Officials from Egypt, Israel, the United States and Qatar were expected to meet Thursday in Doha with the aim of resuming talks for a proposed three-phase cease-fire to end the war between Israel and Hamas and free the remaining hostages. But an Israeli official said Israel’s negotiating team was delayed and would likely be dispatched next week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress in Washington on Wednesday as thousands of protesters gathered near the U.S. Capitol to denounce the war. Hamas slammed the speech Thursday and accused Netanyahu of obstructing efforts to end the war and return the hostages.
Netanyahu has signaled that a cease-fire deal could be taking shape after nine months of war, but during his fiery speech to Congress, he vowed to press forward with Israel’s war until he achieves “total victory.”
Palestinians displaced by the Israeli military’s latest order to leave parts of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis say they are sleeping in the streets. The Health Ministry in Gaza says more than 39,100 Palestinians have been killed in the war.
Here’s the latest:
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes on the southern city of Khan Younis killed at least seven Palestinians overnight into Thursday, according to hospital officials and an media journalist who counted the bodies.
At the start of July, the Israeli military ordered parts of the city to be evacuated. On Monday, it added the Muwasi humanitarian zone and other parts of the crowded south to be evacuated. Renewed hostilities and mass displacement followed.
One strike hit the roof of a house in a neighborhood in eastern Khan Younis, killing three people who were inside. In another neighborhood, at least four others from the al-Attar family, who had previously fled from northern Gaza, were killed in a separate strike that hit their tent.
The bodies were taken to the Nasser Hospital and wrapped in blue and white bags. A group of women and girls wept after seeing the bodies at the hospital before funeral prayers. One girl said, “Goodbye, mother,” as she cried in the arms of a woman standing next to her.
Outside the hospital, a Muslim sheikh led funeral prayers for the dead alongside a group of men. People then gathered around the bodies before they were placed on a truck and sent for burial.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began, 39,175 people have been killed and 90,403 others wounded in Gaza, according to its Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. The ministry in the Palestinian enclave also said Gaza’s hospitals received 30 dead bodies and 146 wounded people over the past 24 hours.
BEIRUT — The Palestinian Hamas group slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fiery speech to the United States Congress, accusing him Thursday of obstructing efforts to end the war and return the hostages.
In his high profile visit to Washington, Netanyahu pledged to achieve “total victory” against the militant group in his nearly one-hour address in Congress, and derided protests against the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, now in its ninth month.
Hamas said Netanyahu’s Washington visit was an address to improve his image after the International Criminal Court requested to issue arrest warrants against him for war crimes. The ICC also requested warrants for his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Hamas officials Mohammed Deif, Yehya Sinwar, and Ismail Haniyeh.
“He (Netanyahu) is the one who thwarted all efforts aimed at ending the war and concluding a deal to release the prisoners, despite the continuous efforts of mediators from the brothers in Egypt and Qatar despite the flexibility and positivity shown by the movement,” the militant group said in a written statement, adding that the Israeli prime minister talking about intensified efforts to free the hostages is a “complete lie” to mislead public opinion.
They also rejected Netanyahu’s vision for Gaza’s future — which would consist of a demilitarized civilian administration in the enclave — and accused Netanyahu of being dishonest about aid delivery into the Gaza Strip and downplaying the number of Palestinians killed in the ongoing war.
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