Israeli media is reporting manpower problems in the country’s military amid growing fatigue after 17 months of war [Getty]
Egypt has made a last-ditch proposal to save the shattered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as the Israeli military steps up its bombardment of Gaza, Egyptian sources told The New Arab‘s sister site Al Araby Al Jadeed.
Egyptian officials are holding talks with Hamas and Israeli negotiators in Cairo about the new proposal, which comes just hours after Israel escalated its bombing campaign and launched a ground invasion to retake the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza.
Over 700 Palestinians have been killed in two days of ferocious Israeli bombing.
The Egyptian proposal aims to bridge the divisions between the two sides, which remain far apart on the timetable for the exchange of prisoners and permanently ending the war.
Israel and Hamas in January signed up to a multi-phased ceasefire and prisoner-exchange agreement, which would see all Israeli captives released, Israeli forces fully withdraw from Gaza, and a permanent end to the war.
Israel however, refused to enter talks for the second stage of the truce and the US and Israel proposed instead to extend the first phase of the ceasefire. This was rejected by Hamas, which insists that Israel stick to the original agreement.
Israel restarted its brutal offensive shortly afterwards.
A Hamas delegation is expected to arrive in Cairo on Thursday to discuss Egypt’s proposal, according to Al Araby Al Jadeed’s sources.
This will follow a visit by an Israeli military delegation, which met with Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad on Wednesday evening.
The Palestinian group confirmed that discussions about the ceasefire are ongoing and that it remains committed to implementing the original agreement reached in January.
“Talks are continuing with mediators to stop the aggression against our people and force the occupation to stick to the [ceasefire] agreement,” Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif al-Qanou wrote on his Telegram channel on Thursday morning.
He called on Arab states to take “urgent action” to “save our people from genocide, prevent starvation, and lift the siege.”
Hamas sources reiterated to Al Araby Al Jadeed that the group is open to any proposal that includes a pathway to the second phase of the ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
The report comes as the Egyptian and Qatari foreign ministers held talks on how to revive the ceasefire.
The two diplomats held a phone call to discuss how to “consolidate the ceasefire agreement and ensure the implementation of its three phases” as well as Egypt’s post-war Gaza reconstruction plan, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday morning.
Qatar and Egypt, along with the US, are attempting to mediate an agreement between Hamas and Israel to permanently end the war.
More than 700 dead in Gaza since Tuesday
More than 700 Palestinians have been killed in indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza since Israel shattered the ceasefire on Tuesday.
The Israeli military resumed its bombing campaign across the strip on Tuesday, killing more than 400 Palestinians in a single day.
Since Tuesday, Israel has now killed 710 Palestinians and wounded more than 900 others, Khalil al-Dakran, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Health Ministry, told Al Jazeera Arabic on Thursday.
Around 70% of the injured are women and children, he added.
Al-Dakran’s comments came amid reports that more than 70 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli strikes on Thursday morning.
Before Israel broke the ceasefire on Tuesday the death toll from Israel’s 15-month long war on Gaza stood at over 61,700, with more than 112,700 have been wounded. The bodies of thousands of victims are trapped under rubble and remain uncounted.
Israel faces manpower problems
The Israeli military is facing manpower problems as it restarts its brutal assault on Gaza.
Reserve officers and commanders have reported a 30% drop in the total number of soldiers amid growing war fatigue and a refusal by the ultra-orthodox to enlist.
“There’s a significant challenge in recruiting reservists. You can feel it with every call you make. It’s not what it was a year ago,” one officer told Yedioth Ahronoth.
New arrests in occupied West Bank
Israeli forces have arrested 19 people across the occupied West Bank in recent hours, according to local reports.
Fourteen people were detained in the village of Husan and the Dheisheh refugee camp on the outskirts of Bethlehem, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Five others were arrested in the city of Hebron, the nearby town of Dura, and the Fawwar refugee camp, the agency reported.
During the raids in Husan, Israeli forces held another 20 people for what WAFA described as “harsh” interrogations.
