Egypt impugns Israel's sincerity in Gaza truce talks: media

Egypt has called on Israel not to obstruct the ongoing negotiations on a truce in the Gaza Strip and not to propose new principles that contradict "what was agreed upon," Egypt's Al-Qahera News TV channel reported Saturday, without elaborating on what items had been agreed or with whom they had been agreed.

According to an unnamed Egyptian high-ranking official cited in the report, Israel has been stalling the truce negotiations in an attempt to divert public attention away from reaching a truce deal. 

Earlier on Saturday, another senior Egyptian source confirmed that Cairo adheres to its demand for Israel's complete withdrawal from the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing and the lifting of all restrictions on the movement of Palestinians to and from Gaza, Al-Qahera News reported.

Over the past few days, Egypt and Qatar have been hosting a new round of negotiations with another mediator, the United States, to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The ongoing Israeli onslaught on Gaza since October 7 last year has so far killed 38,443 Palestinians and wounded 88,481 others, according to an update released by Gaza's health authorities earlier on Saturday.

The Palestinian presidency on Saturday held the U.S. administration responsible for the massive Israeli attack on tents of displaced people in the Mawasi area of the Khan Younis city in the south of Gaza.

Washington "persists in violating all international legitimacy resolutions" by continuously providing financial and military support to the Israeli side, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson of the Palestinian presidency, said in a statement, according to the Palestinian official news agency WAFA.

Without U.S. support, Israel "would not be able to continue its bloody crimes against the Palestinian people, defying international legitimacy and the rulings of international courts that have called for an end to the aggression and protection for the Palestinian people," Abu Rudeineh added.

Meanwhile, Iraq, Jordan and Iran on the same day condemned the targeting of displaced civilians in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli airstrike killed 90 Palestinians, half of them women and children, in displacement shelters in Khan Younis, south of Gaza.

Jordan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs slammed the morning raid as another "systematic targeting of civilians and refugee shelters."

The ministry spokesperson, Sufian Qudah, affirmed the kingdom's absolute denunciation of Israel's ongoing violations of international law and international humanitarian law, as well as its defiance of the broad international calls for an end to the war.

Also condemning Israel's brutal move against displaced civilians in Gaza, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani urged the international community to "take decisive and effective action and do its utmost to completely stop Israel's criminal moves against the defenseless Palestinians in Gaza in a lasting manner."

Regional tension escalates 

A series of Israeli attacks hit targets in Damascus, the Syrian capital, after midnight on Sunday, causing explosions to reverberate across the city.

The Syrian state TV said the Syrian air defenses are intercepting an Israeli attack in the countryside of Damascus.

The attack this time was bigger than the usual attacks amid the incessant sound of Syrian air defense missiles. The sirens of ambulances were heard in parts of the capital.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the current attack is "violent."

Sunday's strikes targeted "a number of our military sites in the southern region and one of the residential buildings in the Kafar Souseh area in the city of Damascus," the Syrian army said in a statement.

"Our air defense systems confronted the enemy's missiles despite their density and shot down a considerable number of them."

Israel's army said its strikes were in response to the launch of two drones from Syria toward the north of Eilat on Saturday, which it said were intercepted, according to a Reuters report. 

"Overnight, the Israel Defense Forces struck a Syrian military command center and infrastructure sites. Additionally, terror targets used by the Syrian military's Aerial Defense Unit were struck," the statement said.

(With input from agencies)