The current fragile pause in hostilities in Gaza appeared to be under further threat on Saturday with Hamas hardening its negotiating positions amid new Israeli airstrikes in the devastated territory.
The first phase of the ceasefire agreement ended two weeks ago but Israel is refusing to implement the scheduled second phase, which is supposed to end with its withdrawal from Gaza, the freedom of all remaining hostages held by Hamas, and a definitive end to the conflict.
Currently, both sides have refrained from returning to war, though Israel has conducted an intensifying series of airstrikes in Gaza which have killed dozens of Palestinians.
Israeli military officials say the victims are legitimate targets who had entered unauthorised areas, engaged in militant activities or otherwise violated the truce.
On Saturday, two airstrikes targeted northern Gaza killing nine.
Initial reports said a first strike took place as a Palestinian journalist Mahmoud Aslim was using a drone in the ruined town of Beit Lahiya to survey potential sites for tented camps on behalf of a local charitable organisation. A second strike targeted a car as it evacuated those injured by the first attack.
The Palestinian Journalists’ Protection Center, a local watchdog, said the dead included three Palestinian journalists in all.
The Israeli military said it initially struck two people operating a drone that posed a threat to soldiers in the area, then launched another strike at a group of people who came to collect the drone equipment. The army identified all of those targeted as suspected militants, without providing evidence.
Hamas accused Israel of “deliberate killings” that aimed “to undermine the ceasefire agreement and deliberately destroy any chance of completing the agreement and exchanging prisoners, in a blatant challenge to the mediators and the international community”.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that Israeli fire had killed 19 people in the past 48 hours. The death toll in the 15-month Israeli offensive in Gaza now totals more than 48,500, mostly civilians. Hamas still has 59 hostages, of whom 35 are believed to be dead.
In a statement, Hamas clarified an offer to release a living American-Israeli hostage, saying it would only hand over 21-year-old Edan Alexander if Israel implements the ceasefire agreement which came into effect in January.
The US has already rebuffed the offer, made on Friday, and accused the Islamist militant organisation of “stalling” by making “impractical” demands.
Alexander, who grew up in the US and was fighting as a soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces, was abducted from his military base during Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack that killed 1,200, mostly civilians, and triggered the war. He is the last living US citizen held in Gaza.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the new statement from Hamas. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Friday accused the group of “psychological warfare”.
The US said it presented on Wednesday a proposal to extend the ceasefire for several weeks to allow the negotiation of a permanent truce. It said Hamas was claiming flexibility in public while privately making “entirely impractical” demands.
The indirect talks, which are being held in Egypt and Qatar, are expected to continue during the coming week.
For two weeks, Israel has barred the delivery of food, fuel and other supplies to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians, and cut electricity to the territory a week ago, to pressure Hamas to accept the new proposal.
Hamas however said on Saturday that it would only release hostages if Israel lifted its blockade, withdrew from a strategic corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt and freed more Palestinian prisoners.
The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced most of the population.
The ceasefire’s first phase included the release of 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight others in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces pulled back to a buffer zone along Gaza’s border and allowed a surge of humanitarian aid.
