Gaza officials say Israeli strike hits school as IDF recovers remains of 6 hostages and Biden says Hamas “backing away” from cease-fire proposal

There have been conflicting messages in regards to the prospects of a truce deal within the Israel-Hamas battle Tuesday because the demise toll on either side continued to climb. Civil protection officers within the Hamas-run Gaza Strip mentioned an Israeli strike on a college getting used as a shelter within the enclave’s largest metropolis killed a minimum of 12 individuals. 

The strike on the Mostafa Hafez college in Gaza Metropolis got here as a kids’s exercise befell subsequent to the constructing, officers within the territory advised CBS Information. The Israel Protection Forces mentioned the air power had struck the college because it was getting used as a Hamas command heart. 

“The command and management heart was embedded and hidden by the Hamas terrorist group inside” the college, the IDF mentioned in an announcement, including that “quite a few steps have been taken to mitigate the chance of harming civilians, together with using exact munitions, aerial surveillance and extra intelligence.”

The IDF additionally mentioned Tuesday that troops had recovered the our bodies of six extra hostages inside Gaza. 5 of them have been already identified to have been killed in captivity, and a sixth was confirmed Tuesday. Israeli authorities mentioned the our bodies of Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, and Haim Perry have been recovered from close to the southern Gaza metropolis of Khan Younis in an intelligence-led operation.

IDF operations in Gaza — the place officers say greater than 40,000 individuals have been killed since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist assault on Israel sparked the battle — have continued apace through the cease-fire negotiations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that the battle is not going to finish till Israel achieves its said aims of destroying Hamas and bringing dwelling the remaining hostages. There have been 109 individuals nonetheless listed as hostages in Gaza by Israeli authorities earlier than the recoveries on Tuesday, together with 34 identified to have been killed whose stays have been but to be returned.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Israel Tuesday morning to move for Qatar and Egypt, which have helped the U.S. negotiate the long-sought however to date elusive cease-fire settlement to halt the preventing in Israel’s battle with Hamas and to safe the discharge of the hostages. The talks gave the impression to be making headway Monday, as Blinken mentioned Netanyahu had backed a so-called “bridging proposal” from the U.S. geared toward closing the ultimate gaps in calls for between Israel and Hamas.

Blinken and President Biden mentioned the onus was on Hamas to conform to the proposal, however a Hamas official advised CBS Information proper after the announcement by Blinken that the group “did not obtain any new proposals.” Each side have accused one another of blocking a truce settlement for months.

Blinken mentioned Monday that Netanyahu had “confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal, that he helps it. It is now incumbent on Hamas to do the identical.” 

Talking Tuesday morning, Mr. Biden mentioned Hamas was “backing away” from the deal, saying it was “nonetheless in play, however you possibly can’t predict” the end result of the talks.

“Israel says they will work it out,” the president mentioned in Chicago, however “Hamas is now backing away.”

Hamas fired again Tuesday, accusing Mr. Biden and Blinken of issuing “deceptive” statements that “don’t replicate the true place of the motion [Hamas], which is eager to succeed in a cessation of aggression.”

The group, in an announcement launched on social media, once more accused Israel of fixing the phrases of a truce proposal tabled in early July that it says was “based mostly on Biden’s personal declaration on Might thirty first,” calling U.S. acceptance of the adjustments purportedly sought by Israel, “acquiescence to the terrorist Netanyahu’s new situations and his legal plans in direction of the Gaza Strip.”

Throughout his go to to Israel on Monday, Blinken mentioned the talks have been at “a decisive second — in all probability the perfect, possibly the final, alternative to get the hostages dwelling, to get a cease-fire and to place everybody on a greater path to enduring peace and safety.”

Extra