Hamas says Israel pushing things back ‘to square one’

[Pelican Press 0]

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****** says Israel pushing things back ‘to square one’

************ militant group ****** says Israel is trying to push things back to square one by asking to extend the first phase of their Gaza Strip ceasefire agreement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday it had adopted a proposal by US President Donald Trump’s envoy for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for the Ramadan and Passover periods ending about April 20, hours after the first phase of the previously agreed deal expired.

The truce would be conditional on ****** releasing half of the remaining living and dead hostages on the first day, with the remainder released at the conclusion if an agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire.

“The occupation is pushing to return things to square one and overturn the agreement through the alternatives it is proposing,” senior ****** official ****** Hamdan said in a news conference.

“The mediators and guarantors bear full responsibility for preventing Netanyahu from sabotaging all efforts made to reach the agreement and for protecting the agreement from collapsing,” Hamdan said.

Israeli fire killed at least two people in Rafah and injured three others in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip on Monday, raising fears among Palestinians that the ceasefire could collapse altogether after Israel imposed a total blockade on the shattered enclave.

A first phase of a ceasefire between Israel and ************ militant group ****** that began in January ended over the weekend with no agreement on what will happen next.

****** says an agreed second phase must now begin, leading to a permanent Israeli withdrawal and an end to the war.

Two Israeli government officials said mediators had asked Israel for a few more days to resolve the stand-off.

Israel raised the stakes on Sunday by imposing a total blockade on all supplies, including food and fuel, to sustain the 2.3 million Gazans living among the ruins after the 15-month conflict.

Hundreds of lorries carrying supplies were backed up in Egypt and denied permission to enter.

Gaza Strip residents said shops had been swiftly emptied of all supplies and the price of a sack of flour had more than doubled overnight.

“Where will our food come from?” said Salah al-Hajj Hassan, a resident in Jabalia, on the Gaza Strip’s northern edge where families have returned to destroyed homes to live in the rubble.

“We are dying, and we don’t want war or the alarm bells of displacement or the alarm bells of starving our children.”

Residents said Israeli tanks stationed near the eastern and southern borders of the Gaza Strip intensified gunfire and tank shelling into the outskirts throughout the night.

A ************ official with a group allied to ****** told Reuters a state of alert had been declared among fighters.

At least two people were killed by Israeli drone fire in Rafah, and three people were wounded by a helicopter that fired on Khan Younis, medics said.

In a statement, the Israeli military said its forces fired at a motorboat in the coastal area of Khan Younis that was violating security restrictions in the area and posing a threat.

The military said in another incident in the south of the strip, its forces identified two suspects who were moving towards them and posing a threat.

Israeli forces “fired at the suspects to eliminate the threat and identified casualties,” it said.

Israel’s onslaught has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to local health authorities, and displaced most of the population.

The war began when ******-led fighters attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Fifty-nine hostages are believed to remain in the Gaza Strip.

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