Gaza war enters 7th month as truce negotiators expected in Cairo

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories – The war between Israel and Hamas entered its seventh month on April 7 as the US and other negotiators were expected to join the protagonists in Cairo in a renewed push for a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

A deal, however, still seems out of reach, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on April 7 struck down a ceasefire until Hamas frees all hostages.

“There will be no ceasefire without the return of hostages. It just won’t happen,” he said at a Cabinet meeting.

Egypt’s Al-Qahera News said US Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani will join Egyptian mediators for the indirect talks between the Israeli and Hamas delegations.

Hamas confirmed ahead of the talks that its core demands were a complete ceasefire in Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

But Mr Netanyahu insisted that Israel was “one step away from victory”, even though “the price we paid is painful and heartbreaking”.

He stressed that Israel “is ready for a deal”, but it is “not ready to surrender”.

The ceasefire attempt comes after Israel’s military made a rare admission of wrongdoing and said it was firing two officers over

the killing of seven aid workers in Gaza

, where humanitarians say famine is imminent.

The admission over the deaths of the workers from US-based World Central Kitchen (WCK) on April 1 did not quell calls for an independent probe.

“It’s been six months of targeting anything it seems moves,” Spanish-American celebrity chef and WCK founder Jose Andres told ABC News.

“This really, at this point, seems it’s a war against humanity itself.”

The deaths of the aid workers led to a tense call between US President Joe Biden and Mr Netanyahu.

Mr Biden urged an “immediate ceasefire”, and for the first time, hinted at making US support for Israel conditional on curtailing the killing of civilians and improving humanitarian conditions.

The bloodiest-ever Gaza war began on Oct 7 with an unprecedented attack by Hamas militants in Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, Israeli figures show.

Palestinian militants also took around 250 Israeli and foreign hostages, about 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including more than 30 the Israeli military says are dead.

It announced on April 6 that another four of its troops had been killed in Gaza, bringing the toll to 260 since the beginning of ground operations in late October.

President Isaac Herzog, whose post is largely ceremonial, said Israel was approaching the half-year mark in a “bloody and difficult war” that began with “the cruel terror attack and the horrific massacre”.

Threat from Hezbollah

The Israeli military, meanwhile, has withdrawn more ground troops from southern Gaza, leaving just one brigade there.

The military, which has been reducing numbers in Gaza since the start of 2024 to relieve reservists, said a “significant force” will keep operating elsewhere in the besieged Palestinian territory, able “to conduct precise intelligence-based operations”.

The army said its 98th commando division had “concluded” its mission to dismantle Hamas’ network in the city of Khan Younis, and that it left Gaza “in order to recuperate and prepare for future operations”.

Six months of combat in Gaza has strained the Israeli military and the country’s economy. Many Israeli security experts say they now see a greater threat from the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel launched air strikes on eastern Lebanon and hit Hezbollah infrastructure sites early on April 7 after Hezbollah downed an Israeli drone, as both sides continue to trade fire amid escalating regional tensions.

The Israeli army said in a statement that fighter jets struck a military complex and three other sites belonging to Hezbollah in the eastern city of Baalbek.

It said the latest attack was in response to Iran-backed Hezbollah’s downing of an unmanned aerial vehicle in Lebanese airspace, which the group identified as the Israeli-made Hermes 900 drone.

Hezbollah said it later fired dozens of Katyusha rockets that hit an air defence base in the occupied Golan Heights in retaliation for the Israeli raids on eastern Lebanon.

‘Empty shell’

Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 33,137 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

A World Health Organisation-led mission finally gained access to Gaza’s largest hospital,

Al-Shifa, which was largely reduced to ashes by a two-week Israeli raid.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Gaza City hospital was “now an empty shell with human graves”.

He said the team had seen “at least five dead bodies during the mission”.

Mr Biden wrote to the leaders of Egypt and Qatar ahead of the April 7 talks, urging them to secure commitments from Hamas to “agree to and abide by a deal”, a senior administration official told AFP news agency.

Stop-start talks have made no headway since a week-long truce in November saw some hostages exchanged for Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel.

Mr Biden’s April 4 call with Mr Netanyahu included discussions on “empowering his negotiators” to reach a deal, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

Washington blames the lack of a deal on Hamas’ refusal to release sick and other vulnerable hostages. Qatar has said Israeli objections to the return of displaced Gazans are the main obstacle.

Mr Biden is under pressure over massive US military aid to Israel, which Washington so far has not leveraged despite increasingly critical comments about Israel’s conduct of the war.

Israel’s opposition chief, Mr Yair Lapid, headed to Washington on April 6 for talks with top officials, his centrist Yesh Atid party said.

Mr Lapid is expected to meet Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, amid deepening frustration with Mr Netanyahu.

He will also meet Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who in March called for a snap Israeli election to give voters a chance to get rid of Mr Netanyahu.

Tens of thousands of Israelis, including Mr Lapid, protested against Mr Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and other cities on April 6, demanding “elections now”.

‘Criminal’

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on April 6 that “this terrible conflict must end”.

“We continue to stand by Israel’s right to defeat the threat from Hamas terrorists and defend their security. But the whole of the UK is shocked by the bloodshed,” he said in a statement.

The Israeli military announced it was firing two officers after finding that a series of errors led to the drone strikes that killed the WCK workers.

It said a commander “mistakenly assumed” Hamas had seized the aid vehicles, which were moving at night.

Australia has criticised Israel’s response to the deaths of the aid workers, who included Australian Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom, and has said it will appoint a special adviser to work with Israel to ensure “transparency” in its investigation.

WCK’s Gaza operations remain suspended after the attack, while other global aid groups said relief work in the territory has become almost impossible.

Hours after Mr Biden and Mr Netanyahu spoke, Israel announced it would allow “temporary” aid deliveries through Ashdod port and the Erez border crossing.

UN chief Antonio Guterres called for a “paradigm shift” rather than “scattered measures”.

Mr Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defence agency, told AFP on April 6 that aid reaching Gaza is “absolutely not sufficient” for its 2.4 million people.

Around 1.5 million Gazans are sheltering in Rafah in the territory’s far south, near the border with Egypt.

“We are ordinary citizens and human beings,” Ms Siham Achur, 50, said in the tent that is now her family’s home. “Why did they bomb our house?” AFP