Negotiations continued Wednesday in Cairo, Egypt, for the second day as multiple countries attempted to forge a diplomatic agreement for a pause in the fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages.
The meetings were extended from Tuesday, when leaders from the U.S., Israel, Egypt and Qatar did not reach a breakthrough but agreed to continue “consultation and coordination,” according to Reuters.
Among the main issues preventing a deal is Israel’s pledge to crush Hamas and remain in charge of security in Gaza after the war and Hamas’ demands of a permanent cease-fire and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the war-torn territory.
The negotiations are happening ahead of an expected Israeli military offensive in Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, where 1.4 million people have crowded in search of safety from the war. Israel says the operation is necessary to dismantle Hamas’ last stronghold, while humanitarian organizations, including the U.N., warn an invasion of the city would be disastrous.
President Joe Biden on Sunday cautioned Israel not to invade Rafah unless there’s a plan that ensures the safety of civilians packed in the city, which had a prewar population of roughly 280,000.
In the days since, Israel has launched deadly airstrikes on Rafah in operations it has said are part of hostage rescue missions, which brought two captives to safety on Sunday. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in airstrikes targeting Rafah since the weekend. Civilians in the densely populated city have already begun to flee.
Developments:
∎ More than 28,500 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, when Hamas launched attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, triggering the war.
∎ The Israeli military said on X it “located and struck” Hamas infrastructure, including tunnel shafts but did not say where the attacks were launched. At least 10 militants were killed, the Israeli Defense Forces said.
Israel fighters strike Hezbollah targets after deadly rocket attack
The Israeli military carried out a series of airstrikes in Lebanon on Wednesday after a deadly rocket launched from the country killed at least one person and injured eight others in northern Israel.
Israeli fighter jets struck several Hezbollah targets, including military compounds, operational control rooms and infrastructure belonging to the Iran-backed militant group operating in Lebanon, according to a statement from the Israeli Defense Forces. Hezbollah has not claimed responsibility for the attack in northern Israel.
The rockets fired from Lebanon hit an area of Safed, a city in northern Israel CNN reported, citing Magen David Adom, the largest first responders organization in the country. A body was found during a search of a building damaged by a rocket.
Israel and Hezbollah, a powerful Iranian proxy in the Middle East with sizable military capabilities, have traded airstrikes and rocket fire along the border of Israel and Lebanon since the war broke out in Gaza. Israel has evacuated communities along its northern border. The back-and-forth military operations between Hezbollah and Israel have fueled fears of a wider regional war.
Israel calls for evacuation of hospital where thousands are sheltering
The Israeli military on Wednesday called for the evacuation of a large hospital in southern Gaza where thousands of civilians are sheltering, heightening fears of a potential invasion of the facility.
Nasser Medical Complex, one of the last operational hospitals in the South, has been surrounded for days by Israeli forces. Hospital officials and the Gaza Health Ministry reported that multiple civilians have been shot by snipers as they attempted to escape the area.
The Israeli military in a statement said it has proof “Hamas continues to conduct military activities” at the hospital complex and that “the place was used to hold hostages.” Israel has not released its proof and its claims could not be independently verified.
“We demand the immediate cessation of all military activity in the area of the hospital and the immediate departure of military operatives from it,” the Israeli military said in a statement. “If Hamas does not stop this terrorist activity, within 12 hours, the IDF reserves its right to act against these actions according to international law.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, on Wednesday said the U.N. agency has lost contact with the hospital’s personnel and that four missions have been denied since the weekend. He said the medical facility is the “the backbone of the health system in southern Gaza” and called for its protection.
“Civilians killed, orders to evacuate people seeking shelter, the northern wall demolished: I am alarmed by what is reportedly happening at Nasser Medical Complex,” he said in a statement on social media. “Hostilities have reportedly destroyed storage facilities for medical equipment and supplies. Access to the hospital remains obstructed – there is no safe corridor for those in need.”
Israel’s Rafah evacuation plan: 15 campsites, 25,000 tents, report says
An Israeli evacuation proposal for Rafah includes 15 campsites of about 25,000 tents built across southwestern Gaza and field hospitals controlled by Egypt, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Egyptian officials. The creation of the sprawling tent cities would be paid for by the the U.S. and its Arab Gulf partners, the proposal reportedly said.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC Israel will provide safe corridors for civilians to flee Rafah and go to areas cleared by the military.
But humanitarian aid groups said there’s no place for people sheltering in Rafah to go and that most other parts of the territory have been destroyed by Israel’s military operations, including Gaza City and Khan Younis. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees has said little aid has trickled into northern Gaza in recent weeks and that hundreds of thousands are suffering from severe hunger as a result.
Meanwhile, Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat said if waves of Palestinians trying to flee Israel’s invasion of Rafah enter Egypt, the country would suspend the Camp David Accords peace treaty of the late 1970s, the Associated Press reported.
Contributing: Associated Press, John Bacon, Jorge L. Ortiz
