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Ceasefire talks to end more than seven months of Israeli aggression in the besieged Palestinian Gaza Strip have ended without an agreement. On the other hand, the Israeli forces have renewed the bombardment in the Rafah region.
Israel also said it would continue to attack Rafah as ceasefire talks ended without an agreement. Reuters reported this information in a report on Friday (May 10).
Palestinian residents reported that Israeli forces bombarded the Rafah area on Thursday. On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected President Biden's threat to stop the supply of arms to Israel if it attacks Rafah.
A senior Israeli official said on Thursday night that the latest round of ongoing indirect talks in Cairo to end the conflict in Gaza had ended and Israel would continue its operations in Rafah and other parts of the Gaza Strip as planned, Reuters said.
Israel has submitted its objections to the mediators over Hamas' proposal for a deal to release prisoners held in Gaza, the official said.
In addition, Netanyahu said in a video statement, 'If we have to, we will fight with our nails. But there's more to us than nails.'
Palestinian armed groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, meanwhile, said their fighters fired anti-tank rockets and mortars at Israeli tanks on the city's eastern outskirts.
Residents of Rafah, Gaza's largest urban area, said an Israeli attack near a mosque in the city killed at least three people and wounded several others. Video footage from the scene shows the minaret in ruins and two bodies wrapped in blankets.
At least 12 people, including women and children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on two houses in Sabra area of Rafah city. Among the dead were a senior commander of the Al-Mujahedin Brigade and his family, as well as the family of another leader of the group, doctors, relatives and the group said.
Israel says Hamas fighters are hiding in Rafah. Millions of Gazans currently seek refuge in Rafah, mainly due to Israeli aggression. Over the past seven months, most of the Gaza Strip has been reduced to rubble.
The White House has said it expects Israel not to launch a full-scale operation in Rafah. They also do not believe that such an operation would serve Israel's goal of defeating Hamas.
Spokesman John Kirby said, 'In (President Biden's) view, any strikes on Rafah would not advance that Israeli objective.'
Kirby said there are better alternatives to finding remnants of the group's leadership than conducting raids because Hamas is under significant pressure from Israel and there is a significant risk to civilians.
It should be noted that since the unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas on October 7, Israel has been carrying out continuous air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip. Thousands of buildings including hospitals, schools, refugee camps, mosques, churches have been damaged or destroyed in this Israeli attack.
According to the Ministry of Health of Gaza, as a result of this Israeli attack, about 35 thousand people have been killed and about 80 thousand people have been injured since October 7 last year.
Basically the Israeli invasion has reduced Gaza to rubble. According to the United Nations, about 85 percent of Gaza's Palestinians have been displaced by Israel's brutal offensive.
In addition, Israel has been accused of genocide in the International Court of Justice. In January this year, an interim ruling by this court said that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
At the time, the ruling ordered Israel to stop such actions and to take measures to guarantee the provision of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.
Shakeel/Saa
