Hamas says Israeli raids could have ‘disastrous repercussions’ for ceasefire

The militant group said in a statement released on Monday that its top political leader Ismail Haniyeh warned mediators of the “collapse” of the negotiations, saying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli army would bear “full responsibility”.

The statement came days after the two sides had appeared to have narrowed gaps in the long-running talks aimed at pausing the fighting nine months into the war in Gaza.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli forces had intensified an operation in the Gaza Strip’s largest city in what the military said was intended to weed out militants, sending thousands of Palestinians fleeing.

The incursion into the eastern part of Gaza City expands Israel’s engagement in the northern part of the beleaguered territory, an area Israel said it had seized control of months ago yet which has seen pockets of militant resurgence that have scaled back Israeli military gains.

Israel had ordered evacuations in the area before the raid was launched, the military said.

Heavy fighting in the area in the initial weeks of the war all but emptied out Gaza City and its environs, and the Israeli military has prevented most people from returning to their homes there.

But several hundred thousands of Palestinians remain in the area, living in the shells of their homes or shelters. The fresh fighting meant new displacement for many residents there.

Residents reported artillery and tank fire in the area, as well as air strikes. The Gaza health ministry, which has limited access to northern Gaza, did not immediately report casualties.

The Hamas-run Civil Defence also did not disclose casualty numbers immediately, saying the area was inaccessible because of the fierce clashes.

The fighting comes as Israel and Hamas appeared to be the closest they have been in months to agreeing to a ceasefire deal that would bring a pause in the war in exchange for the release of dozens of Israelis held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

CIA Director William Burns returned to the region on Monday for talks in Cairo, according to Egypt’s state-run Qahera TV, which is close to the country’s security services. An Israeli delegation was also heading to the Egyptian capital, Israeli media reported.

But obstacles remained, even after Hamas agreed days ago to relent on its key demand that Israel commit to ending the war as part of any agreement.

A key part of that shift in its stance, officials told The Associated Press, is the level of destruction in the Gaza Strip caused by Israel’s intense bombing campaign.

Hamas does however want to include in the deal that the meditators “guarantee” that negotiations conclude with a permanent ceasefire deal, according to two officials.

The current draft says that the mediators – the United States, Qatar and Egypt – “will do their best” to ensure that the negotiations lead to an agreement to wind down the war.

That could remain a sticking point for Israel, which has rejected any deal that would force it to end the war with Hamas still intact – a condition reiterated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The officials said that another term that remains at an impasse is whether Hamas should be allowed to choose the high-profile prisoners held by Israel that it wants released as part of the deal.

Some of the veteran prisoners were convicted of serious crimes against Israelis and Israel opposes letting Hamas determine those who are to be freed.

While diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the war were ramping up, people in Gaza were seeing no end in sight to their suffering.

Residents fleeing eastern Gaza Strip areas said Israel was carrying out heavy strikes, which prompted some Palestinians sheltering in places that were not under evacuation orders to seek refuge elsewhere.

Fadel Naeem, the director of the Al-Ahli hospital said patients and their companions fled the facility in panic even though there was no specific evacuation for the area around the hospital.

He said people had “left for fear of the worst”, adding that patients in a critical condition had been evacuated to other hospitals in northern Gaza.

Marwan al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, said it received 80 patients and wounded people from Al-Ahli who were packed into “every corner”.

“Many cases require urgent surgeries. Many cases suffer from direct shots in the head and require intensive care. Fuel and medical supplies are dwindling,” he said.

He said the hospital also received 16 bodies of people killed in the Israeli incursion, half of them women and children, on Monday.

The Israeli military said it launched the operation after it received intelligence that showed the area was housing militants from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group as well as weapons and investigation and detention rooms.

The military said a facility belonging to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, was also being used by the militants, without providing evidence.

The war has killed more than 38,000 people in the Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry in Gaza, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The fighting has decimated large swaths of Gaza’s urban landscape, sparked a humanitarian catastrophe and displaced most of the territory’s 2.3 million population.

The war erupted with Hamas’ surprise cross-border raid on October 7, which killed 1,200 people in southern Israel, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.

The militants took roughly 250 people hostage, and about 120 are still in captivity, with about a third of those said to be dead.