Palestinian territories:
Israel launched new attacks in the Gaza Strip on Friday after negotiators pursuing a long-stalled ceasefire left talks in Cairo without reaching a deal.
AFP journalists in the Gaza Strip witnessed artillery strikes on Rafah on the territory's southern border with Egypt early on Friday morning, while witnesses reported airstrikes and fighting in Gaza City, further north.
Negotiating teams from Israel and Hamas left Cairo on Thursday after what the Egyptian hosts described as a “two-day round” of indirect negotiations over the terms of a ceasefire in Gaza, according to Egyptian intelligence affiliate Al-Qahera News.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and whose unprecedented Oct. 7 attacks on Israel fueled the war there, said its delegation had left for Qatar, home to the Palestinian fighter group's political leadership.
“The negotiating delegation left Cairo en route to Doha. In practice, the occupation (Israel) rejected the mediators' proposal and objected to it on several central issues,” Hamas said in a message to other Palestinian factions, adding that it continued to lag behind. the proposal.
“Accordingly, the ball is now completely in the hands of the occupation.”
Hamas had said on Monday it had accepted a ceasefire proposal from mediators.
The agreement, according to the group, included a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, the return of Palestinians displaced by the war, and the exchange of hostages held by militants for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, with the aim of “a permanent ceasefire”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office at the time called the proposal “far removed from Israel's essential demands” but said the government would still send negotiators to Cairo.
Israel has long resisted the idea of a permanent ceasefire and has insisted it must finish the job of dismantling Hamas.
'A path forward'
Mediator Egypt said the two sides must show “flexibility” to reach an agreement on a ceasefire and the exchange of hostages and prisoners during the seven-month war, according to a foreign ministry statement.
CIA Director William Burns, who is also part of the truce, will return to the United States from the Middle East on Friday, the White House said.
“That doesn't mean discussions aren't still ongoing,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
“We still believe there is a way forward, but it will take some leadership from both sides.”
But at a makeshift refugee camp in Rafah, displaced Gazan Inas Mazen al-Shami said she was tired of being stranded.
“We don't have money and we don't have the resources to move from one place to another again and again. We have no resources at all,” she said.
The Gaza war began with Hamas' unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
During the attack, militants also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel estimates 128 remain in Gaza, including 36 who officials say are dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,904 people, mostly women and children, according to Israel's Health Ministry.
Focus on Rafah
All eyes have been on Rafah in recent weeks, where the population has grown to about 1.5 million after hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled fighting and bombing in other parts of Gaza in a desperate search for safety.
Countries around the world, including the United States, have urged Israel not to expand its ground offensive into Rafah, citing fears of a large civilian toll.
However, Israel insists that to achieve its war aims it must send ground troops to the city, where it claims senior Hamas military leaders are hiding.
Israel has carried out military operations in parts of Rafah since Tuesday and seized control of a key border crossing into Egypt, prompting condemnation from aid groups that rely on the crossing to send aid to the area.
In an interview with DailyExpertNews on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden issued his strongest warning yet to Israel since the start of the war. He said he would cut off some U.S. arms shipments to Israel if the country carried out its long-threatened ground attack.
Biden told DailyExpertNews: “If they invade Rafah, I will not provide the weapons that were used … to deal with the cities.”
“We are not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells that were used,” he added.
In Israel's first response to Biden's threat, UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan called it a “very disappointing statement.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not respond directly to the American threat.
However, he said in a statement: “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone.”
It has been his repeated refrain in recent days, as both international and domestic criticism of his handling of the war has increased.
'No fuel, no movement'
The Israeli military said Wednesday it is reopening another relief border to Gaza, Kerem Shalom, as well as the Erez border to northern Gaza.
But the head of the UN humanitarian office in the Palestinian territories, Andrea De Domenico, told AFP that military activities in Kerem Shalom made the delivery of civilian aid virtually impossible.
He said the closure of the Rafah crossing, the only one equipped for fuel deliveries, had effectively halted aid operations.
“There are no fuel supplies in Gaza,” he said. That “means no movement. It completely paralyzes humanitarian operations.”
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini announced late Thursday that the agency is closing its headquarters in east Jerusalem after the latest wave of attacks by “Israeli extremists” has put its staff in “serious danger.”
Lazzarini said the compound would remain closed “until proper security is restored.”
A US container ship loaded with aid for Gaza left Cyprus on Thursday in a new test of a maritime corridor to get aid to the besieged Palestinian territory, the Cypriot government said.
U.S. military engineers are assembling a temporary pier to unload relief supplies, but work has been delayed by heavy seas.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the pier will “significantly increase” the volume of aid reaching Gaza, but said it is not a “substitute” for greater access to land through Israel.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)