Israel kills 8 Palestinians in Gaza as Hamas says cease-fire talks resume
Published: 12 Mar. 2025, 13:57
![A boy walks past graffiti depicting a Palestinian fighter at al-Amari camp south of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on March 11. [AFP/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/03/12/6891b83c-b1af-42ea-968a-df21107fc8c1.jpg)
A boy walks past graffiti depicting a Palestinian fighter at al-Amari camp south of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on March 11. [AFP/YONHAP]
Israeli fire has killed eight Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and three more in the occupied West Bank over the past 24 hours, Palestinian officials said Tuesday, even as a fragile cease-fire with Hamas in Gaza has largely held since late January. Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians in Gaza during the cease-fire who the military says had approached its troops or entered unauthorized areas.
Hamas says a new round of cease-fire talks have started Tuesday. Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Hamas instead wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, in which the remaining hostages would be released and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.
Israel is trying to force Hamas to accept its plan by cutting off all electricity, food, medicine and other goods to Gaza's more than 2 million Palestinians. The United Nations and other humanitarian aid providers say Israel is violating international law.
He warned Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa that Israel “is watching him from the heights of Mt. Hermon,” which Israeli forces captured as part of a buffer zone inside Syria last year, and said Israel struck 40 military targets overnight in southern Syria.
Israel plans to allow members of the Druze minority from Syria to work in Israeli-controlled parts of the Golan Heights as soon as the coming week, Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement Tuesday issued from Mt. Hermon. He stressed that Israel plans to remain in the Syrian buffer zone for an “indefinite period” to ensure that southern Syria remains demilitarized and does not pose a threat to residents of Israel or the Golan Heights.
The Israeli minister’s comments come days after Syrian government-linked forces killed hundreds of civilians in revenge attacks primarily targeting members of the Alawite religious minority. The Druze minority straddles Israel, the Golan Heights, Syria, and Lebanon.
The Palestinian militant group said Tuesday it was “dealing responsibly and positively with these negotiations, including the talks with the American envoy for hostage affairs.”
Hamas had said Sunday that it wrapped up the latest round of cease-fire talks with Egyptian mediators — without changes to its position.
Hamas wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which would see the release of remaining hostages from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lasting peace. Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.
A breakthrough agreement to consolidate control of Syria under a single central authority in Damascus is a “step in the right direction,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday, but he said the deal must be fully implemented.
The deal between Syria’s interim government and the Kurdish-led authority in country’s northeast includes a cease-fire and would merge the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces into the Syrian army. Turkey deems the Kurdish forces in Syria as “terrorists” because of their links to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Part.
![Mourners pray over the bodies of four Palestinians killed by an Israeli airstrike in the Netzarim corridor, at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on March 11. [AP/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/03/12/4aec26bb-3fbf-4971-8a4e-e5103ea891d7.jpg)
Mourners pray over the bodies of four Palestinians killed by an Israeli airstrike in the Netzarim corridor, at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on March 11. [AP/YONHAP]
“We see every effort to cleanse Syria of terrorism as a step in the right direction,” Erdogan said during a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner on Tuesday.
The agreement aligns with Turkey’s interests, which has called for a stable and unitary Syria.
One of the store’s owners was briefly detained Tuesday and books were seized by Israeli police, who said they received a tip about “books with inciteful content.”
The Educational Bookshop is a hub of intellectual life in east Jerusalem that's popular among researchers, journalists and foreign diplomats. The two Palestinian brothers who own the store were detained after a raid last month.
Imad Muna, one of the owners, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that police showed him no search or arrest warrant before taking him in for questioning along with around 40 books — all with some kind of “icon or key word related to the conflict or related to Palestine or related to the Israeli occupation.”
He said police kept three books: two academic studies of the conflict written in English, and “a book about Palestine and South Africa.”
A police spokesperson said the confiscated books would be examined to determine if prosecutors need to investigate further.
The back-to-back Israeli police raids are a violation of free expression and a “blatant assault on Palestinian literature and culture,” said PEN America, a literary nonprofit dedicated to protecting free speech.
The organization called on Israeli authorities to stop the “relentless harassment and intimidation” of the Educational Bookshop’s two Palestinian owners, one of whom was briefly detained again Tuesday. Police said the raid was spurred by complaints about “inciting content” at the store in east Jerusalem.
The strikes Tuesday hit two areas of southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said, allegedly killing a commander in Nabatiyeh province and several militants in the Froun area.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported two Israeli drone strikes in the Froun area on a vehicle, about 20 minutes apart. There were no immediate reports of casualties and Hezbollah did not immediately comment.
