The High Representative of the “Peace Council”, Nikolay Mladenov, and the Council’s advisor, Aryeh Lightstone, called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to stop the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Channel 12 reported that Mladenov and Lightstone met with Netanyahu on Monday and stressed the need to stop the attacks on the Gaza Strip, in implementation of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan, according to a source familiar with the details of the meeting.
Israel has not announced its approval of the plan, while the Haaretz newspaper quoted an informed Israeli source as saying that Israel informed the “Peace Council” of its rejection of three clauses, namely: the non-destruction of weapons that will be collected from Hamas, the participation of Qatar and Turkey in the process of verifying the implementation of the road map, and the lack of freedom of action for the Israeli army in the areas whose responsibility will be transferred to the international stabilization force.
These demands come after Israel escalated its attacks on the Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of dozens of Palestinians, including 19 people in the past 24 hours.
In conjunction with these developments, Hamas called on mediators to take urgent action to stop the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, while resistance factions issued strong warnings about the repercussions of the escalation on ceasefire efforts.
This came in the wake of a wave of Israeli attacks, which an Israeli report said were aimed at assassinating the new commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
Resistance communications
A source in Hamas told Al-Quds Al-Arabi that the movement’s leadership had made several contacts in the past few hours with the mediating countries, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, asking them to expedite action to stop the bloody attacks. The movement questioned the promise to stop the attacks, after it had responded positively to move to the second stage.
The source confirmed that as of Monday, no Israeli response had been received to the proposals recently submitted by Mladenov, which the movement had agreed to and which the mediating countries had endorsed, and that instead of agreeing, the Israeli government had delivered bloody messages and set new impossible conditions.
He stressed that Hamas and the resistance factions link the clause on “restricting and storing weapons” to the Israeli withdrawal from all areas in which it expanded its control after the first phase agreement.
On the other hand, another source in one of the resistance factions said that they conveyed warnings about the impact of the continued attacks and assassinations on the current efforts, and that they require a serious stance from the mediators, the Peace Council and the American administration, in order to compel Israel to abide by what was agreed upon.
Attempted assassination of Qassam commander
For its part, the Israeli channel “i24news” revealed, citing its sources, that the air raid carried out near the Sharia court in Gaza City on Sunday evening, which targeted a Jeep, was aimed at the new commander of the military wing of the “Hamas” movement, Nafiz Subaih, known by the nickname “Abu Jalal”, and claimed that he had been chosen shortly after the assassination of Muhammad Awda, the former commander of the Qassam Brigades, who had taken over the position from Izz al-Din al-Haddad, both of whom were assassinated last May.
According to the channel, the jeep was carrying “Jalal,” the eldest son of Subhi, along with Yasser Awda, one of the artillery commanders in the Gaza Brigade, and Musab Abbas, one of Subhi the father’s aides, along with a mail messenger for the Qassam commander, and that they were all killed in the raid.
The channel's sources stated that the new commander of "Al-Qassam" was not on board the jeep, doubting that Israel had accurate information about his presence. They stated that Subaih is one of the veteran activists in Al-Qassam and previously took over the Al-Tuffah and Al-Daraj Battalion, and that he had participated directly in the kidnapping of soldier Aaron Shaul during the war on Gaza in 2014.
Neither Hamas nor its military wing has commented on the Israeli report.
violent attacks
Medical sources announced the death of the young man Ahmed Al-Kafarna, who succumbed to his injuries sustained in the bombing that targeted Al-Thawra Street in the center of Gaza City on Sunday evening. Meanwhile, areas east of Gaza City were subjected to artillery shelling and heavy machine gun fire, and military vehicles attacked areas northeast of Al-Bureij camp. The eastern outskirts of Deir Al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip were subjected to intermittent artillery shelling.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced the arrival of 19 martyrs, in addition to 35 injuries, during the past 24 hours, as a result of the continued aggression against the sector. It stated that the total number of victims since the ceasefire has reached 1,250 martyrs and 4,110 injuries, in addition to the recovery of more than 800 bodies.