Heavy fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas has been going on since morning in the Gaza Strip

The fresh hostilities began an hour before the truce was scheduled to end at 07:00 a.m., as Israel’s military accused the Palestinian organization of violating the temporary truce by firing rockets against Israeli territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of “violating the agreement” by not agreeing to release other hostages and of “firing rockets”. He emphasized that Israel remains committed to achieving its goals of eliminating the organization.

The Al Quds Brigadesthe armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, took responsibility for launching rockets and announced that it had struck Israeli cities this morning in response to “crimes against our people”.

In the meantime, Hamas emphasized in today’s statement that Israel bears the responsibility “for the repetition of war and aggression”, after rejecting during the night all proposals for the release of other hostages.

Heavy aerial bombardment

Palestinian media reported Israeli air force and artillery strikes against the Gaza Strip.

According to the Hamas government, six people were killed in an Israeli airstrike against it Rafain the southern part of the enclave, near the border with Egypt.

Doctor at hospital Ahli Arab, in Gaza City, said that Two children were killed in an airstrike.

At Han Yunisin southern Gaza, an eyewitness told Reuters he could hear heavy shelling and sees smoke rising from the eastern part of the city. Residents are fleeing the area and heading to the western part of Khan Younis in search of shelter.

At the same time, air raid sirens sounded again in areas of Israel near the Palestinian enclave, the IDF added.

Negotiations to extend the truce continue

Despite renewed fighting on the ground, a source familiar with the talks told AFP today that negotiations were continuing with Qatari and Egyptian mediators to extend the Gaza ceasefire.

After a night of intensive negotiations, which failed to extend the humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, and the exchange of eight more Israeli hostages in exchange for 30 Palestinian prisoners on Thursday, “negotiations are continuing,” the source told AFP. , who asked not to be named.

Homers

A total of 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners were released during the seven days of the ceasefire.

Israel had set the release of at least 10 hostages a day as a condition for continuing to accept the suspension of its military operations in Gaza, so yesterday’s release of only 8 people was seen by Israel as a violation of the agreement.

One of Qatar’s key negotiators, Abdullah al-Sulaiti, who helped broker the truce between Israel and Hamas, admitted in a recent interview that it would be difficult to end the hostilities.

“At first I thought that the most difficult thing would be to reach an agreement,” he noted in an article in which he revealed for the first time the behind-the-scenes efforts made to reach the truce. “I found that keeping the agreement itself is just as difficult,” he added.