Rafah attack could scupper truce talks

By Nathan Morley

Hamas has said that the ceasefire negotiations with Israel would be halted if Israel attacks Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Speaking on al-Manar TV in Beirut, Osama Hamdan, a senior official of Hamas, said Hamas would pause all indirect negotiations with Israel if it launched military operations against Rafah.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would enter Rafah and remove the Hamas battalions "with or without" a deal. For his part, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States opposed the Israeli plan to launch a ground assault on Rafah.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Egyptian media reported progress was being made in the ongoing truce talks but did not provide more detail.

Elsewhere, Israel released 64 Palestinians who were arrested during the military operations in the Gaza Strip. During the ongoing Israeli ground action, Israeli troops have arrested hundreds of Palestinians and moved them to unknown destinations, according to Palestinian media.

Israel commenced a large-scale offensive against Hamas in Gaza to hit back against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border in October last year, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken captive.

The Palestinian death count from the continuing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 34,596, the Gaza health ministry claimed on Thursday.