By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) -Israeli tanks, boats and jets pounded parts of Gaza on Tuesday, giving Palestinians no respite on the anniversary of the Hamas attack that led to two years of war and underlining the challenges at talks on Donald Trump’s plan to halt the conflict.
Israel pressed on with its offensive, residents said, after Hamas and Israel began indirect negotiations on Monday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on sensitive issues such as Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas’ disarmament.
The talks on the U.S. president’s plan are widely seen as the most promising yet for ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated Gaza since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which killed 1,200 people.
MILITANT GROUPS MARK ANNIVERSARY WITH STATEMENT
Residents in Khan Younis in southern Gaza and Gaza City in the north reported heavy bombing from tanks and planes in the early hours on Tuesday, witnesses said. Israeli forces pounded several districts from the air, sea and ground, they said.
Gaza militants fired rockets across the border early on Tuesday, setting off air raid sirens at Israeli kibbutz Netiv Haasara, and Israeli troops continued to tackle gunmen inside the enclave, the Israeli military said.
Marking the anniversary of the attack, an umbrella of Palestinian factions including Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and smaller militant groups vowed “the choice of resistance by all means is the sole and only way to confront the Zionist enemy.”
“No one has the right to cede the weapons of the Palestinian people. This legitimate weapon… will be passed through the Palestinian generations until their land and sacred sites are liberated,” the statement issued in the name of “Factions of the Palestinian Resistance” said.
Israelis marking the second anniversary of the Hamas attack – in which 251 people were taken back to Gaza as hostages – gathered at some of the worst-hit sites of that day and at Tel Aviv’s so-called Hostages Square.
“It’s like an open wound, the hostages, I can’t believe it’s been two years and they are still not home,” said Hilda Weisthal, 43. “I really hope that all the leaders will make a push and that this war will end.”
In Gaza, Mohammed Dib, 49, voiced similar hopes of an end to the conflict.
“It’s been two years that we are living in fear, horror, displacement and destruction,” he said. “We are hoping, with these new negotiations, to reach a ceasefire and a final end to the war.”
ISRAEL INCREASINGLY ISOLATED ON WORLD STAGE
Israel is negotiating from a position of strength. It responded to the 2023 attack by launching its offensive to eliminate Hamas in Gaza, while also assassinating the top Hamas leaders outside the Strip and other Iranian-backed groups such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and weakening Yemen’s Houthis.
It also killed Iran’s top military commanders and attacked Iranian nuclear facilities during a 12-day war which was joined by the United States.
But Israel’s military onslaught on Gaza, which local health authorities say has killed over 67,000 people and has flattened the tiny enclave, isolated the country on the world stage.
Some Western leaders have recognised Palestinian statehood and pro-Palestinian protests have erupted around the world.
Israel and Hamas have both endorsed the overall principles behind Trump’s plan, under which fighting would cease, hostages go free and aid pour into Gaza.
The plan also has the backing of Arab and Western states. Trump has called for negotiations to take place swiftly towards a final deal, in what Washington hails as the closest the sides have yet come to ending the conflict.
TRUMP SEEKS MAJOR FOREIGN POLICY TRIUMPH
Trump has invested significant political capital in efforts to end the war.
Even if a deal is clinched during talks in Egypt, major questions will linger, including who will rule Gaza and rebuild it.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have ruled out any role for Hamas, which seized Gaza in 2007 after defeating its rivals in a brief civil war.
Though Trump says he wants a deal quickly, an official briefed on the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he expected the round of talks that started on Monday would require at least a few days.
An official involved in ceasefire planning and a Palestinian source said Trump’s 72-hour deadline for the hostages’ return could be unachievable for dead hostages. Their remains may need to be located and recovered from scattered sites.
The Israeli delegation includes officials from spy agencies Mossad and Shin Bet, Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser Ophir Falk and hostages coordinator Gal Hirsch. Israel’s chief negotiator, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, was expected to join later this week, pending developments in the negotiations, according to three Israeli officials.
The Hamas delegation is led by the group’s exiled Gaza leader, Khalil Al-Hayya, who survived an Israeli airstrike in the Qatari capital, a month ago.
The U.S. has sent special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law who has strong ties to the Middle East, the White House said.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Maayan Luubell in Jerusalem and Reuters television in Sharm el-Sheikh and Charlotte Van Campenhout in Amseterdam; Writing by Michael Georgy, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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