GAZA: Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed more than 40 Palestinians, including at a market and a water distribution point, as talks for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas stalled. Delegations from Israel and the Palestinian militant group have now spent a week trying to agree on a temporary truce to halt 21 months of devastating fighting in the Gaza Strip. But on Saturday, each side accused the other of blocking attempts to secure an agreement at the indirect talks in the Qatari capital, Doha.
On the ground, civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said at least 43 people were killed in the latest Israeli strikes, including 11 when a market in Gaza City was hit. Elsewhere, eight children were among the 10 victims of a drone strike at a water point in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, Bassal said. Israel's military blamed a technical problem for that strike, saying it had been targeting a member of Hamas ally Islamic Jihad. "As a result of a technical error with the munition, the munition fell dozens of meters from the target," a statement read. "The incident is under review."
Reports of casualties were being examined, it added. Khaled Rayyan said that he was woken by the sound of two large explosions after a house was hit in Nuseirat. "Our neighbour and his children were under the rubble," he said. Another resident, Mahmud Al Shami, called on the negotiators to secure an end to the war. "What happened to us has never happened in the entire history of humanity," he said. "Enough." Gaza's health ministry says that at least 58,026 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's retaliatory campaign. The UN considers those figures reliable. UN agencies on Saturday warned that fuel shortages had reached "critical levels", threatening to worsen conditions for Gaza's more than two million people.
Talks to seal a 60-day ceasefire and hostage release were in the balance on Saturday after Israel and Hamas accused each other of trying to block a deal. Hamas wants the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, but a Palestinian source with knowledge of the talks said Israel had presented plans to maintain troops in more than 40 per cent of the territory.
The source said Israel wanted to force hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into the south of Gaza "in preparation for forcibly displacing them to Egypt or other countries". A senior Israeli official said Israel had demonstrated an openness "to flexibility in the negotiations, while Hamas remains intransigent, clinging to positions that prevent the mediators from advancing an agreement".
Meanwhile, a Gaza-bound boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists and humanitarian aid left Sicily on Sunday, over a month after Israel detained and deported people aboard a previous vessel. The Handala, operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left the port of Syracuse shortly after 12:00 pm, a journalist saw, carrying about fifteen activists. Several dozen people, some holding Palestinian flags and others wearing keffiyeh scarves, gathered at the port to cheer the boat's departure with cries of "Free Palestine". The former Norwegian trawler — loaded with medical supplies, food, children's equipment and medicine -- will sail for about a week in the Mediterranean, covering roughly 1,800 kilometres, in the hope of reaching Gaza's coast.
In early March, Israel imposed a total aid blockade on Gaza amid an impasse in truce negotiations, only partially easing restrictions in late May. The boat will make a stop at Gallipoli, in southeastern Italy, where two members of the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI) are expected to join. The initiative comes six weeks after the departure of the Madleen, another ship that left Italy for Gaza transporting aid and activists, including Greta Thunberg. — AFP
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