The Biden administration exerted pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to negotiate the return of residents to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip, an area they were forced to leave for the south following the onset of hostilities on 7 October, according to The Wall Street Journal.
In addition, a group of Democratic members of Congress, led by US Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House, has addressed a letter to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. The letter, signed on Friday, calls for an immediate cessation of arms transfers to Israel.
The return of the civilians to the northern Gaza Strip is considered a major point of contention in the ceasefire and prisoner exchange talks, and Biden urged Netanyahu to resolve this issue during a phone call last Thursday and called on him to enable his negotiators to reach an agreement, according to the American newspaper.
The Israeli war on the Gaza Strip continued for the 183rd day in a row, while the starvation policy pursued by the occupation against the Palestinians has reached its extreme levels in recent days.
The Israeli war on the Gaza Strip left tens of thousands of deaths, most of them children and women, an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and massive infrastructure destruction, which led to Tel Aviv being brought before the International Court of Justice on charges of genocide.
On Saturday, the Israeli occupation army aircraft launched raids on several areas in the central Gaza Strip, and on the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip. The occupation aircraft carried out raids on the areas of Al-Mughraqa, Al-Zahraa, and the Nuseirat camp, in central Gaza, in conjunction with artillery shelling of those areas.
The occupation artillery shelled heavily the neighbourhoods of Al-Zaytoun, Tal Al-Hawa, and Al-Sabra in Gaza City, north of the Strip.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said that the Israeli occupation committed 4 massacres against civilians in the Strip during the past 24 hours, of which 46 deaths and 65 wounded arrived at hospitals, bringing the war toll to 33,137 deaths and 75,815 injured since last October.
The ministry indicated that several victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defence crews are unable to reach them.
In the meantime, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson James Elder said that 600,000 children in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, suffer from hunger and fear, and face the risk of an Israeli attack.
On Saturday, UNICEF published a video clip of Elder on its account on the social media platform X about the suffering of children trying to survive in Rafah under Israeli attacks, after 1.5 million people were displaced there.
In another context, a leading delegation from the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) heads on Sunday, to the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in response to the Egyptian government’s call to resume truce and ceasefire negotiations in the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas movement said in a statement on Saturday, that “a leading delegation from the movement headed by Khalil Al-Hayya will travel to Cairo, on Sunday, in response to the call of the brothers in Egypt,” stressing its adherence to its demands that it presented on 14 March, and “they are natural demands to end aggression, and do not give up on it.”
Hamas stated that these demands “are the demands of the Palestinian people and their national forces, and are represented by a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of the occupation forces from Gaza, the return of the displaced to their places of residence, freedom of movement of people, relief and shelter, and a serious prisoner exchange deal.”
