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CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to reach a quick ceasefire in Gaza and release hostages, but Israel and Hamas stood firm on their demands, the White House said.
Earlier, Palestinian health officials reported that at least 50 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes in 24 hours. Vice President Kamala Harris also participated in the call.
Biden stressed to Netanyahu “the urgency of reaching an agreement on a ceasefire and hostage release, and discussed upcoming talks in Cairo to remove any remaining obstacles,” a White House statement said.
Negotiators from the United States, Israel, Egypt and Qatar, who are expected to meet in Cairo this weekend, have been trying for months to bridge the differences between Israel and Hamas.
But Israel and Hamas stuck to their demands on Wednesday.
“Israel will insist on achieving all war goals set by the Security Cabinet, including that Gaza no longer poses a security threat to Israel,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
The group denied a report on Israeli television that Israel had not agreed to abandon its demand for a troop presence in the Philadelphia corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, an issue that has been a major sticking point.
Hamas said in a statement that Hamas officials held talks with leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to discuss progress in the negotiations and reiterated Hamas’ main demands, which include an end to Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, a full Israeli withdrawal and an agreement to exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The call between Biden and Netanyahu came on the heels of a whirlwind visit to the region by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, which ended on Tuesday without producing a breakthrough in the 10-month war.
In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said warplanes struck about 30 targets in the area, including tunnels, launch sites and observation posts.
Reports said the army had killed dozens of militants and seized weapons including explosives, grenades and automatic rifles.
Gaza’s civil emergency services said Israeli forces attacked a school and a nearby house in Gaza City, killing at least four people and injuring 15, including several children.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the attack targeted Hamas militants at a command center located in a compound that was previously a school.
Hamas, the main Islamic militant group in the Gaza Strip, denied the accusation.
Commenting on the Israeli attack on UN-run schools, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, wrote on X: “Children are reported dead or injured. Some have been burned to death.”
“Gaza is no longer a place for children. They are the first victims of this brutal war,” he wrote. “A ceasefire is long overdue.”
Medical staff said an Israeli air strike killed seven Palestinians in a tent camp for displaced people in the town of Bani Suhayla near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israel orders civilians to evacuate
The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for the densely populated area of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by fighting have sought shelter.
The military said the order was needed to clear civilians from what had become a “dangerous battle zone,” but medics and residents said tanks then opened fire, killing at least one person and wounding several others by machine-gun fire.
According to Palestinian health authorities, Israel’s military operations have killed more than 40,000 people in Gaza since October last year.
The war broke out on Oct. 7 when Hamas gunmen attacked Israeli communities and military bases, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli statistics.
In order to escape the fighting, the people of Deir el Balah are once again on the run, and the fact that a ceasefire agreement has not yet been reached has made their suffering even worse.
“Unfortunately, we may die before we see the end of the war. All the ceasefire talks are lies,” Abrakan, 55, told Reuters via a chat app, saying he has had to change shelters five times since October because of Israeli attacks.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced multiple times since the Israeli airstrikes began. Even in designated safe areas, casualties from Israeli airstrikes are frequently reported.
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