DOHA: The directors of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service and the US Central Intelligence Agency will meet Qatar’s prime minister in Europe this weekend to discuss a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages, an official briefed on the meeting has told Reuters.
Earlier, a Washington Post report citing officials familiar with the matter said US President Joe Biden plans to dispatch CIA Director William J. Burns in the coming days to help broker a deal between Hamas and Israel that would involve the release of all remaining hostages held in Gaza and the longest cessation of hostilities since the conflict began last year,
According to the report, Burns is expected to travel to Europe for the talks and meet with the Israeli and Egyptian intelligence chiefs and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.
UN says Israel army orders Gazans to leave shelter hit by tank fire
The United Nations has told AFP that the Israeli military ordered people taking refuge in their shelter hit with deadly tank fire in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis to leave by the following afternoon.
A spokeswoman for UNRWA, the agency for Palestinian refugees, confirmed testimony from displaced people in the shelter who said the army gave them until 5pm (1500 GMT) on Friday to flee.
“The army called the UNRWA official through the loudspeaker, she went over to them next to the tanks, and they told her to notify us to vacate the premises by 5pm tomorrow,” said Amal Lubbad, a displaced Gazan at the facility.
“We don’t know where we’ll go.”
The United Nations has told AFP that the Israeli military ordered people taking refuge in their shelter hit with deadly tank fire in southern Khan Younis to leave by the following afternoon.
A spokeswoman for UNRWA, the agency for Palestinian refugees, confirmed testimony from displaced people in the shelter who said the army gave them until 5:00 pm (1500 GMT) on Friday to flee.
“The army called the UNRWA official through the loudspeaker, she went over to them next to the tanks, and they told her to notify us to vacate the premises by 5 pm tomorrow,” said Amal Lubbad, a displaced Gazan at the facility.
“We don’t know where we’ll go.”
The Israeli military did not immediately comment when asked by AFP about the forced displacement.
Over half of Gazans are now crowded in southern Rafah: UN
The Rafah area in southern Gaza now hosts more than 50 per cent of Gaza’s population, and people are facing worsening sanitary conditions and growing hunger, CNN reports quoting the United Nations.
Further escalation of hostilities in the Rafah area “could have serious implications for over 1.3 million people who are reportedly sheltering in the governorate,” the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are now in the streets of Rafah, as well as the southern city of Khan Younis, “living in makeshift shelters in miserable conditions, with little or no access to food, water, medicines and appropriate shelter,” OCHA said.
Israeli forces racing against time to destroy Khan Younis: Al Jazeera
The situation in Khan Younis is considered to be completely chaotic there as Israeli forces are stepping up military attacks and destroying complete residential neighbourhoods one after the other, Al Jazeera reports.
“We’ve been seeing Israeli forces encircling Nasser Hospital alongside al-Amal Hospital — the last two remaining hospitals operating in Khan Younis,” AJ reports citing its correspondent.
The ongoing action by Israeli forces led to terrorising hundreds of patients and evacuees, the media outlet said, adding medical workers are trying to keep providing treatment for the injured and pregnant women, who are unable to flee from the hospital due to the intensifying raids of attacks on the city.
Hamas says attacking aid-seekers shows ‘sadism’ of Israeli forces
Hamas has denounced the targeting of people queuing to receive humanitarian assistance in Gaza City, calling it a “heinous war crime”.
Hamas added that the incident highlights the “sadism of the occupation and its disregard for human life and international laws, which are being violated with a US cover and green light”.
