Hamas says Israel’s deadly attack on a school in the Gaza Strip could set ceasefire talks back to square one

Tel-Aviv — A wave of hope for a breakthrough in Israel-Hamas Ceasefire talks brought CIA Director William Burns back to the Middle East this week, but hopes were dampened by a powerful Israeli airstrike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza. The attack killed at least 29 people at the Al Awda school in Khan Younis, according to an official at the nearby al-Nasser hospital.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that they used “precise munitions” in the attack on the school to kill a militant involved in the October 7 Hamas terror attacks that killed nearly 1,200 people.

The Israeli military said it was investigating the incident but has consistently blamed Hamas for all deaths in the war, accusing the group of using Palestinian civilians as human shields and stationing weapons and fighters in schools, hospitals and homes.

Israeli forces have also launched a new attack further north, in Gaza City, demanding a further evacuation of Palestinian civilians. Images posted online on Wednesday show people holding leaflets dropped by the military in the area calling on people to leave.

Hundreds of thousands of people trapped in Gaza, a narrow strip of land between Israel and the Mediterranean Sea, have already fled the fighting four or five times.

The United Nations described the forced exodus as “dangerously chaotic.” Doctors and nurses in two hospitals rushed to transfer their patients.

The Israeli military said that the medical facilities did not need to be evacuated, but its previous raids on other hospitals in Gaza had left medical staff scared.

Hamas said the new attack could cause “the negotiation process to start all over again,” even though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to send a delegation to resume talks.

Netanyahu agreed to send the Israeli delegation back to the talks after Hamas responded to the latest ceasefire draft with some requested changes. However, the two sides remain at odds on the core issues of a gradual ceasefire process. One of the biggest obstacles has been Netanyahu’s insistence that any ceasefire agreement leave his military the option to resume operations against Hamas.

Alon Pinkas, a former adviser to four Israeli foreign ministers and an outspoken critic of Netanyahu, told CBS News on Wednesday that he believes, like many Israelis, that the Israeli president does not want a real ceasefire.

When asked whether Netanyahu’s agreement to continue ceasefire talks was merely a bone to throw to his supporters in Washington to ease the pressure, Pinkas said the Israeli president’s actions were even more dishonest.

“He’s just kidding them,” he said. “He (Netanyahu) has been doing this for almost nine months, and he’s doing it with impunity and without immunity.”

The Israeli president accused Hamas of blocking the progress of the talks and suggested that the group was not serious about the negotiations, as it had also continued its military operations against Israel in several rounds of talks.

The White House has always supported Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas, and few exceptionshas never stopped the supply of US weapons to the country. But Mr Biden and his subordinates have also put pressure on Netanyahu to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza and limit the number of civilian casualties in a war that has killed more than 38,200 Palestinians, according to medical officials in the Hamas-run enclave.

President Biden announced a project in March to increase the flow of aid to the area: a floating pier that the U.S. military planned to build on Gaza’s coast for more than $230 million.

The pier project, which was always touted by US officials as an additional measure rather than a solution to the severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza, was plagued by logistical challenges, largely weather-related, and was never able to facilitate a significant flow of aid.

After being shut down again due to rough seas, the pier was expected to be reopened this week – but after that the structure could be permanently dismantled. Dismantling could begin as early as next week, but no final decision has been made, according to U.S. military officials.