Gaza Genocide30 July, 20263 min read
Mediators and Hamas Hold Gaza Ceasefire Talks in Cairo as Israeli Strikes Kill Children
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Mediators in Cairo hold talks with Hamas to implement a U.S.-brokered Gaza peace plan. Israeli strikes kill children in Gaza amid ongoing ceasefire discussions.
Al-Monitor was read line by line by the Watchdog: 2.5. See the score →
Cairo talks, Gaza strikes
In Cairo on Thursday, mediators and Hamas leaders held talks on implementing a U.S.-brokered Gaza peace plan, with sources close to the effort saying the negotiations made rare progress even as an Israeli official said the proposed terms were not satisfactory. Reuters reported that earlier on Thursday Israeli strikes killed at least six Palestinians in Gaza, including two children, according to medics. The Israeli official, who declined to be identified, said Israel demands the complete disarmament of Hamas, including the removal of weapons from Gaza and the complete demilitarization of the Strip as a precondition for any process.
The same Reuters report said the roadmap under discussion in Cairo would see authority transferred in phases to the U.S.-backed National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) under the principle of "one authority, one law, one weapon." While the truce halted full-scale fighting, Reuters also said near-daily Israeli strikes continued and that a toll of more than 1,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, had been killed by Israeli attacks since the ceasefire took effect, according to Gaza health officials.
Competing casualty frames
In Gaza, Al Jazeera said Israeli attacks continued despite an ongoing “ceasefire” and reported that Gaza’s Ministry of Health said hospitals received six bodies and 34 injured people in the past 24 hours. Al Jazeera also described a Reuters-linked account that “a man and an eight-year-old child were killed in an Israeli air strike on the southern city of Khan Younis,” and said an 18-month-old baby was killed in a separate strike on the Bureij refugee camp. The Times of Israel, citing Hamas-affiliated Palestinian media outlets, reported that at least four people including an 8-year-old girl and a 18-month old child were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip Thursday morning.
A Times of Israel security official said the strikes were directed at terror operatives, and the IDF told the outlet that it only targets terror operatives even as it said fighters often operate from within the civilian population. The Times of Israel further said the IDF announced that a Hamas sniper commander and a terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught were killed in separate strikes in Gaza earlier this week.
What comes next
The ceasefire talks in Cairo were described as stalled over two key issues, with Al Jazeera saying the talks have stalled primarily because of Israel’s failure to withdraw from Gaza and cease its attacks, and Hamas refusing to disarm as per Israeli demands. Al-Monitor reported that a Hamas official said the group was coming with a "positive and good" response, while sources close to Hamas said the group was willing to "confine and store" heavy weapons under a Palestinian body, not hand them over to Israel. Al-Monitor also said the roadmap under discussion would include the elimination of tunnels, arms stockpiles and weapons production facilities, adding that by the end of the process there would be no remaining militant infrastructure in Gaza.
In parallel, Al Jazeera said the latest Israeli attacks came as Hamas officials held talks in Cairo with mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkiye on the implementation of the second phase of the ceasefire with Israel, which came into effect almost 10 months ago. Al-Monitor warned that the progress would be tested by Israel's response and whether this allowed a broad accord to be reached, while Reuters said the Israeli military had continued to expand its military occupation of Gaza, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Israel intends to expand the area under its control to 70% of the enclave.