Israel rejects Hamas' demands, continues assault, possibly using French weapon components

Negotiations between Israel and Hamas have broken down after a UN resolution demanded a ceasefire, and Israel continues bombing in southern parts of the Gaza strip. Meanwhile, a French investigative group says it found that French weapons companies supply Israel with weapons that are being used in the conflict.

Israeli forces pounded besieged Gaza on Wednesday in the war sparked by the 7 October attack and fought Hamas in several hospitals despite a UN Security Council demand for a ceasefire.

Talks in Qatar aimed at implementing a truce and hostage release deal, have little impact so far with both Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas blaming each other.

According to the Times of Israel, Israel on Tuesday recalled its negotiating team from Qatar . The move came after Hamas rejected Israel's latest offer in talks on a hostage deal and truce.

In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Hamas's decision to reject a US-brokered compromise is “clear proof it is not interested in continuing talks, and a sad testament to the damage caused by the UN Security Council resolution,” referring to a call for a ceasefire passed Monday night that the US did not veto, thus enabling its passage.

The PMO accused Hamas of retreating to its “extreme demands,” including a complete end to the war and full IDF withdrawal from Gaza.

"Hamas's stance clearly demonstrates its utter disinterest in a negotiated deal and attests to the damage done by the UN Security Council's resolution," according to a statement by Israel's Prime Minister's Office (PMO)

"Hamas has once again rejected an American compromise proposal and has repeated its extreme demands."

Hamas demands
The PMO flatly rejects the demands, calling them "delusional."

Hamas "rebuffed all US offers for a compromise, while celebrating the Security Council's resolution," according to the statement.

"Just war?"

"Israel will pursue and achieve its just war objectives: Destroying Hamas's military and governmental capacities, release of all the hostages, and ensuring Gaza will not pose a threat to the people of Israel in the future."

But in a hard-hitting "advanced, unedited version" of a report by Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, published by the UN High Commisioner for Human Rights on Monday, concludes that "there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel's commission of genocide is met,"

It added: "Israel's military leadership and soldiers have intentionally distorted jus in bello principles, subvertingtheir protective functions, in an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people."

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Wednesday that at least 32,490 people have been killed in the territory during more than five months of war between Israel and Hamas.

France involved?

Meanwhile France's Defense Minister, Sebastien Lecornu, on Tuesday rejected findings by investigative groups Disclose and Marseille-based Marsactu, that France supplied components for ammunition used by the Israeli army in its Gaza campaign.

According to the investigation, published on Monday, Marseille-based firm Eurolinks had sold Israel some 100,000 M27 links, metal connectors used to join rifle cartridges into ammunition belts for machine guns.

This ammunition "could have been used against civilians in the Gaza strip," the groups say. The findings of the group could not be independently confirmed.

Lecornu told reporters in Paris that Eurolinks' exportlicense to deliver good to Israeli firm IMI Systems "only covers re-export to third countries" rather than use by the Israeli army.

According to a 2023 report by armed conflict monitor Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri,) 69 percent of Israel's arms purchases come from US firms, 30% from Germany and 0.9% from Italy.

(with newswires)