Israelis consider pause in fighting
DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA STRIP>> Israeli officials met Saturday night about the next steps after the latest talks with the United States, Egypt and Qatar in search of a deal on pausing the fighting in Gaza.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will convene the Cabinet early this week to “approve the operational plans for action in Rafah,” including the evacuation of civilians, despite widespread warnings from the international community about a military ground operation in the southern city where more than half of Gaza’s population shelters. “Only a combination of military pressure and firm negotiations” would achieve Israel’s aims in the war, he said.
A senior official from Egypt, which, along with Qatar, is a mediator between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group, said mediators were waiting for Israel’s official response to a draft deal that includes the release of up to 40 women and older hostages held in Gaza in return for up to 300 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, mostly women, minors and older people.
The Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations, said the proposed six-week pause in fighting would include allowing hundreds of aid trucks to enter Gaza every day, including the northern half of the besieged territory. He said both sides agreed to continue negotiations during the pause for further releases and a permanent cease-fire.
Negotiators face an unofficial deadline of the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan around March 10.
Hamas political official Osama Hamdan noted that the group wasn’t at the talks but asserted to reporters in Beirut on Friday that
Israel had refused its main demands, including stopping the “aggression” and withdrawing from Gaza.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Saturday that the bodies of 92 Palestinians killed in Israeli bombardments were brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours, raising the overall toll in nearly five months of war to 29,606. The total number of wounded rose to nearly 70,000.
The ministry’s death toll doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but it has said that twothirds of those killed were children and women. Israel says its troops have killed more than 10,000 Hamas fighters but hasn’t provided details.
An Israeli airstrike hit a house in Rafah, killing at least eight people. including four women and a child, health authorities said.
“Enough, enough. Either the Israelis or us should stop. There should be a truce,” said neighbor Abdul-qader Shubeir, who described feeling lost at not being immediately able to put out the fire burning the bodies.
Brazil’s president alleged Saturday that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, doubling down on harsh rhetoric after stirring controversy a week ago by comparing Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews and others perished during World War II.
Israel has pushed back against genocide claims made at the U.N.’S top court and elsewhere, saying its war targets the terrorist group Hamas, not the Palestinian people. It has held Hamas responsible for civilian deaths, arguing that the group operates from civilian areas.
“What the Israeli government is doing is not war: It is genocide,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Children and women are being murdered.”
In response to Lula’s initial comments, Israel declared him a persona non grata, summoned Brazil’s ambassador and demanded an apology. Lula recalled Brazil’s ambassador to Israel for consultations.
Last month, South Africa filed a landmark case with the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians.
The court issued a preliminary order ordering Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza.
Israel has accused South Africa of hypocrisy.