As it readied itself for an assault on the densely populated southern Gaza city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians are imprisoned, Israel came under increasing international pressure on Tuesday to consent to a truce with Hamas.
In Cairo, CIA director William Burns met with Mossad leader David Barnea to discuss a deal mediated by Qatar that would temporarily end hostilities in return for Hamas freeing captives.
According to Egypt’s Al-Qahera News, which cited a senior Egyptian official, the talks, which also included the prime minister of Qatar and Egyptian officials, were “positive” and will go on for three more days.
A day after Israeli forces rescued two hostages from Gaza, the families of the remaining captives made an emotional plea to Barnea and the Israeli delegation ahead of the Cairo talks: “Do not return until everyone comes home the living and the dead.”
The Israeli campaign group, Hostages and Missing Families Forum, has urged the government to exhaust every option to return some 130 hostages still believed to be in Gaza. Israel says 29 of them are presumed dead.
The group called it a “once-in-a-lifetime mission” and said they must “not return without a deal”.
An AFP calculation based on official Israeli numbers indicates that on October 7, in an unprecedented Hamas strike, militants took approximately 250 people hostage and killed about 1,160 people in Israel, most of them civilians.
Since then, Israel has continued to bomb and launch a ground offensive in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, killing at least 28,473 Palestinians, the most of them women and children, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The United States and the UN forewarned Israel against launching a ground invasion into Rafah without a strategy to safeguard civilians, who claim they have nowhere else to go, leading to the Cairo summit.
With Rafah on edge, some residents began dismantling makeshift tents and prepared to move on again.
“We are sleeping in the street, (the tent) doesn’t have a roof, it’s made of nylon — if it gets hit by a missile, you will die instantly,” said Gazan Fayez Abed.
After White House talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Monday, US President Joe Biden said civilians in Rafah “need to be protected”, calling them “exposed and vulnerable”.
King Abdullah pushed for a “lasting ceasefire”, warning that an Israeli attack on Rafah would “produce another humanitarian catastrophe”.
