Israel pounds Rafah despite truce talks

GAZA CITY

Israel bombarded the overcrowded Gaza city of Rafah, where it has launched a ground incursion, as talks resumed yesterday in Cairo aimed at agreeing the terms of a truce in the seven-month war.

Despite international objections, Israel sent tanks into Rafah on May 7 and seized the nearby crossing into Egypt that is the main conduit for aid into the besieged Palestinian territory.

Heavy Israeli strikes and shelling continue yesterday to hit Gaza, with media footage showing Palestinians scrambling in the dark to pull survivors, bloodied and caked in dust, out from under the rubble of a Rafah building.

"We are living in Rafah in extreme fear and endless anxiety as the occupation army keeps firing artillery shells indiscriminately," said Muhanad Ahmad Qishta, 29.

"Rafah is a witnessing a very large displacement, as places the Israeli army claims to be safe are also being bombed," he told AFP.

An emergency doctor working in Rafah and neighboring Khan Younis said that with humanitarian access compromised, the health situation in the southern cities was "catastrophic.”

"The smell of sewage is rife everywhere," said Doctor James Smith. "It's been getting worse over the course of the last couple of days, obviously worse with the hot weather."

Israel in response vowed to crush Hamas and launched a military offensive that has killed at least 34,789 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's Health Ministry.

Talks aimed at agreeing a ceasefire resumed in Cairo yesterday "in the presence of all parties,” Egyptian media reported.

A senior Hamas official said the latest round of negotiations would be "decisive.”

"The resistance insists on the rightful demands of its people and will not give up any of our people's rights," he told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the negotiations.

The official had previously warned it would be Israel's "last chance" to free the scores of hostages still in militants' hands.

Mediators have failed to broker a new truce since a week-long ceasefire in November saw 105 hostages freed, the Israelis among them in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Qatar, which has been mediating between the two sides, also appealed yesterday "for urgent international action to prevent Rafah from being invaded and a crime of genocide being committed.”

Israel's seizure of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing came after Hamas said it had accepted a truce proposal - one Israel said was "far" from what it had previously agreed to.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the operation as "a very important step" in denying Hamas "a passage that was essential for establishing its reign of terror.”

Netanyahu also noted that the ceasefire proposal accepted by Hamas falls short of essential demands.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also warned that Israel might "deepen" its Gaza operation if negotiations failed to bring the hostages home.

"This operation will continue until we eliminate Hamas in the Rafah area and the entire Gaza Strip, or until the first hostage returns," he said.

Egypt and Qatar have taken the lead in the truce talks, with Hamas saying on May 6 it had told officials from both countries of its "approval of their proposal regarding a ceasefire.”