Israel, Hamas skirmish throughout Gaza as talk of truce resurfaces

Unconfirmed reports by Israeli media of six-week truce covering Muslim holy month of Ramazan

JERUSALEM:

Israeli troops and Palestinian freedom fighters clashed throughout the Gaza Strip over the weekend, both sides said on Sunday, as mediating countries sought common ground for a possible ceasefire that would release hostages held by Hamas.

Almost 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war with Israel in which the settler-colonial state has levelled entire towns and brutally bombed Palestinian civilians.

Prospects for securing any truce looked uncertain, however, with Israel saying it was, in parallel, planning to expand its sweep to destroy Hamas, while the resistance faction stood firm on its demand for a permanent end to the nearly five-month-old war.

Residents said Israeli forces shelled several areas of the enclave as tanks rolled into Beit Lahiya and soldiers and gunmen waged running battles in the Zeitoun sector of Gaza City - both in the north, which had been conquered early in the offensive.

At least 86 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes since Saturday, medics said. Israel's military said two soldiers died in fighting in southern Gaza and that its forces had killed or captured several Palestinian gunmen in Zeitoun and elsewhere.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his war cabinet for a briefing late on Saturday by intelligence chiefs who returned from a meeting with Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators in Paris about a possible second Gaza ceasefire.

Truce talks

The first pause in fighting, in November, saw the release of around half of the 253 people Hamas captured. In that deal, Israel freed three times the number of Palestinians from its security prisons and admitted more humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Read Israel intensifies strikes on Gaza's Rafah, killing large family in home

Israeli media, citing unnamed officials, carried reports of a framework for the return of around a third of the 130 captives still in Gaza over a six-week truce covering the Muslim holy month of Ramazan. There was no formal confirmation from either side.

Palestinian officials said Hamas was insisting on Israel calling off the offensive and withdrawing forces under any deal. Israel signalled intent to move into one of the last towns where Hamas has intact forces.

"We are working to achieve another framework for the release of our abductees, as well as the completion of the elimination of the Hamas battalions in Rafah," Netanyahu said on Facebook, referring to the town in the far south of Gaza near the border with Egypt.

This week, he added, the Israeli security cabinet would approve military plans for Rafah - including the evacuation of more than a million displaced Palestinian civilians who have been sheltering there, and whose fate worries world powers.