AFP, Gaza City

Israel carried out an air strike on Hamas members in northern Gaza yesterday, rattling an already fragile ceasefire as it prepared for fresh talks in Doha on the future of its truce with Hamas.

Hamas called for an immediate start to negotiations on the ceasefire’s second phase, which it hopes will lead to a permanent end to the war.

Representatives of the Palestinian group met with mediators in Cairo over the weekend, stressing the urgent need for humanitarian aid to re-enter the besieged territory “without restrictions or conditions”, according to a Hamas statement.

“Hamas stresses the urgency of forcing the occupation to immediately begin second-phase negotiations under the agreed parameters,” senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi told AFP, adding that this would pave the way for a permanent end to the war.

Hamas’s key demands for the second phase include a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, an end to the Israeli blockade, the reconstruction of the Palestinian territory and financial support, Mardawi said. Following talks with mediators, Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Al-Qanoua said indicators were so far “positive”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it would send delegates to Doha today, while the Israeli media reported that the government’s security cabinet was due to discuss the matter later yesterday.

Israel says that it wants an extension of the truce’s first phase until mid-April.

The initial period of truce ended on March 1 after six weeks of relative calm that included the exchange of 25 living hostages and eight bodies for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

The truce largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza, where virtually the entire population was displaced by Israel’s relentless military campaign.

It also enabled the flow of vital food and medical assistance into Gaza. After Israel cut off that flow again, UN rights experts accused the government of “weaponising starvation”.