Israel on Friday approved a potential assault on the Gaza city of Rafah while also keeping ceasefire hopes alive with plans to send another delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible hostage deal with Islamist militant group Hamas.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s office said he had ok\u2019d a plan to attack the city on the southern edge of the shattered Palestinian enclave where more than half of its 2.3 million residents are sheltering after five months of war.Global allies and critics have urged Netanyahu to hold off attacking Rafah, fearing mass civilian casualties. But Israel says it is one of the last strongholds of Hamas whom it has pledged to eliminate and that residents will be evacuated.In Washington, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. had not seen the Rafah plan, but would like to. He told a regular briefing a Hamas ceasefire-for-hostages proposal was within the bounds of what was possible and expressed cautious optimism about it.Hamas has presented a Gaza ceasefire proposal to mediators and the U.S., which includes release of Israeli hostages in exchange for freedom for Palestinian prisoners, 100 of whom are serving life sentences, according to a proposal seen by Reuters.A statement from Netanyahu\u2019s office on the Rafah attack plan said Hamas\u2019 demands for the release of hostages remained unrealistic, but an Israeli delegation would still head to Doha once the security cabinet had discussed its position.The Israeli statement said the Israeli Defence Force was \u201cpreparing operationally and for the evacuation of the population\u201d of Rafah.It gave no time frame and there was no immediate evidence of extra preparations on the ground.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Austria the U.S. needed to see a clear and implementable plan from Israel for Rafah, including to get civilians out of harm\u2019s way.Negotiators failed this week to reach a ceasefire agreement in time for the Ramadan Muslim holy month. Washington and Arab mediators are still determined to reach a deal to head off an assault on Rafah and let in food to stave off starvation.Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri accused Netanyahu of \u201cmanoeuvring \u2026 to conduct more crimes of genocide.\u201d\u201cHe isn\u2019t interested in reaching an agreement,\u201d he told Reuters.Israel has rejected claims of genocide, saying it is purely focused on destroying all Hamas fighters.There is increasing friction between Washington and Israel, which officials in President Joe Biden\u2019s administration say is waging war with too little care for civilians.U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected U.S. official and a leader of Biden\u2019s Democratic Party, called on Thursday for Israelis to replace Netanyahu, whose hardline policies he said were wrecking Israel\u2019s international standing.Biden said on Friday Schumer had made \u201ca good speech\u201d and that many Americans shared those concerns.In the centre of Gaza City late on Friday, an Israeli air strike destroyed a seven-floor residential building, killing or wounding several people, the spokesman of the civil emergency service there said. He said emergency workers were searching the rubble for casualties.HAMAS OFFERMore than two weeks after receiving an Israeli-approved proposal for a truce, Hamas gave mediators on Thursday its first formal counter-proposal in more than a month.Like previous proposals from both sides, the offer, reviewed by Reuters on Friday, foresees dozens of Israeli hostages being freed in return for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, during a weeks-long ceasefire that would let in aid.Hamas also called for talks in a later stage on ending the war, but Israel has said it is only willing to negotiate a temporary truce.Though Israel did not accept, its description of the terms as \u201cstill unrealistic\u201d was notably milder than its response to the previous Hamas offer last month, which Netanyahu called \u201cdelusional\u201d.Israeli security cabinet member and National Unity minister Chili Tropper said there were still wide gaps in Israeli and Hamas positions.\u201cWe have to be honest with the public, if we reach a deal that will return our boys and girls home, it will come at a cost, and a heavy one,\u201d he told N12 News.\u201cIt won\u2019t be at any cost, but we also shouldn\u2019t mislead. To bring back these people, who we failed to protect on Oct. 7, we will have to pay a price. What will that cost be? I\u2019ll leave that to closed doors.\u201dThe war began with an attack by Hamas Islamist fighters from Gaza who killed 1,200 people and seized 253 hostages in Israel on Oct. 7, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, an Israeli assault has killed more than 31,000 people, according to Palestinian figures, and driven nearly the entire population of Gaza from their homes.FIRST AID SHIPThe United Nations says a quarter of Gazans are on the verge of famine and on Friday, the first ship bringing aid by sea, the Open Arms, arrived off Gaza.Israel said 130 pallets of humanitarian equipment and 115 tonnes of food and water were offloaded to World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity\u2019s trucks for distribution after security checks.If the new sea route is successful, it may help to ease hunger in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people face malnourishment and hospitals in the worst-stricken northern areas have reported children dying of starvation.However, aid agencies have repeatedly said that plans to bring in aid by air and sea would be far from sufficient as long as most access by land is restricted.Israel, which has sealed off all land routes into Gaza apart from two crossings on the territory\u2019s southern edge, denies blame for hunger and says aid agencies should do a better job.Distribution of the limited aid that arrives has been chaotic and frequently violent.In one of the worst reported incidents yet, Gaza health authorities said at least 21 people had been killed and 150 wounded at a queue for aid near Gaza City on Thursday night and blamed Israeli forces for shooting into the crowd.Israel denied its troops were to blame and said Hamas fighters had opened fire. Reuters was not able to independently confirm either account.(Reuters)Rafah attack plan. Gaza, ceasefire, hostage deal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israel approved a potential assault on Rafah in Gaza but also plans to send a delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible hostage deal with Hamas. Netanyahu’s office confirmed the attack plan, citing Hamas’ stronghold in Rafah and the intention to evacuate residents. The U.S. expressed cautious optimism about a ceasefire-for-hostages proposal by Hamas, which includes releasing Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Despite global concerns over civilian casualties, Israel aims to eliminate Hamas fighters. A recent Israeli airstrike in Gaza City killed or wounded several people. Hamas has offered a counter-proposal for a truce, involving the release of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, but gaps remain between the Israeli and Hamas positions. The war began with a Hamas attack on October 7, killing 1,200 and taking 253 hostages, leading to an Israeli assault that has killed over 31,000 and displaced nearly all of Gaza’s population. The first aid ship, Open Arms, arrived in Gaza, bringing food and water, amidst warnings of famine and malnutrition in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1521,122,1352,1943,383,492,1423,180,1002,1240,3,1610,1978,118,145,607,298,210,2180,1025,1235,487,187,299,1671,756,2121,1874,493,462,864,1670,1792,837,1354,827,124,223,1827,729,1026,114,939,965,1759,293,962,457,165,18],"class_list":["post-4393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","tag-1521","tag-aid","tag-air-strike","tag-assault","tag-attack","tag-biden","tag-ceasefire","tag-charity","tag-checks","tag-clear","tag-cyprus","tag-evidence","tag-famine","tag-fire","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-hamas","tag-health","tag-hostage-deal","tag-hostages","tag-humanitarian","tag-incidents","tag-international","tag-israel","tag-israeli-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-joe-biden","tag-land","tag-national-security","tag-netanyahu","tag-palestinians","tag-population","tag-president-joe-biden","tag-prime-minister","tag-rafah","tag-release","tag-security","tag-ship","tag-shooting","tag-statement","tag-strike","tag-talks","tag-top-news","tag-truce","tag-trucks","tag-united-nations","tag-war","tag-water","tag-white","tag-white-house","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n