*Shells Gaza As Talks With Hamas Turn To Sticking Points
*UN Chief Urges Immediate, Unconditional Release Of All Hostages
ISRAELI tanks, boats and jets pounded parts of Gaza on Tuesday, October 7, giving Palestinians no respite on the second anniversary of the Hamas attack that led to two years of war and underlining the challenges at talks on plan to end the conflict by United States (US) President, Donald Trump.
Israel pressed on with its offensive, residents said, after Hamas and Israel began indirect negotiations on Monday, October 6, in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, on sensitive issues, such as Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas’ disarmament.
The talks on the plan are widely seen as the most promising yet for ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated Gaza since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people.
According to Reuters and BBC reports, residents in Khan Younis in southern Gaza and Gaza City in the north reported heavy bombing from tanks and planes in the early hours on Tuesday, witnesses said, adding that Israeli forces pounded several districts from the air, sea and ground.
In return, Gaza militants fired rockets across the border early on Tuesday, setting off air raid sirens at Israeli kibbutz Netiv Haasara, while Israeli troops continued to tackle gunmen inside the enclave, the Israeli military said.
Marking the anniversary of the attack, an umbrella of Palestinian factions, including Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and smaller militant groups, vowed “the choice of resistance by all means is the sole and only way to confront the Zionist enemy.”
“No one has the right to cede the weapons of the Palestinian people. This legitimate weapon… will be passed through the Palestinian generations until their land and sacred sites are liberated,” the statement issued in the name of “Factions of the Palestinian Resistance” said.
Israelis marking the second anniversary of the Hamas attack, in which 251 people were taken back to Gaza as hostages, gathered at some of the worst-hit sites of that day and at Tel Aviv’s so-called Hostages Square.
“It’s like an open wound, the hostages, I can’t believe it’s been two years and they are still not home.
“I really hope that all the leaders will make a push and that this war will end,” said Hilda Weisthal, 43.
In Gaza, Mohammed Dib, 49, voiced similar hopes of an end to the conflict: “It’s been two years that we are living in fear, horror, displacement and destruction.
“We are hoping, with these new negotiations, to reach a ceasefire and a final end to the war.”
Israel is negotiating from a position of strength. It responded to the 2023 attack by launching its offensive to eliminate Hamas in Gaza, while also assassinating the top Hamas leaders outside the Strip and other Iranian-backed groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and weakening Yemen’s Houthis.
It also killed Iran’s top military commanders and attacked Iranian nuclear facilities during a 12-day war, which was joined by the US.
But Israel’s military onslaught on Gaza, which local health authorities say has killed over 67,000 people and flattened the tiny enclave, isolated the country on the world stage.
Some Western leaders have recognised Palestinian statehood and pro-Palestinian protests have erupted around the world.
Israel and Hamas have both endorsed the overall principles behind Trump’s plan, under which fighting would cease, hostages are freed and aid pour into Gaza.
The plan also has the backing of Arab and Western states.
Trump has called for negotiations to take place swiftly towards a final deal, in what Washington hails as the closest the sides have yet come to ending the conflict.
Trump has invested significant political capital in efforts to end the war. Even if a deal is clinched during talks in Egypt, major questions will linger, including who will rule Gaza and rebuild it.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, have ruled out any role for Hamas, which seized Gaza in 2007 after defeating its rivals in a brief civil war.
Though Trump said he wants a deal quickly, an official briefed on the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he expected the round of talks that started on Monday would require at least a few days.
An official involved in ceasefire planning and a Palestinian source said Trump’s 72-hour deadline for the hostages’ return could be unachievable for dead hostages, as their remains may need to be located and recovered from scattered sites.
The Israeli delegation includes officials from spy agencies, Mossad and Shin Bet, Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser, Ophir Falk, and hostages Coordinator, Gal Hirsch.
Israel’s chief negotiator, Strategic Affairs Minister, Ron Dermer, was expected to join later this week, pending developments in the negotiations, according to three Israeli officials.
The Hamas delegation is led by the group’s exiled Gaza leader, Khalil Al-Hayya, who survived an Israeli airstrike in the Qatari capital, a month ago.
The US has sent special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law, who has strong ties to the Middle East, the White House said.
In Israeli, on Tuesday, residents gathered at memorials to mark two years since Hamas’s attacks. At the site of the Nova festival attack, memorials stand garnished with flowers, tributes and candles.
A sister-in-law of one of 20 hostages believed to be alive in Gaza says she “stopped being myself” on October 7 and will “keep fighting” until they are all returned to Israel.
In the United Kingdom (UK), Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged students not to join pro-Palestinian protests, saying it would be “un-British” for the planned rallies to go ahead.
Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has called for the immediate and unconditional release of all the remaining Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas.
In a statement on X, Guterres added that the way to honour the memory of the victims of the October 7, 2023 attacks is by working towards “a just and lasting peace.”
Such a peace would see Israelis, Palestinians and others in the region “live side by side in security, dignity and mutual respect,” he added.
Highlighting Trump’s Gaza peace plan, Guterres said it “presents an opportunity that must be seized to bring this tragic conflict to an end,” adding: “A permanent ceasefire and a credible political process are essential to prevent further bloodshed and pave the way for peace.”
On Monday, Trump told reporters at the White House as the delegations met in Egypt: “I really think we’re going to have a deal. We have a really good chance of making a deal, and it’ll be a lasting deal.”
But both sides are seeking clarifications of crucial details, including those that have derailed previous attempts to end the war and could defy any quick resolution.
Trump has pushed Israel to suspend its bombing of Gaza for the talks, and Gaza residents said Israel had scaled back its offensive substantially, although not halted it altogether.
With Israeli forces blasting their way through Gaza City and flattening neighbourhoods as they advance, Gaza residents called a ceasefire their last hope.
“If there is a deal, then we survive. If there isn’t, it is like we have been sentenced to death,” said Gharam Mohammad, 20, displaced along with her family in central Gaza.
Inside Israel, there is clamour for an end to the war to bring home hostages, although right-wing members of Netanyahu’s cabinet oppose any halt to fighting.
The parties “are going over the lists of both the Israeli hostages and also the political prisoners who will be released,” White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Monday.
A thorny issue is likely to be the Israeli demand, echoed in Trump’s plan, that Hamas disarm, a Hamas source told Reuters.
The group has insisted it will not disarm unless Israel ends its occupation and a Palestinian State is created.
