KEY POINTS
- Hamas rejects any truce deal that allows large Israeli military presence in Gaza
- Palestinian group has agreed to release 10 hostages as part of deal
- Disagreements persist over aid delivery, Israeli withdrawal, and security guarantees
- Civil defence reports 52 more Palestinians killed across Gaza on Thursday
- Israeli strike on a medical point in Deir el-Balah kills 17, including 8 children
- Over 57,600 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct 2023
GAZA CITY, Palestine: Hamas on Thursday said it would reject any ceasefire agreement that includes a large Israeli military presence in Gaza, after offering to release some hostages, as civil defence agency reported 52 more civilians killed across the besieged Palestinian territory.
The Palestinian group said late on Wednesday that it had agreed to release 10 people seized in its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Both sides have been holding indirect talks in Qatar since Sunday to agree a temporary truce and the United States says it is hopeful that a 60-day halt can be secured in the coming days.
But Hamas said disagreements over the free flow of aid into Gaza and Israel’s military withdrawal were sticking points, as were its demands for “real guarantees” for a lasting peace.
Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told AFP on Thursday: “We cannot accept the perpetuation of the occupation of our land and the surrender of our people to isolated enclaves under the control of the occupation army (Israel).
“This is what the negotiating delegation is presenting to the occupation so far in the current round of negotiations in Doha.”
Israeli control over Rafah
Hamas was particularly opposed to Israeli control over Rafah, on the border with Egypt, and the Morag Corridor between the southern city and Khan Younis, the Hamas official added.
Israel announced earlier this year that the army was seizing large areas in Gaza and incorporating them into buffer zones cleared of their inhabitants, as a way of pressuring Hamas to release hostages.
Naim also said the Palestinian group wanted an end to the current delivery of aid by a US- and Israel-backed group, a system which has seen scores killed while seeking handouts.
On Thursday, eight children were among 17 killed in an Israeli strike at a medical point in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, the civil defence agency said.
The military said it had struck a Hamas fighter in the city who had infiltrated Israel during the group’s October 7, 2023 attack and that it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimise harm as much as possible”, adding the incident was under review.
Obstacles in truce talks
Hamas has given no timeline for the release of hostages or indications about the return of the bodies of nine detainees that Israel says have died in captivity.
Its announcement came as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrapped up a visit to Washington, which included a meeting between Israeli, US and Qatari representatives.
That meeting on Tuesday “aimed to progress the negotiations and support the ongoing talks in Doha”, an official with knowledge of the discussions said, as cited by AFP.
Qatar, with fellow mediators the United States and Egypt, has brokered back-and-forth talks for a truce since the earliest days of the war.
There was a week-long truce in November 2023 and a two-month halt in fighting began in January 2025 but the indirect talks, principally held in Doha and Cairo, have failed to bring about a durable end to the hostilities.
Netanyahu, under pressure at home to end the war as military casualties increase, has been uncompromising in his bid to crush Hamas and neutralise it as a security threat to Israel.
Netanyahu meeting with Trump
But after two high-profile meetings with Donald Trump, he indicated that a temporary truce deal could be on the horizon, echoing the US president’s own optimism that a deal can be struck soon.
On the ground, there was no let-up in civilian casualties on Thursday, with the civil defence agency reporting 52 killed in Israeli strikes and shooting across Gaza.
In Deir el-Balah, Yousef Al-Aydi, said those in the queue for nutritional supplements heard a drone approaching, then an explosion.
“The ground shook beneath our feet and everything around us turned into blood and deafening screams,” he added.
Three more, including a woman, were killed by Israeli gunfire on civilians near an aid centre in the northwest of nearby Rafah, Civil defence official Mohammad al-Mughair said.
More than 600 people have been killed around aid distributions and convoys in Gaza since late May, when Israel began allowing in a trickle of supplies, the United Nations said in early July.
Overall, the health ministry in Gaza said at least 57,680 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed since the start of the conflict.
Israel has recently expanded its military operations in the Gaza Strip, where the war has created dire humanitarian conditions for the population of more than two million people.
