Gaza offensive to continue

Israel will push on with its offensive against Hamas, including into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, despite growing international pressure to stop, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday.

"There is international pressure and it's growing, but particularly when the international pressure rises, we must close ranks, we need to stand together against the attempts to stop the war," he said.

Addressing a graduation ceremony at a training school for Israeli army officers, Netanyahu also said Israel must push back against a "calculated attempt" to blame it for Hamas' crimes.

He added that Israel would operate throughout Gaza, "including Rafah, the last Hamas stronghold".

"Whoever tells us not to act in Rafah is telling us to lose the war and that will not happen," Netanyahu said.

Meanwhile, Hamas said its delegation had left Cairo yesterday amid ongoing negotiations on a ceasefire accord in Gaza that mediators hope to achieve before the start of Ramadan early next week.

After four days of talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt to secure a 40-day ceasefire ahead of the Muslim fasting month there is still no sign of progress on key sticking points, with both sides blaming the other.

"Hamas's delegation left Cairo this morning for consultation with the leadership of the movement, with negotiations and efforts continuing to stop the aggression, return the displaced and bring in relief aid to our people," a Hamas statement said.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Israel had been "thwarting" efforts to conclude a ceasefire deal.

Abu Zuhri told Reuters that Israel was rejecting Hamas's demands to end its offensive in the enclave, withdraw its forces, and ensure freedom of entry for aid and the return of displaced people.

US President Joe Biden said earlier this week that a deal for a ceasefire was in the hands of Hamas.

Hamas officials have said a ceasefire must be in place before the hostages are freed, Israeli forces must leave Gaza and all Gazans must be able to return to homes they have fled.

Hamas has said it can't provide a list of the hostages who are still alive without a ceasefire as the hostages are scattered across the war zone.

News that the Hamas delegation had left Cairo without an accord was met with despair in Gaza, which is in the grip of a deep humanitarian crisis after five months of war.

The US Central Command and Royal Jordanian Air Force continued yesterday with joint efforts to get food and other aid to the north of the enclave, where UN aid agencies say a large proportion of the population is on the brink of famine.

C-130s planes dropped more than 38,000 meals into the area, in their third such operation, though US officials say the process is costly and insufficient, compared to aid trucked in.

Elsewhere, a UN expert said yesterday that Israel was destroying Gaza's food system as part of a broader "starvation campaign" in its war against Hamas.

Aid officials have warned of looming famine five months into the campaign against the Islamist Palestinian group, while hospitals in the isolated northern part of the enclave say children have started dying from malnutrition.

"Israel is not only denying and restricting the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel is destroying the food system in Gaza," Michael Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, said in a speech to the UN Human Rights Council.

"Israel has mounted a starvation campaign against the Palestinian people in Gaza," he added, saying that included targeting small-scale fishermen.

Fakhri, a Lebanese-Canadian law professor, is one of dozens of independent human rights experts mandated by the United Nations to report and advise on specific themes and crises.

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