Negotiations involving multiple countries and high-level delegations on a Gaza ceasefire deal have entered a second day in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, as mediators struggle to make progress in the face of a threatened Israeli offensive on Rafah, the Palestinian territory’s last place of relative safety.
Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with an offensive, but only after civilians are allowed to leave the “battle zones”.
The Israeli prime minister did not make clear where the trapped civilians would be permitted to go, and what safeguards, if any, would be put in place to protect them. More than a million Palestinians are sheltering in the city.
The UN coordinator for relief operations, Martin Griffiths, warned that an offensive “could lead to a slaughter in Gaza”, and in a phone call with Netanyahu, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said the Gaza death toll was “intolerable” and insisted the Israeli offensive “must cease”.
Yeah, that’s not the words of a man whose government is negotiating a ceasefire in good faith… Neither is demanding “total victory”
He belongs on trial for war crimes, not at the head of a country still pretending to be civilized.
He has a mandate as long as the war guess on, afterwards he will be removed as prime minister and therefore liable for the fraud he’s already indicted for.
So if course bibi is gonna extend the war, he doesn’t want to go to prison.
the first offensive of many, presumably?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Negotiations involving multiple countries and high-level delegations on a Gaza ceasefire deal have entered a second day in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, as mediators struggle to make progress in the face of a threatened Israeli offensive on Rafah, the Palestinian territory’s last place of relative safety.
Representatives for the Palestinian militant group Hamas were expected in Cairo on Wednesday, and Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, arrived on his first visit to Egypt after more than a decade of tensions between the regional powers over support for the Muslim Brotherhood.
On Tuesday Israel made a last-minute decision to send a delegation led by its heads of intelligence, David Barnea of the Mossad and Ronen Bar of the Shin Bet, which met US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said: “If war plans foresee the evacuation of the population in advance of such hostilities, it is critical that they account for the reality of massive numbers of people moving across bomb-damaged roads, past the rubble of destroyed buildings and through areas contaminated by unexploded weapons.
Across the region there is a palpable fear that time is running out to broker a truce that would bring much-needed relief to the besieged territory’s 2.3 million people, return the estimated 130 Israeli hostages still in Hamas captivity to their loved ones, and prevent the war from escalating into a wider conflict.
In a post on Instagram showing a steady stream of people leaving the medical complex on Wednesday, Dr Khaled al-Serr, a surgeon at Nasser, said: “I am writing this with tears and disappointment … My heart is broken, I did not feel [this] sadness when the Israeli army bombed my house.
The original article contains 1,381 words, the summary contains 282 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
