Israel carried out an air strike in northern Gaza on Sunday, rattling an already fragile ceasefire as fresh talks in Doha are set to take place on Monday.
Israel’s military said the air strike targeted Hamas terrorists who “were identified operating in proximity to IDF troops and attempting to plant an explosive device in the ground in northern Gaza.”
It was not immediately clear if any injuries from the strike were reported.
The air strike comes just before talks on the future of the truce are set to begin again this week.
The ceasefire that began in mid-January brought a pause in Israel’s campaign of bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack on southern Israel.
The ceasefire’s first phase saw the release of 25 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and the bodies of eight others in exchange for the freeing of nearly 2,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
Since the end of the first phase, Hamas has repeatedly called for an immediate start to negotiations, however, Israel has pushed for an extension of phase one until mid-April, demanding the release of half of its remaining hostages.
Earlier this month, Israel barred all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies from entering Gaza for some 2 million people, demanding Hamas accept the revised deal.
Jehad Alshrafi / AP
On Sunday, Israel said it is cutting off its electricity supply from Gaza. The full effects of that are not immediately clear, but the territory’s desalination plants receive power for producing drinking water.
Gaza has been largely devastated by the war, and generators and solar panels are used for some of the power supply.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will send a delegation to Qatar on Monday to advance ceasefire negotiations. A statement from the prime minister’s office gave no details except to say it had “accepted the invitation of U.S.-backed mediators.”
Hamas representatives met mediators in Cairo over the weekend, emphasizing the urgent need to resume humanitarian aid deliveries to the besieged territory “without restrictions or conditions”, a Hamas statement said.
“Hamas stresses the urgency of forcing the occupation to immediately begin second-phase negotiations under the agreed parameters,” senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi told AFP, adding this would pave the way for a permanent end to the fighting.
Adam Boehler, Trump’s nominee to be special envoy for hostage affairs, held unprecedented direct talks with Hamas this week. He told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he is confident a deal could be reached “within weeks” to free all civilians still held by Hamas.
Boehler said he understood Israel’s “consternation” that the US had held talks at all with the group but said he had been seeking to jump-start the “fragile” negotiations.
“In the end, I think it was a very helpful meeting,” he said, adding: “I think something could come together within weeks… I think there is a deal where they can get all of the prisoners out, not just the Americans.”
A senior Hamas official told Reuters on Sunday that the meetings with Boehler also focused on the release of an American-Israeli hostage being held by the militant group.
“We informed the American delegation that we don’t oppose the release of the prisoner within the framework of these talks,” Nono told Reuters.
Mr. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff told reporters at the White House last week that the release of Edan Alexander, the 21-year-old man from New Jersey believed to be the last living American hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, was a “top priority for us.”
Of the 251 hostages taken by the Palestinian militants during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, 58 remain in Gaza, including five Americans. Four American captives have been confirmed dead.
Hamas’s attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,458 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.