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05/18/2024 05:36:33 pm

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Hamas Rejects Cairo Peace Talks

Evacuation

(Photo : (Reuters / Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)) Palestinians ride a donkey-drawn cart past a police station, which was under construction when it was destroyed in what police said was an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip July 15, 2014.

Hamas will not be part of any talks in Cairo about ending the current episode between Israel and the Hamas that has led to 220 deaths as of Wednesday.

Speaking in an interview by Cable News Network, senior Hamas leader Izzat Risheq said they are not sending any representative to Cairo to negotiate or discuss the Egyptian cease-fire proposal.

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Other Hamas leaders said they do not oppose a ceasefire, but that they wanted to see a broader agreement that would include lifting of Israel's restrictions on border crossings that they say are disabling 1.8 million residents.

Israel temporarily stopped airstrikes on Hamas targets in Gaza City after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly spoke by telephone with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi about the ceasefire, but resumed these after six hours when Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israeli neighborhoods.

UPDATE: Israel will pause offensive operations Thursday to allow humanitarian aid to reach Palestinian refugees in Gaza. The UN said the pause will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. local time. 

The rocket attacks Tuesday killed a civilian volunteer delivering supplies to the Israeli Defense Force. The volunteer, in his early 30s, was critically injured near the Erez crossing on the Gaza border. He died later in a hospital as the only Israeli fatality in the week-long exchange.

The Israeli military said Hamas had fired 1,350 rockets into Israel from launching pads in Gaza since last week. An estimated 1,027 of the rockets hit Israel territory, while 265 were destroyed by the IDF's Iron Dome missile defense system.

IDF also said 100 of the rockets launched by Hamas over the last seven days did not reach Israel but instead hit areas in Gaza itself, killing or injuring Palestinian civilians.

On Wednesday, Israel launched more than 50 airstrikes into Gaza, targeting the hiding places of senior Hamas leaders.

Palestinian medical officials say the death toll has climbed to 220, with 47 of them children.

Four children died after naval shelling hit their seaside community on Gaza Wednesday.

More than 1,500 people have been injured, many of them civilians, according to the United Nations.

Israeli planes continued to drop leaflets and sent text messages calling on residents to evacuate areas near the border.

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