US envoys meet Hamas in Cairo to salvage fragile Gaza truce
Washington engages with the Palestinian group as the regional war strains post-war plans and the battered October ‘ceasefire’ that Israel continues to violate.
A mosque, destroyed during Israel's two-year genocidal war on Gaza, is surrounded by tents for displaced Palestinians, in Gaza City, February 15
In a devastated enclave where more than two million Palestinians remain crammed into a shrinking strip of land under the overwhelming shadow of Israeli military occupation and bombardment, daily survival is tethered to a fragile October “ceasefire”.
But as Israeli and US bombs rain down on Iran, and Tehran retaliates across the region, that battered truce faces a breaking point, prompting an unprecedented diplomatic manoeuvre: direct talks between United States President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” and Hamas.
Envoys from the new body, personally headed by Trump to oversee post-war Gaza, but with more far-reaching designs, met with Hamas representatives in the Egyptian capital over the weekend, according to the Reuters news agency.
The meetings aimed to safeguard the “ceasefire”, which has been under even more severe strain since the regional war began on February 28.
Following the talks, Israel announced it would partially reopen the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Wednesday. The crossing, Gaza’s sole pedestrian lifeline outside direct Israeli control, was shut when the Iran offensive began.
Despite the diplomatic push, violence in the enclave persists. Israeli strikes on Sunday killed at least 13 Palestinians including two boys, a pregnant woman, and nine police officers, serving as a stark reminder of Israel’s all-encompassing military grip on the territory.
Gaza’s Rafah crossing opens amid Iran war
The Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza has reopened for the first time since Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iran, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said.
Israel had closed the border crossing a day after the joint Israeli-United States attacks on Iran.
“Several necessary security adjustments have been implemented, including the closure of the crossings into the Gaza Strip, among them the Rafah Crossing, until further notice,” Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) had said in a statement on March 1.
The Rafah crossing is considered vital for the delivery of humanitarian aid and the evacuation of critically ill patients.
One killed, one seriously injured in Israeli attack on Gaza City
One Palestinian has been killed and another wounded in an Israeli air attack on a gathering in the east of Gaza City, an Al Jazeera team on the ground and the Wafa news agency are reporting.
The attack took place in the Tuffah neighbourhood, Wafa reported, adding that the wounded man’s injuries were serious.
Two Palestinians killed in Israeli drone attack on Gaza City
Two Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli drone strike on Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, sources at al-Shifa Hospital have told Al Jazeera.
