The Palestinian War on Gaza: Predictions for the High-Stakes Israel-Hamas Collisions, and Implications for Humanitarians
Talks involving lower-level officials will continue for another three days, according to an Egyptian and an American official briefed on the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. They described the negotiations on Tuesday as promising, but Israel and Hamas were still not close to a deal.
The high-stakes meeting is taking place as Israel signals it may soon launch a ground invasion in Rafah, on the southern tip of Gaza, where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering.
The 1,200 people that were killed by Hamas on Oct. 7 included at least two dozen who were taken hostage. In the previous months, at least 28, 576 Palestinians have been killed in fighting.
President Biden sent the C.I.A. director, William J. Burns, to join the talks, and said that he had spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar to “push this forward” over the past month. The negotiations were being led by officials from Hamas, which is the armed group fighting Israel.
Speaking from the White House on Monday, President Biden said key elements of a plan were “on the table,” but said “gaps remain” as he encouraged parties to keep working toward a deal.
At the same time, Biden also spoke more extensively about the “unimaginable pain and loss” by civilians in Gaza. More than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its offensive into the territory, according to health officials in Gaza. And with the war entering its fifth month, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire, with widespread reports of shortages of food, clean water and medical supplies.
Biden said that Israel should not go ahead with a military operation without a credible plan for the safety of more than one million people in the area.
Rafah: Israel’s last stronghold in the Gaza Strip, and the news that Israel didn’t want to know about it
There was a cease-fire in November. Negotiated with the help of Qatar, it lasted a week and saw the release of 50 hostages from Gaza in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Hamas, which was not expected to attend the negotiations in Cairo, rejected an Israeli proposal earlier this month because it did not include the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops. Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected the counteroffer, which would have left Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu says Rafah is Hamas’s last stronghold in Gaza, and that “Those who say that under no circumstances should we enter Rafah are basically saying lose the war, keep Hamas there.”
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Israel and Hamas are at odds over an incursion into the southern part of the Gaza Strip, or a cease-fire.
Families that didn’t have time to set up their tents are packing up in Rafah. Many have arrived in Rafah after fleeing Israeli military strikes in the northern swath of the Gaza Strip.
There wasn’t a place for even one person to come with his family after we arrived, said Aisha Abdallah Al-Najjar.
“There is absolutely no safe place in Rafah,” says Qizan an-Najjar, Gaza’s last hospital
She is from the village of Qizan an-Najjar in the south of Gaza, where heavy fighting has taken place between Hamas and the Israeli military.
“The food, we run after it in line, we take turns for water and bathrooms,” she said, adding that her surroundings are so crowded that people take turns even when going for a walk. “Everything is by turn. It’s very degrading. “It’s crazy,” said al-Najjar.
The last large hospital in Khan Younis was ordered to be emptied by the Israeli military, and 51 rockets fell in less than 20 minutes.
Thousands of people sought refuge at the hospital but were being told to leave due to the fighting. Hamas denied Israel’s claim that they used the hospital as cover for their operations.
Cease-fire talks have been off the table for many residents in Rafah. There has been a constant flow of stories about Israeli strikes in Gaza and Hezbollah fighting in Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week ordered the military to come up with an evacuation plan for Rafah in preparation for a ground offensive there.
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General for UNRWA, the U.N. relief agency operating in Gaza, on Tuesday emphasized that “there is absolutely no safe place in Rafah anymore.”
“We don’t feel safe in any area in Gaza anymore,” said Umm Naif al-Zaza who has been displaced twice in the past few months.
Like al-Zaza, Khaled Atef Ashour’s also asks God for peace, but more specifically, he wants more engagement from Arab countries to bring about a ceasefire.
“I’m asking the Arab countries, the donor countries, and the countries that have a heart and a conscience and feel for the people of Palestine … find me a solution. Find a solution for me. That’s it.”