Gaza: 15 dead in Israeli raid, Hamas rejects latest truce plan

Palestinian Hamas on Saturday lashed out at “US dictates” by rejecting a new draft agreement for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where 15 members of a family, including nine children, were killed in an Israeli strike, according to the Civil Defense.

After more than ten months of war, talks on a ceasefire in Gaza were held Thursday and Friday in Doha between Israel and the mediators — the United States, Qatar and Egypt –, at the end of which a revised proposal for an agreement was presented by Washington, Israel's main ally.

On their return from the talks, Israeli negotiators “expressed their cautious optimism” to Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Prime Minister's office.

Hamas, however, rejected this revised proposal, denouncing “American dictates”, and is demanding the implementation of the plan announced at the end of May by American President Joe Biden.

This plan provides in a first phase a six-week truce accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of hostages kidnapped on October 7, and in its second phase, in particular a total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Triggered in response to an attack by the Islamist organization against Israel on October 7, the Israeli offensive continued during this new round of negotiations in which the Islamist movement refused to participate.

Israel announced on the night of Saturday to Sunday that it had killed in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, “two senior Hamas officials”, Ahmad Abu Ara, “responsible for manufacturing explosives”, and Raafat Dawasi, a local “military official”.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, confirmed the deaths of the two men, stressing that they had been responsible for “planning and implementing several quality operations”.

On Saturday evening, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported the death of two Palestinians in the bombing of their car in Jenin.

For Washington, a ceasefire in Gaza would help avoid a regional conflagration after the threat from Iran and its allies to respond to the assassination, attributed to Israel, of the leader of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, and to that of the military leader of Lebanese Hezbollah, Fouad Chokr, killed the day before in a strike claimed by Israel near Beirut.

– “Illusion” –

Relatives of victims of an Israeli strike gather at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on August 17, 2024, against the backdrop of the conflict between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas © AFP – Eyad BABA

A “close” ceasefire agreement is an “illusion”, said Hamas official Sami Abu Zohri, for whom the latest American proposal “suggests a huge step backwards”.

He was responding to Mr. Biden who said on Friday that an agreement “has never been so close”.

Hamas accuses Israel of adding “new conditions”, including the “maintenance of Israeli troops” on the Gaza border with Egypt and “a right of veto” on Palestinian prisoners likely to be exchanged for hostages.

While the talks are due to resume next week in Cairo, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to fly to Israel on Saturday.

The heads of British, French, German and Italian diplomacy, for their part, urged in a joint statement “all parties to engage positively and flexibly in the process” of negotiation.

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A Palestinian family flees the al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, August 17, 2024 © AFP – Eyad BABA

Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that he wants to continue the war until the destruction of Hamas, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007 and is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union.

In Tel Aviv, thousands of people gathered to demand an agreement to bring home the hostages held in Gaza. “We all know there is a real possibility of a deal,” said Mor Korngold, the brother of one hostage.

– “Indescribable scenes” –

A woman whose relative was killed in an Israeli strike cries at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on August 17, 2024, amid conflict between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas © AFP – Eyad BABA

In the devastated and besieged Gaza Strip, at least 15 members of the Ajlah family, including three women and nine children, were killed in a strike in al-Zawayda (central Gaza), according to the Civil Defense.

“Three missiles hit the house directly,” Ahmed Abou al-Ghoul, who was helping other Palestinians evacuate bodies from the rubble, told AFP.

At the morgue, Omar al-Dreelmi, from the Ajlah family, spoke of “indescribable scenes, of dismembered children's bodies”.

Questioned by AFP, the Israeli army said it had “hit a terrorist infrastructure in the centre of the Gaza Strip”, affirming that it was “investigating” after having “received information” about civilians “killed in an adjacent structure”.

According to witnesses, Israeli strikes also targeted residential towers in Khan Younis (south).

Palestinians inspect the damage from an Israeli strike in al-Zawayda, in the central Gaza Strip, on August 17, 2024, amid conflict between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas © AFP – Eyad BABA

According to the UN, thousands of Palestinians were forced to “leave in a hurry, without knowing where to go, amid death and destruction” after new Israeli evacuation orders for areas of Deir al-Balah (center) and Khan Younis.

The army said it had eliminated several “terrorists” in Rafah and Khan Younes and announced the death of two soldiers, bringing to 332 the number of its soldiers killed since the launch of its ground offensive on October 27.

A man next to a destroyed building after an Israeli strike in the Nabatieh region of southern Lebanon on August 17, 2024. © AFP – Mahmoud ZAYYAT

The attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza in the south of Israel led to the death of 1,198 people on the Israeli side, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count at from official data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 111 are still being held in Gaza, including 39 declared dead by the army.

The Israeli retaliatory offensive in Gaza has at least 40,074 dead, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, which does not detail the number of civilians and fighters killed.

It plunged the Palestinian territory into a humanitarian disaster, the vast majority of Gaza's 2.4 million inhabitants having been displaced.

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