The Israeli strike of drones killed two people in Gaza on Friday, the local Palestinian medical authorities announced, undergoing uncertainty over the fragile agreement on the interruption that stopped the fight in the endlave for weeks.
The Israeli army announced that an unmanned aircraft hit a group of suspected militants who operated near their troops in the northern Gaza and planted an explosive device in the country but did not give details about the victims.
The army, under the new military lieutenant, gen. Eyal Zamir, he was preparing to return to the war in Gaza if the Hamas could not reach an agreement on the extension of the 42-day interruption that was agreed last month.
But with a visit in the coming days from the special envoy of US President Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff, who talked to Hamas with direct conversations, there was no indication that Israel had given up on the dedication continued.
The Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo to talk to Egyptian mediators who helped make conversations easier with the catarrh officials, which targeted to continue until the next stage of the agreement, which could open the way until the end of the war.
In an apparent endeavor to press Israel, Hamas posted a video showing Israeli soldier Matan Angrest, one of the 59 Israeli and foreign hostages still held in Gaza’s belt.
Unclear whether conversations about the interruption of fire will go forward
Despite a series of hiccups, the truce is mainly held from January 19, which enabled the exchange of 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais for about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
But it is not clear whether the conversations about the release of the remaining hostages and the completion of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza will go forward, despite the pressure of Trump, who requested that Hamas surrender to all those still held or faced with devastating consequences.
Israel requested the return of his hostages and an extension of the ceasefire through the Muslim Saint Moon of Ramadan until after the Jewish rest of the Passover in April. But he refused to agree to open a conversation that would cover questions such as the final withdrawal of his troops from Gaza and the post -war enclave administration.
Israel says that he will continue to block all the humanitarian aid by entering Gaza, unless Hamas agrees to expand the first phase of the trial agreement, which expired on Saturday. Hamas wants to move directly to phase 2 of the original agreement, which includes all Israeli forces that have withdrawn from Gaza.
Zamir, the new military chief of Israel, has been visited by the troops since he took over the Israeli Defense Forces Command this week and said that the military was preparing to return to the battle in Gaza if commanded.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health and officials at Al-Ahly Hospital said that two people were killed on Friday on a drone strike in Shejai area in Gaza. A similar incident killed three people on Thursday. The army said the strike was also aiming for individuals who saw a bomb near the Israeli troops.
The first Friday of Ramadan saw that thousands of entering the old town of Jerusalem were praying in the Al-Aqsa mosque, and Israel enabled the limited number of older Palestinians and children from the occupied West Coast to move to the city.
“We have not come for three or four years, but thank God for the happiness and joy we were able to reach the Al-Aqsa mosque. This is the greatest joy for Muslims,” said Salah Aleiwi, who entered from the West Coast.
Tensions grow on the west coast
The mosque, at the place in Jerusalem Old Town to call the Jews the Temple of Mount and Revere as the place of two ancient temples, is a sacred place for both religions and has long been a focus for conflicts that were sometimes abolished in a wider conflict.
The tensions on the west coast increased in the middle of the Israeli surgery for weeks against Palestinian refugee camps, where troops overthrew dozens of houses and destroyed roads and other infrastructure, sending tens of thousands of campsites from their homes.
Israel says surgery is directed against Iranian Palestinian militant groups rooted in camps.
On Friday, there was a great deployment of police in the narrow cobbled streets of the Old Town, but there were no reports on serious problems.
“The Israeli police have been widespread by Jerusalem and across Israel to allow a safe environment for the arrival of all those worshipers who come here,” said police spokesman Dean Elsdunne.
In recent years, the Israeli authorities have regularly limited access to the mosque, citing security needs, and the entry on Friday was conditioned by the approval of the police, even for those who are qualified by age.
Ibtiam Abdul Fattah, a 65-year-old from the west coast, said she was twice turned on the Western Qalendiya control point, north of Jerusalem. “We are in our country, but we are not allowed,” she said.
