Hamas on Sunday urged Gaza mediators to implement a truce plan presented by US President Joe Biden instead of holding more talks, as Palestinians fled a new Israeli military operation.
The statement from the Palestinian group came a day after one of the deadliest reported Israeli strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip in more than 10 months of war.
International mediators had invited Israel and Hamas to resume talks toward a long-sought truce and hostage-release deal, after the fighting in Gaza and the killings of Iran-aligned militant leaders sparked fears of a wider conflict.
Photo: AFP
Israel has accepted the invitation from the US, Qatar and Egypt for a round of talks planned for Thursday.
Hamas on Sunday said that it wanted the implementation of a truce plan laid out by Biden on May 31 and later endorsed by the UN Security Council, “rather than going through more negotiation rounds or new proposals.”
Hamas “demands that the mediators present a plan to implement what they proposed to the movement ... based on Biden’s vision and the UN Security Council resolution, and compel the [Israeli] occupation to comply,” it said.
Unveiling the plan, Biden had called it a three-phase “road map to an enduring ceasefire and the release of all hostages,” and said it was an Israeli proposal. Mediation efforts since then have failed to produce an agreement.
In Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s main city already ravaged by months of bombardment and battles, journalists said hundreds of Palestinians had fled northern neighborhoods after Israel issued fresh evacuation orders.
The military dropped leaflets and sent mobile phone messages warning of “dangerous combat” in al-Jalaa District and telling Palestinian residents to leave the area, which until Sunday had been designated a humanitarian safe zone.
Similar evacuation orders have preceded major military incursions, often forcing Palestinians displaced numerous times by the war to pack up and leave.
It came a day after civil defense rescuers in the Hamas-run territory said an Israeli airstrike killed 93 people at a school housing displaced Palestinians, sparking international condemnation.
Israel said it targeted militants operating out of Gaza City’s al-Tabieen school and mosque with “precise munitions,” declaring that “at least 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were eliminated.”
Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defense agency, on Sunday said that identifying the victims could take at least two days as “we have many bodies torn into pieces” and “shredded or burnt by the bombs.”
Hamas in its Sunday statement cited the Israeli “massacre against the displaced at al-Tabieen school” and “our responsibilities toward our people and their interests” as the reasons for its announcement.
Biden said the first phase of the proposed road map includes a “full and complete ceasefire” lasting six weeks, with Israeli forces withdrawing from “all populated areas of Gaza” and some hostages freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The second phase would see the remaining living hostages released as the warring sides negotiate “a permanent end to hostilities,” followed by “a major reconstruction plan for Gaza” and the return of the remains of dead hostages.
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