Name: Israel-Gaza war live: ‘mid-level’ Israeli team heads to Cairo to assess Hamas ceasefire position
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Israel-Gaza war live: ‘mid-level’ Israeli team heads to Cairo to assess Hamas ceasefire position

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A team of mid-ranking Israeli officials will go to Cairo in the next few hours to assess whether Hamas can be persuaded to shift on its latest ceasefire offer, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday, reiterating that the proposal as it currently stands was unacceptable to Israel.“This delegation is made up of mid-level envoys. Were there a credible deal in the offing, the principals would be heading the delegation,” the official told Reuters.It is believed that Hamas has been insisting that any hostage deal should involve a ceasefire that directly leads to the end of the war. Israel’s position is that it is determined to destroy Hamas, and envisages only a pause for a hostage-detainee swap, before resuming its military campaign.Hamas has also released a statement condemning Israel for closing the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings into Gaza. It said:
 By deciding to close the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings, Israel is leading the region toward a disaster and continues its policy of starvation and persecution of Palestinian. International intervention is required. The Biden administration and the international community bear full responsibility for the war’s continuation.
Israel says it closed the Kerem Shalom crossing for security reasons after a barrage of rockets was aimed at Israeli troops near it on Sunday by Hamas, killing four.Israeli troops are currently operating at the Rafah crossing inside Gaza, with the IDF claiming it is acting on intelligence that the crossing was being used for “terrorist purposes”.Key eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureOur picture editors have put together this gallery of student protests about the Israel-Gaza conflict from around the world.A team of mid-ranking Israeli officials will go to Cairo in the next few hours to assess whether Hamas can be persuaded to shift on its latest ceasefire offer, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday, reiterating that the proposal as it currently stands was unacceptable to Israel.“This delegation is made up of mid-level envoys. Were there a credible deal in the offing, the principals would be heading the delegation,” the official told Reuters.It is believed that Hamas has been insisting that any hostage deal should involve a ceasefire that directly leads to the end of the war. Israel’s position is that it is determined to destroy Hamas, and envisages only a pause for a hostage-detainee swap, before resuming its military campaign.Hamas has also released a statement condemning Israel for closing the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings into Gaza. It said:
 By deciding to close the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings, Israel is leading the region toward a disaster and continues its policy of starvation and persecution of Palestinian. International intervention is required. The Biden administration and the international community bear full responsibility for the war’s continuation.
Israel says it closed the Kerem Shalom crossing for security reasons after a barrage of rockets was aimed at Israeli troops near it on Sunday by Hamas, killing four.Israeli troops are currently operating at the Rafah crossing inside Gaza, with the IDF claiming it is acting on intelligence that the crossing was being used for “terrorist purposes”.The Times of Israel is reporting that for the second consecutive night Israel’s military says it shot down a drone aimed at Israel from Iraq. It said the drone was intercepted last night before it reached Israeli airspace. Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed to have launched it.Reuters has spoken to a man in Rafah who said his wife and children had been killed. He told the news agency “We’re patient and we will remain steadfast on this land. We are waiting for liberation and this battle will be for liberation, God willing.”Hani Mahmoud, reporting for Al Jazeera from Rafah, has written that “the situation is getting more difficult by the hour with the presence of the Israeli military.”He went on to say:
 Within the past hour or so, many injured people have arrived at Kuwaiti hospital. They are from the vicinity of the Rafah crossing, as well as from areas that were heavily bombed in overnight attacks on the eastern part of the city.
 There’s a sense of chaos as people don’t have much trust in the Israeli narrative. They’re taking matters into their own hands. They’re going to areas that they think may provide some safety for them and their family members, but they realise there is no safe place in the entire Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera has been banned from operating within Israel by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.Al Jazeera is reporting that numerous injuries, including of children, has been caused by Israel’s military shelling an area in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.More details soon …The UN’s humanitarian office spokesperson Jens Laerke said at a Geneva press briefing earlier that Israel had shut both the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings as part of its Rafah military operation.“The two main arteries for getting aid into Gaza are currently choked off,” he said, saying that UN agencies had very low stocks inside the Gaza Strip since humanitarian supplies are consumed straight away.“If no fuel comes in for a prolonged period of time it would be a very effective way of putting the humanitarian operation in its grave,” Reuters reports he added.Unicef spokesperson James Elder has given an update on the humanitarian crisis for children in Rafah and the wider Gaza Strip at a press conference in Geneva.He said:
 Every warning. Every image of children killed and injured. Every heartbreaking story of bloodshed and despair. Every mind-boggling piece of data of the sheer number of children and mothers killed. Of family homes and hospitals destroyed. It’s all been ignored. Our worst fears, Gaza’s nightmare, appears to be a reality.
He went on to list what he said were seven reason why Unicef and other humanitarian agencies were calling for a ceasefire and the prevention of a ground assault on Rafah, including:Elder finished by saying:
 This past weekend’s events in Gaza, the continued killing of children, more attacks from the warring parties, and now evacuation orders, yet again expose how parties to this conflict continue to utterly disregard the lives and protection of civilians and of children.
 This has to change and this is the last moment for that to change. Aid must flow. Hostages must be freed. Rafah must not be invaded. And children must stop being killed. We’ve pleaded, we have implored, countless times, and we do so once more. For the children of Rafah we need a ceasefire now.
Emanuel Fabian, military correspondent at the Times of Israel, has posted this video which he says shows Israeli driving along the Egypt-Gaza border with what he describes as “obnoxiously large flags”.Video released by the Israeli army shows its forces operating at the Rafah crossing, including a tank driving over a Gaza sign. The video also illustrates that troops have raised an Israeli flag in the Palestinian territory. The Rafah crossing is at the border between Gaza and Egypt.In the wider region, Iran has been hosting International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Mariano Grossi. Reuters reports that in a joint press conference in Tehran with Iran’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami, the pair have said their talks have been positive and productive.Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Rafah and the Gaza Strip.Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz has said that “the work of persuasion on the political front is becoming more difficult” and that if Hamas was not holding hostages, Israel would have already crushed it.In a post in Hebrew on social media, Katz described Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as “sadistic” and said the hostages are the only weapon that Hamas has.He wrote “The entry of the IDF into Rafah promotes the two main goals of the war: the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas.”He said:
 The work of persuasion on the political front is becoming more difficult – but I will do everything to meet the task and allow our heroic soldiers to complete the work.
The Hamas-led health authority in Gaza has issued new casualty figures, saying that Israel’s military assault on the territory has killed 34,789 Palestinians and wounded 78,204 people. Many more missing people are believed to be dead under rubble after the months-long aerial bombardment by Israel’s military.

A team of mid-ranking Israeli officials will go to Cairo in the next few hours to assess whether Hamas can be persuaded to shift on its latest ceasefire offer, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday, reiterating that the proposal as it currently stands was unacceptable to Israel.“This delegation is made up of mid-level envoys. Were there a credible deal in the offing, the principals would be heading the delegation,” the official told Reuters.It is believed that Hamas has been insisting that any hostage deal should involve a ceasefire that directly leads to the end of the war. Israel’s...

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Israel-Gaza war live: ‘mid-level’ Israeli team heads to Cairo to assess Hamas ceasefire position

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