Israeli airstrikes killed three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, health officials reported, as mediators engaged in renewed efforts to solidify a fragile U.S.-brokered truce struggled to achieve significant breakthroughs.
One individual was killed in Gaza City when an Israeli strike hit a house on Moghrabi Street, according to medical reports. The Israeli military stated that the target was a militant. In separate incidents in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, two other Palestinians lost their lives in airstrikes. The Israeli military has not yet issued a comment on these specific incidents.
These developments occurred while mediators, including Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey, have been conducting week-long discussions with Hamas and other Palestinian factions. The objective of these talks is to implement the second phase of President Donald Trump's Gaza initiative, which involves Hamas disarming and Israel withdrawing its forces. A senior Hamas official, Hussam Badran, indicated on Thursday that the negotiations had seen "real progress" and urged mediators to pressure Israel to cease truce violations, though he did not provide further details on the nature of this progress.
Hamas attributes the lack of a comprehensive agreement to end the Gaza conflict to Israel's alleged refusal to fulfill the initial obligations agreed upon in October, which had halted major hostilities but not all Israeli attacks. Israel maintains that its strikes are a defensive measure to counter imminent threats from Hamas and other militant groups. However, two Egyptian sources indicated that the current round of talks concluded without a resolution, with the issue of disarmament remaining a primary point of contention. The sources added that apart from disarmament, the factions, including Hamas, had agreed on 14 out of 15 points in a framework proposed by Trump's Board of Peace.
A Palestinian official described the demand for decommissioning Hamas's arms and infrastructure as a new "Israeli obstacle" that emerged on Wednesday, undermining a previously positive atmosphere. Two of the four sources close to the discussions noted that Hamas continues to link complete disarmament to the initiation of a political process aimed at establishing a Palestinian state. Since the initial truce, Israeli strikes have resulted in over 950 fatalities, according to health officials, while Israel reports that four soldiers have been killed by militants during the same period.
The lack of progress reportedly delayed a planned meeting between Hamas and Nickolay Mladenov, Trump's Board of Peace envoy for Gaza, which was scheduled for Thursday. In a written statement to Reuters, an official from the Board of Peace confirmed that Mladenov remains in continuous communication with mediators and relevant parties. The official stated that discussions are ongoing and substantial work is still required, deeming it premature to draw definitive conclusions about the internal Palestinian dialogue in Cairo. The official further outlined the conditions for progress, stating, "All weapons in Gaza need to be decommissioned; the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza should assume its responsibilities as a transitional authority; and Israel should withdraw to the perimeter in order to allow for the full reconstruction of Gaza."
