Trump's envoys meet mediators, Israel strikes Gaza

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Donald Trump's envoys ‌met with Egyptian, Qatari ​and Turkish ​mediators in Cairo on Sunday, a diplomatic source said, in a bid to advance the U.S. president's Gaza peace plan, even as Israel pressed on with airstrikes in the enclave.

Hamas officials were present at some of the meetings between ‌mediators and with Trump's envoy and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Nickolay Mladenov, Trump's Board of Peace envoy for ⁠Gaza, the diplomat said.

A senior Israeli official said Kushner and Mladenov were scheduled to meet on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on August 9 said ‌Trump's latest roadmap for Gaza peace was 'unacceptable'.

GAZA ‌MEDICS SAY STRIKES INJURED SEVERAL PEOPLE

The official said that Israel was concerned about Washington's demand to end targeted assassinations of Hamas militants in Gaza as the group rebuilds its forces.

Trump's peace plan calls for the immediate cessation of military operations in Gaza. It foresees ​Hamas disarming as Israeli troops withdraw from the enclave and Gaza is rebuilt under a new civilian Palestinian administration.

After scaling back its attacks in the enclave earlier this month, Israel's airstrikes have resumed in the past few days.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that ⁠its aircraft struck two Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants in Khan Younis and Nuseirat. At least five Palestinians were injured in the strike which hit a tent encampment, medics in the ​enclave said.

One of the injured in the strike on Khan Younis in southern Gaza died from their wounds, medics at Nasser hospital said later.

A separate airstrike, which the Israeli military said targeted another militant, ​hit an apartment in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, wounding several people, ‌medics said.

Earlier, Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya met with Egypt's intelligence chief Hassan Rashad in Cairo. Hamas spokesperson in Gaza, Hazem Qassem, said Al-Hayya would brief mediators on what he said were Israel's ceasefire violations.

MUSLIM POWERS CONDEMN ⁠ISRAELI REJECTION OF PLAN

Trump announced last month that there had been a breakthrough in his plan to end the war.

Hamas said it had agreed to the plan to avoid a resumption of the conflict, but added that implementation of the deal would depend on Israel first meeting its own commitments, including withdrawing ⁠its forces and halting attacks.

Five Arab countries and Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia on Sunday condemned Israel's rejection of the plan, saying in a joint statement that it ​threatens Trump's efforts to end the war in Gaza.

A spokesperson for Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the joint statement.

But Netanyahu's Likud party, which has been struggling in the polls ahead of an October 27 national election, said that the Arab countries want to topple Netanyahu so ‌that his political rivals will "give them everything that they want".

An October ceasefire halted major fighting in a devastating two-year war in Gaza that was sparked by Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, but ‌it failed to end Israeli attacks entirely.

Israeli fire has killed more than 1,250 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, since October. It is unclear how ⁠many of those killed were militants, as Hamas does ‌not usually disclose information about dead fighters.

Four Israeli ​soldiers were killed by militants in Gaza over the same period, according to Israeli figures.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Alexander Cornwell and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Menna Alaa El-Din and Hatem Maher in Cairo; Editing ‌by Andrew Heavens)

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