Israel and Hamas leave negotiations, violent strikes against Rafah

GAZA – New impasse to come in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Israel increased strikes this Friday in the Gaza Strip after the departure, without agreement, of the two camps from the negotiating table aimed at achieving a truce and preventing an Israeli offensive on Rafah.

In the early hours of May 10, AFP teams reported Israeli artillery fire towards Rafah, on the Egyptian border, and witnesses of airstrikes and fighting in Gaza city.

Below, HuffPost takes stock of the situation in the Gaza Strip, a little over 7 months after the attack of October 7.

• Negotiations that get bogged down

Hamas sent a message to the other Palestinian factions to explain its point of view on the state of indirect negotiations with Israel which have been taking place since Wednesday in Cairo. “The delegation left Cairo for Doha. The occupation rejected the proposal submitted by the mediators which we had accepted. As a result, the ball is now entirely in the occupation’s court.”the name given to Israel by the terrorist movement, he indicated in this letter.

Representatives of Hamas and Israel left Cairo after “two days of negotiations”the media reported Al-Qahera Newsclose to Egyptian intelligence, specifying that the efforts of mediator countries (Egypt, Qatar, United States) “continue to bring together the points of view of the two parties”.

And Egyptian diplomacy urged Hamas and Israel this Friday to demonstrate “flexibility” to reach an agreement ” as soon as possible “ For “put an end to the humanitarian tragedy” in the Gaza Strip.

CIA Director William Burns, who was heavily involved in the talks and present in Cairo and Jerusalem this week, returns to the United States this Friday, the White House said.

Hamas gave the green light Monday to a proposal presented by mediators which includes, according to the movement, a truce in three phases, each lasting 42 days, including an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as well as an exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners with a view to “permanent ceasefire”.

But Israel responded that this proposal was “far from his demands” and repeated his opposition to a definitive ceasefire as long as Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007 and which he considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union, is not “defeated”.

• The offensive on Rafah

To this end, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considers necessary a ground offensive in Rafah, a city where according to him the last battalions of the Islamist movement are hiding but where there are also 1.4 million Palestinians, the majority displaced by the violence.

Defying international warnings, the Israeli army has carried out incursions since Tuesday described as “targeted” in eastern Rafah and took control of the border crossing with Egypt, blocking a key gateway for humanitarian aid convoys to the besieged territory.

• Biden’s threat on weapons

Furthermore, Joe Biden threatened to stop deliveries of certain types of bombs in the event of an offensive on Rafah, the most severe warning from Washington, the main arms supplier to Israel, since the start of the conflict.

“If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone. I have already said it, if necessary, we will fight with our nails”Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the American president on Thursday.

• Increasing numbers of refugees

According to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), whose offices in Jerusalem were the target, according to it, of an attempted fire by “Israeli extremists”around 80,000 people have fled Rafah since Israel called on the population of the east of the city to leave the area earlier this week.

Some headed to Khan Yunis, a ruined city a few kilometers to the north, while others were still wondering where to go.

Despite the reopening on Wednesday of the Kerem Shalom crossing, closed for three days due to rocket fire according to Israel, the delivery of aid remains “extremely difficult”Andrea De Domenico, head of the office of the United Nations humanitarian agency (Ocha) in the Palestinian territories, told AFP.

” It’s crazy “the Israelis “have tanks everywhere, troops on the ground, they are bombing the area east of Rafah and they want us to go and get fuel or commodities” in these war zones while“they know we just can’t go”he added.

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