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AS IT HAPPENED
Israel downplays reports of progress in truce talks as Hamas delegation arrives in Cairo
A Hamas delegation arrived in Egypt on Saturday to resume Gaza truce talks as Egyptian media reported “significant progress in the negotiations” between the Palestinian group and Israel. A top Israeli official later downplayed the report, saying Israel will send a delegation to Cairo for talks on a Gaza truce only if it sees “positive movement” on a framework for a hostage deal. Read our blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.
Issued on: 04/05/2024 – 07:52
Modified: 04/05/2024 – 17:08
2 min
De jeunes Palestiniens collectent des cartons et des palettes en bois à Beit Lahya, dans le nord de la bande de Gaza, le 4 mai 2024.
Palestinian youth collect cardboard and wooden pallets in Beit Lahya in the northern Gaza Strip on May 4, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas. © AFP
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FRANCE 24
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Summary:
A Hamas delegation arrived Saturday in Egypt for the latest round of talks on a Gaza ceasefire. Al-Qahera News, linked to Egyptian intelligence services, quoted an unnamed high-ranking source as saying that “significant progress in the negotiations” had been made between the Palestinian militant group and Israel.
A top Israeli official on Saturday seemed to downplay the reports of progress in the negotiations, saying that Israel will send a delegation to Cairo for talks on a Gaza truce only if it sees “positive movement” on a framework for a hostage deal. “What we are looking at is an agreement over a framework for a possible hostage deal,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
At least 34,654 Palestinians have been killed and an estimated 77,908 have been wounded in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.
Last to first
7 hours ago
Thousands of Israelis protest to demand hostage return
Thousands of Israelis protested on Saturday, demanding Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu accept a ceasefire agreement with the Islamist movement Hamas that would see the remaining Israeli hostages brought home from Gaza.
At a rally in Tel Aviv that took place as Hamas officials were meeting Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, relatives and supporters of the more than 130 hostages still in captivity said anything possible had to be done to bring them home.
“I’m here today to support a deal now, yesterday,” said Natalie Eldor. “We need to bring them back. We need to bring all the hostages back, the live ones, the dead ones. We got to bring them back. We got to switch this government. This has got to end.”
The protests, ahead of the Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls this year on May 6, came as the war in Gaza nears the end of its seventh month amid growing international pressure to stop the fighting.
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7 hours ago
Hamas official says group will not agree to truce that does not end Gaza war
A senior Hamas official insisted late Saturday that the group would “not agree under any circumstances” to a truce in Gaza that did not explicitly include a complete end to the war.
The official, who asked not to be named, also accused Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of “personally hindering” efforts to reach a truce agreement due to “personal interests”.
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10 hours ago
Israeli official says Hamas demand for end to war ‘thwarting’ truce efforts
A top Israeli official said Saturday that Hamas’s continued demand for a lasting ceasefire in the war in Gaza was stymying prospects of reaching a truce.
“So far, Hamas has not given up its demand to end the war, thus thwarting the possibility of reaching an agreement,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, after Hamas negotiators returned to Egypt to give their response to a proposed pause in the nearly seven-month war.
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10 hours ago
Small anti-war protest ruffles University of Michigan graduation ceremony
Protesters chanted anti-war messages and waved Palestinian flags during the University of Michigan’s commencement Saturday, as student demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war collided with the annual pomp-and-circumstance of graduation ceremonies.
No arrests were reported and the protest — comprised of about 50 people, many wearing traditional Arabic kaffiyeh along with their graduation caps — didn’t seriously interrupt the nearly two-hour event at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, which was attended by tens of thousands of people.
One protest banner read: “No universities left in Gaza.” US Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro paused a few times during his remarks, saying at one point, “Ladies and gentlemen, if you can please draw your attention back to the podium.”
As he administered an oath to graduates in the armed forces, Del Toro said they would “protect the freedoms that we so cherish,” including the “right to protest peacefully.”
The university has allowed protesters to set up an encampment on campus but police assisted in breaking up a large gathering Friday night, and one person was arrested.
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13 hours ago
Israel’s Rafah offensive: ‘Gaza will become uninhabitable’, NGO says
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to launch a ground assault in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah despite ongoing truce talks with Hamas.
If Israeli ground forces invade Rafah, “Gaza will become uninhabitable in the sense that the whole infrastructure of the Gaza Strip would have been destroyed,” warned Oliver Mcternan, director of NGO Forward Thinking. “We’ve got, for the sake of humanity, to have a ceasefire,” he said.
