Israel, Hamas clash as talk of truce resurfaces

Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen 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.

Egyptian security sources said Qatar will host mediated talks between Hamas and Israel aiming to finalise an agreement on a truce in the week.

Representatives from both parties will travel to Cairo for further talks aimed at reaching an agreement on the timing and mechanism for executing any deal, including hostage releases, the sources said.

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 group 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.

The first pause in fighting, in November, saw the release of around half of the 253 people Hamas seized on October 7. In that deal, Israel freed three times the number of Palestinians from its security prisons and admitted more humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Israeli media, citing unnamed officials, carried reports of a framework for the return of around a third of the 130 hostages still in Gaza over a six-week truce covering the holy month of Ramadan. 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, which is sworn to its destruction, 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.

Almost 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, Gaza medical officials say. The Hamas raid of October 7 killed 1,200 people in Israel, which has also lost 241 soldiers in Gaza ground fighting that followed, according to official tallies.