Hamas breaks off Gaza talks after Israeli attack on leader leaves 92 dead

The Palestinian resistance group Hamas announced on Sunday that it was withdrawing from ceasefire talks in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli airstrike on one of its military leaders killed more than 90 civilians.

A senior official from the group confirmed the decision, while another source claimed that Hamas commander Mohammed Deif was “fine” despite the attack.

“Commander Mohammed Deif oversees the operations of Hamas’ military wing well and directly,” the official told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Israel carried out a massive bombing raid on a camp for displaced people in southern Gaza on Saturday in what it said was an attempt to kill Deif.

Another senior official of the group, which has been embroiled in a nine-month conflict with Israel in the Gaza Strip, said Hamas was withdrawing from ceasefire talks because of Israel’s “massacres” and the country’s stance in the negotiations.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said an attack on the al-Mawasi camp killed at least 92 people, more than half of them women and children, and injured 300.

Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ political chief in Qatar, told international mediators that “the decision was made to break off negotiations due to the lack of seriousness of the occupying power (Israel), its continued policy of delay and obstruction, and the ongoing massacres of unarmed civilians,” the official said.

For months, talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt and supported by the US have tried in vain to end Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza.

No safe place

Al-Mawasi, where dozens of people have died according to the Health Ministry, was declared a humanitarian safe zone by the Israeli military in May and civilians were ordered to evacuate there. However, there have been several fatal incidents blamed on Israeli attacks.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, described the area as “sandy, 14 square kilometers of farmland where people live in the open and there are few or no buildings or roads.”

“The claim that people in Gaza can move to ‘safe’ or ‘humanitarian’ zones is false,” Lazzarini said on the social media site X.

Israel said it targeted Deif, the head of the Al-Qassam Brigades, and Rafa Salama, a brigade commander, in an attack on Saturday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Saturday that there was “no certainty” that either of the two men was killed in the attack.

Deif has been one of Israel’s most wanted men for decades and is held responsible by the Israeli authorities for the murder of numerous civilians and soldiers. There have been at least six attempts on his life before.

In an audio message, he announced the start of Hamas’ surprise incursion into southern Israel on October 7, which sparked the Gaza war. The military described him and Salama as “two of the masterminds” of the incursion.

Separately, rescue workers said on Sunday that at least eight people had been killed in three attacks on different parts of Gaza City.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said operations would continue throughout the area, including Gaza City and Rafah.

According to an AFP count based on Israeli figures, 1,195 people were killed in the Hamas incursion on October 7, most of them civilians.

The groups also captured 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in the Gaza Strip. According to the military, 42 of them are dead.

In response, at least 38,443 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

“Horrible massacre”

The deaths in al-Mawasi camp sparked strong criticism from governments across the region, with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry stating that “such crimes … cannot be tolerated under any justification.”

The Israeli military said of its attack on Deif: “The area hit is an open area surrounded by trees, several buildings and sheds. It was not a tent complex, but an operational camp.”

A Hamas statement rejected Israel’s claim that it had targeted Deif, saying it was intended to “cover up the extent of the gruesome massacre.”

Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden said that a framework for a ceasefire and hostage agreement that he had drafted at the beginning of the war had “now been agreed upon by both Israel and Hamas”.

“There are still gaps to close, but we are making progress,” he added.

On Saturday evening, Hamas official Bassem Naim told AFP that Netanyahu was responsible for the impasse and called on Biden to put “sufficient pressure” on the Israeli president to reach an agreement.

Negotiations were interrupted by Hamas’ withdrawal on Sunday, but the official quoted Haniyeh as saying the group was “ready to resume negotiations if the occupation government (Israel) shows seriousness in working out a ceasefire agreement and a prisoner exchange.”

An Israeli security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Saturday that the attack showed that Israel “will continue to target the top Hamas leadership” even as it “negotiates a hostage deal.”