• Israel military says Gaza air strikes hit militants trying to plant explosives

CAIRO: An Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinian men in the Gaza Strip, medics said on Monday, and there was no sign of progress at renewed ceasefire talks.

Medics said the three men were killed near Bureij camp in the center of the devastated Palestinian enclave by a missile fired from a drone. Israel’s military said one strike hit three militants in central Gaza as they were planting explosives, while another targeted several militants in Rafah.

In Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, medics said three people were wounded in another airstrike. Rafah residents have reported frequent fire by Israeli forces deployed in areas adjacent to the border inside the city boundaries.

The persistent bloodshed underscores the fragility of a three-stage ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States.

Israel wants to extend the ceasefire’s first phase, a proposal backed by US envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas says it will resume freeing hostages only under the second phase that was due to begin on March 2.

“Hamas has complied fully with the agreement, while the occupation (Israel) didn’t comply with some clauses. It (Israel) seeks to foil the agreement and impose new conditions,” Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said in Monday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday negotiators had been instructed to be ready to continue talks based on the mediators’ response to a US proposal for the release of 11 living hostages and half of the dead captives.

Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander and four bodies of the hostages if Israel agreed to begin talks immediately on implementing the second phase of the agreement. Israel accused Hamas of waging “psychological warfare” on the families of hostages.

The war began when Hamas led a cross-border raid into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, displaced most of the population and reduced much of the territory to rubble.

Reuters