By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - An Israeli airstrike killed at least six Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, health officials said, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy Jared Kushner ended an inconclusive trip to the region over a stalled U.S. plan to end the war in Gaza.
Medics said 14 others were wounded when the Israeli plane fired two missiles at a small cafe inside the fishing harbour in western Gaza City. The seaport has turned into a large displacement camp for Palestinian families during the war that began in October 2023.
Footage on social media showed Palestinians tending to those wounded at the cafe and nearby tents, as blood stained the ground. Some of the casualties were loaded into private vehicles and transported to hospital.
The Israeli military said the strike targeted armed Hamas commanders, who it said had planned to carry out attacks against forces operating in the enclave.
KUSHNER MEETINGS
Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, left Jerusalem on Monday without a breakthrough after two days of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mediators, and Hamas leaders over ways to enhance the implementation of Trump's roadmap for Gaza, with Hamas and Israel staying firm on their main demands.
After the meetings, an official from Trump's so-called Board of Peace, which put forward the roadmap, said Israel retained its “full right of self defence” and that there would be no “redeployment” by the Israeli military until Hamas was disarmed.
An Israeli official said Netanyahu made it clear the military would continue to operate in Gaza and that there would be no pullback of Israeli troops.
BOTH SIDES DISPUTE SEQUENCE
In what had appeared to be a possible breakthrough at the end of last month, Trump announced Hamas had accepted the roadmap, which said the Palestinian militant group would decommission its weapons in phases as Israel’s military withdrew from Gaza. The military would also stop its operations in the territory.
Netanyahu, whose ruling coalition is trailing ahead of an October election, rejected the roadmap, insisting the military would only withdraw once Hamas is completely disarmed.
Hamas has demanded that Israel adhere to the ceasefire and withdraw its forces from Gaza. Both sides have disputed the sequencing of how Trump's plan should be implemented.
“If they (Hamas) don't follow through now on their commitment, everyone will see that they're not genuine about peace, and then Israel will have a lot more support from the U.S. and others to go and finish the job in the appropriate way," Kushner told Fox News in an interview on Monday.
More than 1,200 Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since a ceasefire was reached last October, according to Gazan health officials and the Israeli military.
(Reporting by Nidal Al-Mughrabi, and Alex Cornwell in Jerusalem; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Alison Williams)