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14 hours ago
Israeli forces kill three Palestinians in overnight raid near West Bank’s Tulkarm
Israeli forces killed at least three Palestinians in an overnight raid in a village near the city of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian officials and a Reuters reporter at the scene.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said one of the Palestinians had died on the way to hospital on Saturday following the raid in Deir al-Ghusun, while a Reuters reporter at the scene saw Israeli forces leave the village with two other bodies.
The Israeli military said it was conducting “counterterrorism activities in the area”.
Saturday’s operation in Tulkarm, a flashpoint city, was the latest in a series of clashes in the occupied West Bank between Israeli forces and Palestinians that has been escalating for more than two years but which has picked up in intensity since the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel.
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14 hours ago
British-Palestinian doctor says he was refused entry into France
British-Palestinian doctor and Glasgow university rector Ghassan Abu-Sittah said Saturday he was denied access to France where he was to report on the medical situation in Gaza.
Abu-Sittah said on X, formerly Twitter, that he had been invited to give an account to French senators of his experience as a doctor in Gaza since the Israeli offensive there, but had been blocked at Paris’s Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport.
He had already been stopped from entering Germany last month where he had hoped to attend a “Palestinian Congress” along with former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who was also denied access.
“I am at Charles De Gaulle airport. They are preventing me from entering France,” Abu-Sittah said on X. “I am supposed to speak at the French Senate today. They say the Germans put a 1 year ban on my entry to Europe.”
A French police source confirmed to AFP that France could not allow the doctor entry because it was bound by a German-issued ban on his entry into the visa-free Schengen zone of which both countries are members.
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14 hours ago
Pro-Palestinian encampment erected at Ireland’s Trinity College Dublin
Students at Ireland’s prestigious Trinity College Dublin university manned an on-campus protest on Saturday against Israel’s actions in Gaza, blocking the entrance to a library housing a world-famous medieval manuscript.
Student activists described the protest, which began Friday, as a “solidarity encampment with Palestine”, echoing similar protests on US campuses, as some also joined a Saturday march through the city centre.
Laszlo Molnarfi, president of the institution’s student union, told Irish public broadcaster RTE that the students demand the university sever any relationships it has with Israel, and the protests would continue until the demands are met.
The message was echoed at the protest march, with social media footage showing hundreds of attendees massed by the university chanting slogans and waving Palestinian flags.
“Trinity students have joined the global campus uprising!” the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign organisers said on X.
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15 hours ago
‘Hamas will not agree to a deal’ unless a ceasefire is on the table, expert says
A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Saturday as pressure mounts to reach a truce deal. “Hamas will not agree to a deal unless at the end of the three phases there is a ceasefire and a withdrawal of Israeli troops,” said Scott Lucas, professor of US and International Politics at the Clinton Institute, University College.
“Israel will under no circumstances agree to the end of the war as part of an agreement to release hostages,” Lucas stressed.
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15 hours ago
Israeli official says delegation not yet in Cairo for Gaza talks
A top Israeli official on Saturday said Israel will send a delegation to Cairo for talks on a Gaza truce only if it sees a “positive movement” on a framework for a hostage deal.
“What we are looking at is an agreement over a framework for a possible hostage deal,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“Tough and long negotiations are expected for an actual deal. The indication for positive movement over a framework would be if we send a delegation led by Mossad chief to Cairo,” said the official, who spoke in English.
The comments came after a senior Hamas official said the group’s negotiators had arrived in Cairo on Saturday for new talks on a proposed pause in the nearly seven-month war in the Gaza Strip.
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16 hours ago
Hamas could accept ceasefire deal this weekend, Palestinian source says
Talks in Egypt aimed at halting months of war in Gaza between Hamas militants showed some signs of progress, FRANCE 24’s Irris Makler reported from Jerusalem. “We heard from one interesting Palestinian source suggesting that Hamas will accept a ceasefire deal this weekend,” Makler said.
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16 hours ago
Qatar considers future of Hamas office in Doha, and whether to keep mediating
Qatar could close the political office of Hamas as part of a broader review of its role as a mediator in the war between Israel and the militant Palestinian Islamist group, according to an official familiar with the Qatari government’s reassessment.
