Israeli attack kills Hamas official in Gaza Strip – World

• Cairo receives negotiators from the US and Tel Aviv
• Hamas says its latest proposals are “welcomed” in Washington
• 500,000 Gaza residents are suffering from “catastrophic” hunger, according to UN agencies

GAZA STRIP: A Hamas-appointed deputy labor minister was among the scores of people killed, including children, as deadly Israeli attacks in the Palestinian enclave continued unabated, amid diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire and the release of prisoners.

According to the Civil Emergency Service on Sunday, Ehab al-Ghussein and three other people were killed in the attack.

Lebanon’s Hamas-allied Hezbollah movement has fired volleys of rockets into northern Israel in recent cross-border clashes that have sparked fears of all-out war.

In Israel, anti-government protesters demanding the release of prisoners blocked streets in the commercial center of Tel Aviv, marking a nationwide “day of unrest.” The Hamas attack began at 6:29 a.m. on October 7, 2023.

Efforts to reach a ceasefire continued. Mediators from the US, Qatar and Egypt hoped to end the Gaza conflict, which has claimed numerous civilian casualties and devastated large parts of the coastal region.

Egypt’s state-affiliated Al-Qahera News Citing an anonymous high-ranking official source, it said Cairo was “receiving Israeli and American delegations to discuss the outstanding issues.”

As part of the “intensive Egyptian meetings with all parties this week,” mediators are in contact with Hamas, the news report said late Saturday, without giving further details.

Israel has announced it will send a delegation to continue talks with Qatari mediators, but a government spokesman said on Friday that there were still “gaps” with Hamas.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said AFP that US mediators “welcomed” the group’s latest proposals and “passed them on to the Israeli side.”

“The ball is now in Israel’s court,” said Hamdan.

Hunger and “no fuel”

Fighting and bombing in besieged Gaza continued unabated. Doctors and rescue workers on the ground reported more deaths in several attacks on Sunday.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said two children were among the six killed in an attack on a house in central Gaza, and medics reported nine deaths in two attacks on Gaza City.

A AFP A correspondent said Israeli drones fired on Gaza’s Shujaiya district, which has been largely evacuated and where heavy fighting has been raging for nearly two weeks.

The Israeli military

claimed that its troops had killed several Palestinians in Shujaiya. Israeli forces killed 30 Palestinian fighters in the far south of Rafah last day, the military added, also reporting clashes in nearby Khan Yunis.

According to UN organizations, the war has uprooted almost all residents of the Gaza Strip, almost 500,000 people are suffering from “catastrophic” hunger and most hospitals are closed.

Dr. Muhammad Salha, deputy director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, said the facility had “run out of fuel” due to severe shortages during the Israeli siege of Gaza.

Since the beginning of the Gaza war, there have been almost daily cross-border shelling attacks between Israel and Hezbollah.

Early Sunday, air raid sirens sounded across northern Israel and the military reported that 20 rockets had been fired, some of which were intercepted.

Published in Dawn, July 8, 2024