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Israel Cautions that Egypt May Withdraw from Hostage Deal Mediation Efforts

Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee Jabalia after the Israeli military called on residents to evacuate, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip May 14, 2024. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee Jabalia after the Israeli military called on residents to evacuate, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip May 14, 2024. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
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Israel Cautions that Egypt May Withdraw from Hostage Deal Mediation Efforts

Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee Jabalia after the Israeli military called on residents to evacuate, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip May 14, 2024. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee Jabalia after the Israeli military called on residents to evacuate, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip May 14, 2024. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Israeli officials have voiced concerns over Egypt’s probable withdrawal from a hostage deal mediation efforts in the Gaza Strip amid troubled ties between the two countries, Israeli Haaretz reported on Wednesday.
Relations tensed out between Egypt and Israel after the latter’s seizure of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing and its refusal to let humanitarian aid into Gaza.
According to the newspaper, Israeli officials expressed concern that cooperation at the military and intelligence levels with Egypt could dwindle unless the issue gets resolved.
The daily added that Israeli officials have also voiced concern that relations with Egypt could further deteriorate if the fighting in Gaza prolongs on, and if ceasefire talks fail between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz had on Tuesday accused Egypt of closing the Rafah crossing.
He said that Egypt must be "persuaded" to reopen the Rafah border crossing to "allow the continued delivery of international humanitarian aid" into Gaza.
His comment prompted an angry response from Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who said in a statement that Israel's seizure of the Rafah crossing and its military operations in the area were the main obstacles to aid entering Gaza.
Israel launched its Gaza operation after an attack on Oct. 7 by Hamas-led gunmen who killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages.

The Palestinian death toll in the war has now surpassed 35,000, according to Gaza health officials, whose figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

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With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
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With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)

After weeks of Israeli bombardment left them with nowhere else to go, hundreds of Palestinians have ended up in a former Gaza prison built to hold murderers and thieves.

Yasmeen al-Dardasi said she and her family passed wounded people they were unable to help as they evacuated from a district in the southern city of Khan Younis towards its Central Correction and Rehabilitation Facility.

They spent a day under a tree before moving on to the former prison, where they now live in a prayer room. It offers protection from the blistering sun, but not much else.

Dardasi's husband has a damaged kidney and just one lung, but no mattress or blanket.

"We are not settled here either," said Dardasi, who like many Palestinians fears she will be uprooted once again.

Israel has said it goes out of its way to protect civilians in its war with the Palestinian group Hamas, which runs Gaza and led the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that sparked the latest conflict.

Palestinians, many of whom have been displaced several times, say nowhere is free of Israeli bombardment, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble.

An Israeli air strike killed at least 90 Palestinians in a designated humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area on July 13, the territory's health ministry said, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas' elusive military chief Mohammed Deif.

On Thursday, Gaza's health ministry said Israeli military strikes on areas in eastern Khan Younis had killed 14 people.

Entire neighborhoods have been flattened in one of the most densely populated places in the world, where poverty and unemployment have long been widespread.

According to the United Nations, nine in ten people across Gaza are now internally displaced.

Israeli soldiers told Saria Abu Mustafa and her family that they should flee for safety as tanks were on their way, she said. The family had no time to change so they left in their prayer clothes.

After sleeping outside on sandy ground, they too found refuge in the prison, among piles of rubble and gaping holes in buildings from the battles which were fought there. Inmates had been released long before Israel attacked.

"We didn't take anything with us. We came here on foot, with children walking with us," she said, adding that many of the women had five or six children with them and that water was hard to find.

She held her niece, who was born during the conflict, which has killed her father and brothers.

When Hamas-led gunmen burst into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7 they killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the air and ground offensive Israel launched in response, Palestinian health officials say.

Hana Al-Sayed Abu Mustafa arrived at the prison after being displaced six times.

If Egyptian, US and Qatari mediators fail to secure a ceasefire they have long said is close, she and other Palestinians may be on the move once again. "Where should we go? All the places that we go to are dangerous," she said.