Israel strikes Gaza's Rafah as truce talks under way
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00:00 As Washington urges Israel not to launch a ground operation in the Gaza Strip's southernmost city
00:05 after a 24-hour period that saw local authorities claim that they were nearly 100 killed in Rafa,
00:12 the U.S. Middle East envoy back in Israel is part of efforts to revive truce talks that have
00:19 stalled now for weeks. For more, let's cross to Jerusalem and correspondent Jordana Miller.
00:24 Jordana, what's the latest?
00:27 Well, the president's envoy, Brett McCurk, is meeting right now with the Israeli prime minister.
00:33 He's reportedly brought with him the revised Hamas positions on a potential hostage release deal and
00:43 ceasefire. Remember, the sides have been working for weeks on at least phase one of this deal,
00:49 which would bring six weeks of quiet in return for the release of some of the 132 hostages,
00:57 mostly the civilian women, the elderly, and the injured, and also bring in desperately needed
01:04 aid into the Gaza Strip. Those are kind of the parameters. When we heard last night from the
01:10 war cabinet general, Benny Gantz, say there were early indications of progress, I mean,
01:16 most people here translated that into meaning that Hamas had softened their positions in some way,
01:24 because before that, Israel had called Hamas's positions non-starters, delusional,
01:30 and dismissed them. So we can expect or hope that as we learn more details and there's more progress,
01:38 it could be that Hamas has softened their position on the number of Palestinian prisoners they want
01:44 exchanged for each hostage and the high value ones, those serving for murder. Perhaps there's
01:51 fewer of those that they're asking be released. Perhaps they've dropped their demands about
01:57 changing the rules at a shared holy site here in Jerusalem, or positions on where the Israeli army
02:05 would deploy to during this quiet. Hamas had before expected Israel to pull out of every
02:13 inch of the Gaza Strip. That never seemed very likely. Maybe now they will agree on something
02:20 more reasonable or practical. Maybe Israel would move out of the populated city centers and move
02:27 to the periphery. All of this, though, being talked about with the U.S. envoy in this next push,
02:35 the Israeli war cabinet will meet tonight, and they will consider the possibility of sending
02:41 an Israeli delegation to the next round of these talks, likely in Europe.
02:46 The question then becomes, you mentioned the desperate need for aid. You mentioned how these
02:51 talks have been going on for weeks without any conclusion. Will a ground operation in Rafa
02:59 happen? Well, it's very clear that a massive military operation in Rafa is weeks away.
03:09 Though it is being used as the threat to get Hamas to soften their positions and to get
03:14 at least phase one of this deal in place before Ramadan, before the Muslim holy month, which
03:20 starts on March 10th, it is being used as a pressure tactic and a threat. But realistically,
03:28 Israel cannot go into Rafa without moving over a million Gazans out. They have to go north,
03:36 likely northwest. That is a major endeavor. The Israeli army says they're working on those
03:42 evacuation plans. We haven't seen them yet. But it's clear it would take weeks. Remember,
03:47 it took weeks for nearly a million Gazans to head south in the beginning of this war from Gaza City,
03:54 the first point, the first kind of focus of Israel's war against Hamas. So, you know,
04:01 it is not imminent. And, you know, it may not happen for several weeks. If we get a deal,
04:07 then maybe it won't happen at all. But maybe it'll happen if the deal breaks down after
04:14 Ramadan, after the Jewish holiday of Passover. Maybe we'll have quiet through March and April.
04:21 We'll have to see. Remember, it's also a sensitive operation because of the peace
04:24 treaty with Egypt. There's continual talks going on between Israeli and Egyptian officials.
04:30 Israel wants to take control of part of that border.