The Gulf state was weighing whether to allow Hamas to continue operating the political office, and the broader review includes considering whether or not to continue mediating in the seven-month conflict, the official told Reuters.
Qatar said last month it was reevaluating its role as mediator in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, citing concerns that its efforts were being undermined by politicians seeking to score points.
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17 hours ago
Armed groups in Gaza rob Bank of Palestine branches: report
Armed groups in Gaza, including one with presumed Hamas links, last month robbed the Bank of Palestine of some $70 million, French daily Le Monde reported Saturday.
The funds were taken from the vaults of several branches of the bank, it said, citing a Bank of Palestine document sent to “certain international partners” detailing the robberies.
On April 16, staff discovered a hole in the ceiling of the safe deposit room at one of the bank’s Gaza branches and found that some $3 million worth of Israeli shekels destined for cash dispensers were missing, Le Monde said.
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18 hours ago
Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 34,654
At least 34,654 Palestinians have been killed and 77,908 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
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18 hours ago
Hamas negotiators arrive in Egypt for Gaza truce talks, Egyptian media reports
A Hamas delegation arrived Saturday in Egypt for the latest round of talks on a proposed truce and hostage release in Gaza, Egyptian state-linked media Al-Qahera News reported.
Al-Qahera News, linked to Egyptian intelligence services, quoted an unnamed high-ranking source as saying that “there is significant progress in the negotiations” between the Palestinian militant group and Israel, and that the Egyptian mediators have “reached an agreed-upon formula on most points of contention”.
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20 hours ago
Ceasefire should be ‘no-brainer’ for Hamas, Blinken says
Accepting a ceasefire deal with Israel should be a “no-brainer” for Hamas, but the motivations of the militants’ elusive Gaza-based leadership remain unclear, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has announced that its delegation will return Saturday to Cairo to resume long-running talks brokered by Egypt and Qatar that would temporarily halt Israel’s offensive in return for freeing hostages.
“We wait to see whether, in effect, they can take yes for an answer on the ceasefire and release of hostages,” Blinken said late on Friday.
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20 hours ago
A senior UN official says northern Gaza is now in ‘full-blown famine’
A top UN official said Friday that hard-hit northern Gaza was now in “full-blown famine” after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory.
Cindy McCain, the American director of the UN World Food Program, became the most prominent international official so far to declare that trapped civilians in the most cut-off part of Gaza had gone over the brink into famine.
“It’s horror,” McCain told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview to air Sunday. “There is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and it’s moving its way south.”
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21 hours ago
Israel has briefed US on plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of potential Rafah operation
Israel this week briefed Biden administration officials on a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of a potential operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah aimed at rooting out Hamas militants, according to US officials familiar with the talks.
The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity to speak about the sensitive exchange, said that the plan detailed by the Israelis did not change the US administration’s view that moving forward with an operation in Rafah would put too many innocent Palestinian civilians at risk.
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a day ago
Hamas delegation heads to Cairo for truce talks
Hamas said its delegation was heading to Cairo on Saturday to resume Gaza truce talks, as the United Nations warned that Israel’s threatened assault on the city of Rafah could produce a “bloodbath”.
Foreign mediators have been waiting for the Palestinian militant group to respond to a proposal to halt fighting for 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
“The only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.
Months of negotiations have stalled in part on Hamas’s demand for a lasting ceasefire and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated vows to crush the group’s remaining fighters in Rafah.
Blinken on Friday also reiterated Washington’s objections to the long-threatened Rafah offensive, saying Israel has not presented a plan to protect the civilians sheltering there. “Absent such a plan, we can’t support a major military operation going into Rafah because the damage it would do is beyond what’s acceptable,” he said.
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Yesterday’s key developments:
A top UN official said Friday that hard-hit northern Gaza was now in “full-blown famine” after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory.
An Israeli military offensive in Rafah “could be a slaughter of civilians and an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire (Gaza) strip”, UN spokesperson Jens Laerke said on Friday.
French police on Friday evacuated students at Paris’s Sciences Po university who were staging a sit-in to protest the war in Gaza.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said Turkey’s move to halt trade with Israel was aimed at forcing the country to a ceasefire over Gaza and increasing the amount of humanitarian aid entering the besieged enclave.
Police in the US have arrested more than 2,300 people during pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the country in recent weeks, sometimes using riot gear, tactical vehicles and flash-bang devices.
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, Reuters, AP)
