the conflict, whereas Israel says it is prepared to discuss only temporary causes until the group is defeated.
Last week’s announcement came with far greater fanfare from the White House and at time when Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under mounting pressure to chart out a plan to end the eight months old war and negotiate the release of the Israeli hostage held by Hamas. Although Biden described the ceasefire proposal as Israeli offer, the Jewish nation government has been lukewarm in the public.
A top aide of PM Netanyahu confirmed previous week that Israel accepted the proposal but it was not a good deal. Far-right members of the Netanyahu government have pledged to quit if he agrees to a peace deal that lives Hamas in place, a move that could force the new election and end the career of Benjamin Netanyahu, the longest serving Prime Minister of the country. Even the centrist opponents have decided the same and threatened to quit.
Meanwhile Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said there would be no let-up in Israel’s offensive while negotiations over the ceasefire proposal were underway. “Any negotiations with Hamas would be conducted under fire,” Gallant said in remarks carried by Israeli media after he flew aboard a warplane to inspect the Gaza front. Israel announced a new operation against Hamas in central Gaza on June 5, where Palestinian medics said airstrikes had killed a dozen people.
The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they have fought gun battles with the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in areas throughout the enclave and fired anti-tank and rocket shells. Two Children were among the dead laid out on June 5 in the city’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, one of the last surviving hospitals in Gaza. Mourners said that the children and their mother were killed. “This is not war, it is destruction that words are unable to express,” said their father Abu Mohammed Saif.
