JERUSALEM: Israeli forces were targeting “terrorist infrastructure” in southern Gaza, the military said Friday, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced hope that an agreement with Hamas could be reached within days for a pause in the 21-month war.
Negotiators from Israel and the Palestinian militant group have been locked in indirect talks in Qatar since Sunday to try to agree a temporary ceasefire.
Netanyahu said a lasting truce could follow, but only if Hamas lays down its arms and is no longer able to govern or operate in the Gaza Strip.
On the ground, Gaza’s civil defence agency reported a fresh wave of Israeli strikes, including one that killed five people at a school building sheltering displaced Palestinians.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the agency and other parties.
In the south of the territory, a witness said there were ongoing attacks and widespread devastation, with Israeli tanks seen near the city of Khan Yunis.
“The situation remains extremely difficult in the area—intense gunfire, intermittent air strikes, artillery shelling and ongoing bulldozing and destruction of displacement camps and agricultural land” south of Khan Yunis, he added.
Israel’s military said in a statement that it was operating in the Khan Yunis area against “terrorist infrastructure sites, both above and below ground”.
In Qatar, sticking points remain in the talks, both sides said.
Hamas, whose cross-border attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 sparked the war, has said that as part of a truce deal it was willing to release 10 of the hostages taken that day.
In an interview with US outlet Newsmax broadcast on Thursday, Netanyahu said that would leave 10 living hostages still in captivity.
“I hope we can complete it in a few days,” he added of the initial ceasefire agreement and hostage release.
“We’ll probably have a 60-day ceasefire, get the first batch out, then use the 60-day ceasefire to negotiate an end to this.”
Netanyahu, who was in Washington this week and met Trump twice to discuss the ceasefire proposals, is under pressure at home to end the war because of mounting military casualties.
Trump is looking to secure a deal while his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has said it could be concluded by the end of this week.
On Thursday, Netanyahu said Israel was ready to start talks for a lasting deal with Hamas when a temporary ceasefire is in place.
But he said the Islamist militants must first give up their weapons and their hold on the Palestinian territory.
Failure to do so on Israel’s terms would lead to further conflict, Netanyahu said.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has also said the Doha talks could take “a few more days”, with unresolved issues including agreement on the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for hostages.
Hamas has said it wants “real guarantees” on a lasting truce as well as the free flow of aid to help Gaza’s population of more than two million people, who are facing dire humanitarian conditions.
Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told AFP on Thursday that his group wanted Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza and would not accept any Israeli moves to herd Palestinians into “isolated enclaves”.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Out of 251 hostages seized in the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
At least 57,762 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
