A house damaged in an Israeli strike lies in ruin in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on April 29.Hatem Khaled/Reuters
Israeli air strikes killed dozens of Palestinians on Monday as Hamas leaders visited Cairo for a new round of truce talks, with more than half the dead in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which foreign leaders have urged Israel not to invade.
Hours after the strikes on Rafah, where almost half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has sought refuge from months of Israeli bombardment, Egypt’s state-affiliated television said the Hamas delegation left Cairo for Doha and would return at an unspecified later date with a written response to the ceasefire proposal.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Hamas to swiftly accept what he called an “extraordinarily generous” Israeli proposal for a truce in the Gaza war and the release of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian militant group.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi spoke by phone to discuss developments in negotiations regarding a ceasefire in Gaza and dangers of military escalation.
Bombs hit three houses in Rafah on Monday. And in Gaza City, in the north of the strip, Israeli warplanes struck two houses, killing at least six people and wounding several others, health officials said.
With nightfall, an Israeli air strike on a house in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed three Palestinians, including a journalist, medics and Hamas media said. Six other people were killed in other central Gaza areas in separate Israeli air strikes, they added.
Israel’s military on Monday said two soldiers were killed in central Gaza on Sunday.
The armed wing of the Hamas-allied Islamic Jihad said it fired rockets into Israel on Monday, signalling the group was still able to launch rocket attacks after nearly seven months of the Israeli air and ground offensive.
Asked about the Rafah strikes, an Israeli military (IDF) spokesperson said fighter jets had “struck terror targets where terrorists were operating within a civilian area in southern Gaza,” declining to give details.
At a Rafah hospital, relatives of those killed in the strikes came to take the bodies away for burial. Women and men cried as they paid farewell to slain relatives wrapped in white and black shrouds.
“His name is Deif-Allah [meaning guest in Arabic] and he was indeed a guest. He came as a guest after [his parents] longed for [him] for so long, after 10 years,” said Abu Taha, holding the body of his baby boy.
“Ten people [were killed], the mother, her daughter, her granddaughters, her grandson, her son-in-law, their daughters and relatives, everyone. They’re all gone, all 10 of them.”
Speaking on Monday at a World Economic Forum meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Egypt was hopeful about a proposal for a truce and the release of hostages, but awaiting responses from Israel and Hamas.
“We are hopeful the proposal has taken into account the positions of both sides, has tried to extract moderation from both sides, and we are waiting to have a final decision,” Mr. Shoukry said.
A Palestinian official close to mediation efforts told Reuters, “Things look better this time,” but declined to say whether an agreement was imminent.
Israel’s military operation to eradicate Hamas has killed 34,488 Palestinians and wounded 77,643, according to Gaza’s health authorities. It has displaced most of the Palestinian enclave’s 2.3 million people and laid much of the area to waste.
The campaign was triggered by the Oct. 7 attack on Israel in which militants killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
An assault on Rafah, which Israel says is the last Hamas stronghold in the Gaza Strip, has been anticipated for weeks. Foreign governments and the United Nations have expressed concern that such action could result in a humanitarian disaster given the number of displaced people crammed into the area.
Two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters did not disclose details of the latest proposals, but a source briefed on the talks told Reuters Hamas was expected to respond to Israel’s latest truce proposal delivered on Saturday.
The source said this included an agreement to accept the release of less than 40 hostages in exchange for releasing Palestinians from Israeli jails, and to a second phase of a truce that includes a “period of sustained calm” – Israel’s compromise response to a Hamas demand for an end to the war.
After the first phase, Israel would allow free movement between south and north Gaza and a partial withdrawal of its troops, the source said.
In Tel Aviv, the families of two Israeli hostages who appeared in a video issued by Hamas over the weekend held a press conference, calling for an immediate deal that would secure the release of some 130 hostages still held.
“I want to ask everyone to stop the talking and start the actions. We are losing people that are alive now and there is no time to waste,” said Elan Siegel, daughter of Keith Siegel, a 64-year-old dual U.S. citizen taken captive with his wife, Aviva, who was released during a brief November truce.
A senior Hamas official told Reuters the Monday talks in Cairo would take place between the Hamas delegation and Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
“Hamas has some questions and inquiries over the Israeli response to its proposal, which the movement received from mediators on Friday,” the official told Reuters.
Those comments suggested Hamas might not hand an instant response to mediators over Israel’s latest proposal.
Also, Israel is voicing concern that the International Criminal Court could be preparing to issue arrest warrants for government officials on charges related to the conduct of its war against Hamas.
The ICC – which can charge individuals with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide – is investigating Hamas’s Oct. 7 cross-border attack and Israel’s devastating military assault on Hamas-ruled Gaza, now in its seventh month.
In response to Israeli media reports that the ICC might soon issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli government and military officials, Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Sunday warned Israeli embassies to bolster their security because of the risk of a “wave of severe antisemitism.”
“We expect the court [ICC] to refrain from issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli political and security officials,” Mr. Katz said. “We will not bow our heads or be deterred and will continue to fight.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that any ICC decisions would not affect Israel’s actions but would set a dangerous precedent.
Israeli officials are worried that the court could issue arrest warrants against Mr. Netanyahu and other top officials for alleged violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza, Israeli media have reported.
They said the ICC is also considering arrest warrants for leaders from Hamas.
The ICC, based in The Hague, and Hamas, Gaza’s ruling group, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Israel is not a member of the court and does not recognize its jurisdiction, but the Palestinian territories were admitted with the status of a member state in 2015.
In October, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said the court had jurisdiction over any potential war crimes committed by Hamas fighters in Israel and by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.
Mr. Khan has said his team is actively investigating any crimes allegedly committed in Gaza and that those who are in breach of the law will be held accountable.
“The ICC is an independent organization and their efforts are being undertaken without any contact or interference by the U.S.,” U.S. ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters on Monday.
The United States – Israel’s ally – is also not a member of the court. A White House spokesperson said later on Monday: “The ICC has no jurisdiction in this situation, and we do not support its investigation.”
Matthew Gillet, a lecturer in international law at the University of Essex in England, said anyone issued with an arrest warrant would be unable to travel to the more than 120 countries that are members of the ICC, including most European countries, Japan and Australia, or they could be detained.
Dr. Gillet said if arrest warrants were issued against Israeli officials, some allied countries could take action such as reducing weapons transfers or scaling back diplomatic visits, increasing Israel’s international isolation.
It would make “it more difficult for Western liberal democracies to engage with Israel,” he said.
The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants in its casualty reports but most of the fatalities have been civilians, health officials say.
Israel says that it takes precautions to minimize civilian deaths and that at least a third of the Gaza fatalities are combatants, figures that Hamas has dismissed.
Israel’s military campaign has displaced most of the blockaded Palestinian enclave’s 2.3 million people and created a humanitarian crisis.
The case at the ICC is separate from a genocide case launched against Israel at the International Court of Justice, also based in The Hague.
The ICJ, also known as the World Court, is a United Nations court that deals with disputes between states, while the ICC is a treaty-based criminal court focusing on individual criminal responsibility for war crimes.