The Palestinian group Hamas has reiterated that there will be no new ceasefire until Israel meets their demands, defying attempts by Egypt to broker a new deal amid renewed fighting.
“We are not going to agree to a ceasefire without having all of our demands met,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoem said in a statement to Al Jazeera.
“We will not go back. We are going to continue the war until we achieve our goal. This is what our people want.”
Barhoem said Israel’s “intransigence will get it nowhere” and Hamas will make no concessions.
Among the reported demands of Hamas are the lifting of the Israeli blockade in Gaza, and the reopening of its seaport and airport.
On Saturday, Chris Gunness, the spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), joined calls for an end to the seven-year blockade.
“Huge swathes of Gaza have been levelled. We cannot rebuild it with our hands tied behind our backs,” he said.
“The blockade must end. We are beyond the realm of humanitarian action alone. All those directly and indirectly responsible for the carnage and destruction must engage.”
The month-long conflict flared again after mediators tried but failed to extend a ceasefire that expired on Friday morning and which Israel accused Hamas of breaching with pre-dawn rocket attacks.
Israel launched more than 30 aerial attacks in Gaza yesterday, killing five Palestinians, and militants fired rockets at Israel as the conflict entered a second month, defying international efforts to negotiate an agreement for an extended ceasefire.
Five Palestinians were killed and at least 31 others wounded in Friday’s air strikes, said Qudra. Among the dead was a 10-year-old boy.
Some Palestinian families who had returned home during the 72-hour truce trickled back to shelter in UN-run schools as fighting resumed.
In the al-Tuffah district of Gaza City, hundreds of refugees were seen living in classrooms, laundry hanging off balconies and a scrum of people queuing for UN food handouts.
The violence seemed to delay any progress in talks brokered by Egypt aimed at securing another truce. Israel had no plans to send negotiators back to Cairo “as long as the shooting goes on,” an Israeli official said on condition of anonymity.
Medical officials in Gaza said two Palestinians were killed when their motorcycle was bombed and the bodies of three others were found beneath the rubble of one of three bombed mosques.
Another attack reduced a security complex belonging to Gaza’s dominant Hamas faction to a huge cloud of smoke, but there were no casualties. In other attacks, three houses were bombed, and fighter planes strafed open areas, medical officials said.
Fighting between Israel and Hamas has now killed at least 1,903 Palestinians, including at least five people in Gaza on Saturday.
A total of 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians on the Israeli side have also been killed since Israel began its offensive on July 8.
In the Egyptian capital Cairo, the foreign ministry called on both sides “to return immediately to the ceasefire and exploit the opportunity available to resume negotiations on the very limited sticking points that remain in the fastest possible time.”
Egypt mediates the talks but is meeting separately with each party. Israel and Hamas deny each other’s legitimacy, with Hamas rejecting Israel’s right to exist and Israel rejecting Hamas as a “terrorist organisation.”
Egyptian mediators are waiting to hear back from the Israelis after Shabbat, the Jewish sabbath, ends at sundown on Saturday.
