The Palestinian Hamas group has renewed a demand for Israeli troops to withdraw from south Gaza, accusing Israel of seeking to breach the terms of a ceasefire in talks on the next phase of the accord.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told AFP that Israeli forces should have pulled out of a strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border under the first phase of the ceasefire that started on January 18.
Hamas has accused Israel of keeping troops in the strategic Philadelphi Corridor. Israel has insisted it needs to maintain control of the corridor to prevent weapons smuggling into the Palestinian territory from Egypt.
Qassem indicated that the corridor had become one of the sticking points at Qatari-US mediated talks in Doha on the next phase of the ceasefire.
“Reports indicate new proposals are being presented aimed at circumventing the Gaza agreement,” Qassem told AFP.
“Meetings are continuing with mediators in Doha. We adhere to what was agreed upon and to entering into the second phase,” he added.
But he insisted that Israel must also fulfil its obligations “withdrawing from the entire Gaza Strip” and “begin the withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor” for any second phase deal to end the war that started with the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.
“Israel has not implemented the humanitarian protocol of the Gaza agreement,” Qassem added. Israel has stopped humanitarian aid entering Gaza since March 2 to back its demand that Hamas release all remaining hostages held since the 2023 attacks.
“We do not want to return to war again, and if the occupation resumes its aggression, we have no choice but to defend our people,” the spokesman said.
The first phase of the ceasefire ended on March 1 without an accord on the following stages. Israel has only agreed to extend the terms of the first phase of the ceasefire.
The second phase was meant to lead to an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as part of the process of ending the war that has devastated Gaza and left tens of thousands dead.
Israeli negotiators went to Doha this week to take part in the talks.
Israeli media said on Thursday that Israel had called for several living and dead hostages — from the 58 still unaccounted for in Gaza — to be handed over in exchange for a 50-day extension to the ceasefire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the reports “fake news”.
UNRWA chief warning
The UNRWA chief warned Thursday that if the embattled UN agency for Palestinian refugees were to collapse, it would deprive a generation of children of education, “sowing the seeds for more extremism”.
Pointing to a dire funding situation, Philippe Lazzarini warned of “the real risk of the agency collapsing and imploding”.
If that were to happen, he told AFP, “we would definitely sacrifice a generation of kids, who would be deprived from proper education”.
For more than seven decades, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has provided essential aid, assistance and services like education and healthcare to Palestinian refugees.
Lazzarini has described the organisation as “a lifeline” for nearly six million Palestinian refugees under its charge, across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
But UNRWA has long been a lightning rod for harsh Israeli criticism, which ramped up dramatically after Hamas’s deadly attack in Israel on October 7, 2023 sparked the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s allegation early last year that some UNRWA staff took part in that attack spurred a string of nations to at least temporarily halt their backing for the already cash-strapped agency.
And earlier this year, Israel opted to sever ties with UNRWA, banning it from operating on Israeli soil.
While it can still operate in Gaza and the West Bank, it has been barred from contact with Israeli officials, making it difficult to coordinate the safe delivery of aid in the Palestinian territories.
Israel has argued that UNRWA can be replaced by other UN agencies or NGOs.
Lazzarini acknowledged earlier this week that if the only objective is to “bring trucks into Gaza” to address the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, others could step in.
But he stressed that UNRWA’s role was far broader.
“We are primarily providing government-like services,” he told AFP.
“So I don’t see any NGO or UN agencies all of a sudden stepping into the provision of public-like services.”
He cautioned that the loss of UNRWA’s education services could have particularly dire consequences.
“If you deprive 100,000 girls and boys in Gaza, for example, (of an) education, and if they have no future, and if their school is just despair and living in the rubble, I would say we are just sowing the seeds for more extremism,” he warned.