Israel has repeatedly launched deadly airstrikes in Lebanon during the cease-fire, saying it has the right to retaliate to unspecified cease-fire violations by Hezbollah and security threats.
The Israeli prime minister’s office announced Israel will release five Lebanese detainees as a “gesture” to the new Lebanese president. The release follows a meeting Tuesday in Lebanon between representatives from Israel, Lebanon, France and the United States.
Israel said the talks focused on bringing more stability to the region after a bruising war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has been paused by a cease-fire since late November. The four nations will continue meeting to discuss three major issues between Israel and Lebanon, including five locations in southern Lebanon that remain under Israeli military control, the border between Israel and Lebanon — which has never officially been determined — and the issue of Lebanese detainees held by Israel.
“Everyone involved remains committed to maintaining the cease-fire agreement and to fully implement all its terms,” said Morgan Ortagus, the deputy presidential special envoy at the U.S. State Department. According to the terms of the cease-fire, Israel must withdraw from all of Lebanon, including the five points along the border it's still occupying. The Lebanese government and Hezbollah did not have an immediate comment.
The joint drills held Tuesday, called the Maritime Security Belt 2025, took place in the Gulf of Oman near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all crude oil traded worldwide passes.
![A woman sits at a public square, dedicated to hostages, where pictures and memorabilia of hostages, kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, are displayed in Tel Aviv, Israel, on March 11. [REUTERS/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/03/12/18fe3af6-2042-48a6-b96b-69457261310f.jpg)
A woman sits at a public square, dedicated to hostages, where pictures and memorabilia of hostages, kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, are displayed in Tel Aviv, Israel, on March 11. [REUTERS/YONHAP]
This is the fifth year the three countries took part in the drills, which come after a monthslong Iranian drill that followed a direct Israeli attack on the country, targeting its air defenses and sites associated with its ballistic missile program.
Palestinians described alleged abuses by Israeli forces and settlers — punched in the genitals, held for days while naked, starved — to independent UN-backed human rights investigators on Tuesday during hearings on the treatment of detainees during the war in Gaza.
“This is not just my story. I’m just one person among many detained by the occupying Israeli power,” said one witness from Gaza, Abu Jidyan, according to a translator.
The Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory’s findings can be used as evidence for the International Criminal Court or other bodies that seek to prosecute war crimes and other violations in the context of the war.
Rights groups have alleged widespread abuse at a military detention facility, Sde Teiman.
Israel has refused to cooperate with the commission, accusing it of anti-Israel bias. Israel has repeatedly denied mistreatment of Palestinian detainees in its custody and said it takes action against any offenses.
The White House is circumspect about the prospects for a peaceful Syria after clashes erupted last week that left hundreds dead.
Monitoring groups said hundreds of civilians were killed in the clashes that broke out last week. Revenge attacks primarily targeted members of the Alawite religious minority to which ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad belongs.
White House National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt said Tuesday that the attacks on religious minorities have raised concerns in the administration “about whether Syria’s interim governing authorities are ready to include a religiously and ethnically diverse population, and whether the interim authorities even have the legitimacy to do so.”
![Houthi supporters hold up their weapons during a protest against Israel's blockade of aid into the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, on March 11. [REUTERS/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/03/12/4826d3ce-2a8b-4643-b1ca-cff60127c596.jpg)
Houthi supporters hold up their weapons during a protest against Israel's blockade of aid into the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, on March 11. [REUTERS/YONHAP]
Syria’s interim government signed a deal Monday with the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast, including a cease-fire and the merging of the main U.S.-backed force there into the Syrian army.
“Achieving a resolution at the negotiating table is preferable to achieving it on the battlefield and the United States will continue to watch Syria and the decisions its leaders make,” Hewitt added.
Palestinian first responders say an Israeli airstrike killed four people, including two brothers, in the Gaza Strip.
The Civil Defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government, said Tuesday’s strike was carried out near the Netzarim corridor, where Israeli forces had carved out a military zone bisecting the territory before withdrawing from the area as part of a fragile cease-fire.
The Israeli military said it carried out an airstrike against a group of militants “engaged in suspicious activity.”
The fragile cease-fire has held since it began on Jan. 19, even as Israeli strikes have killed dozens of Palestinians. Israel says it has struck Palestinians who approached its troops, entered unauthorized areas or otherwise violated the terms of the truce.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 people.
AP
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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