Israel attacked Gaza on Friday, just 12 weeks after the war sparked by the Oct. 7 attacks began, as Egypt hosted a Hamas delegation for talks aimed at ending the standoff that has devastated much of the besieged Palestinian territory.
With vast areas of northern Gaza in ruins and largely deserted, Israeli air strikes and ground combat have focussed on central and southern districts, driving ever more displaced families into crowded areas around Rafah near the Egyptian border.
Intense fighting around central Deir al-Balah and the biggest southern city, Khan Yunis, has driven about 100,000 newly displaced people into already-overcrowded Rafah, said the UN humanitarian office, even as targets there were bombed too.
Citizens of Rafah searched for survivors in the rubble after a deadly airstrike on Thursday.
One local man, Tayseer Abu al-Eish, said he was at home when “we heard a loud explosion and debris started falling on us. My daughters were screaming.”
The relentless bombardment has caused significant civilian casualties and prompted global calls for a ceasefire amid growing fears for the plight of Palestinians starving and sleeping in makeshift shelters during the bloodless winter months.
After another attack, in Deir al-Balah, a grieving mother, Suhair Nasser, wept as she cradled the bodies of her twins, exclaiming that “space was bombed and debris fell on young people on December 28, their birthday. “
The military said it had “eliminated dozens of terrorists” across Gaza over the past 24 hours and was “extending operations in Khan Yunis”, the hometown of Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar.
Gunmen of Hamas, considered a “terrorist” group by the United States and European Union, launched an attack on October 7 that left about 1,140 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The Palestinian militants also took about 250 people hostage, more than half of whom remain captive inside the war zone, some of them believed dead.
Israel’s relentless military campaign since then has killed at least 21,507 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
The Israeli military says 168 people were killed in Gaza.
Hamas’s military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said Friday it had launched a fresh barrage of rockets at southern Israel.
– U. N. convoy attacked –
The Israeli siege imposed after October 7, after years of crippling blockade, has left Gaza’s 2. 4 million citizens at a disadvantage in terms of food, water and medicine.
The UN says more than 80 Gazans have been driven from their homes, with many now living in crowded shelters or tents around Rafah.
The U. N. Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, said another 308 people sheltering in its facilities had died.
U. N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths lamented “a situation for the rest of the population of Gaza and for those seeking to help them. “
“Do you think it’s easy to get aid to Gaza? Think again,” he wrote Friday on X, formerly Twitter.
A U. N. humanitarian convoy was attacked by the Israeli army causing casualties, UNRWA said.
The severe shortages have been solved only sporadically thanks to humanitarian aid convoys that have basically entered Egypt.
A truck loaded with new goods, meat, eggs and fruits, arrived at the Rafah market on Friday, bringing some relief.
“This is the first time eggs and some types of fruit have entered Gaza from Egypt,” said vendor Muntasser al-Shaer.
“All the fruit is scarce in the markets. There are vegetables, although they are very expensive. “
– Cairo truce plan –
While Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, Cairo has proposed a plan that includes a renewable ceasefire, a phased release of Palestinian prisoner hostages and, ultimately, an end to the war, sources close to Hamas say.
Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, a Hamas official said the delegation would “give the reaction of the Palestinian factions, adding several observations” on the proposal that Egypt recently submitted to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Hamas reportedly has “guarantees for the withdrawal of the entire Israeli army” from Gaza, the official claimed.
Looking at post-war Gaza, the proposal provides for a Palestinian government of technocrats after talks involving “all Palestinian factions”, which would be responsible for governing and rebuilding the territory.
Israel has yet to officially comment on the Cairo plan, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling the families of the hostages on Thursday that “we are in contact” with Egyptian mediators and vowing that “we are running to bring them all back. “
The head of Egypt’s state data services, Dia Rashwan, said the plan “aimed to combine the perspectives of all parties involved, with the aim of ending the loss of Palestinian blood. “
In Tel Aviv, many other people rallied Thursday to call for a ceasefire.
“Israelis, Palestinians, Muslims, Jews, Christians, this is everyone’s home,” said one protester, instructor Itay Eyal, 51, who said all parties have the right to “life, liberty, sovereignty and dignity. “
He said “the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 will never be pardoned and excused” but added that “if you don’t see the historical context, then you’re condemned to repeat the same tragedy over and over again.”
Tensions also erupted in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian motorist who had wounded four others in a suspected vehicular attack.
The war in Gaza has also sparked an outbreak of violence in the Middle East, where Israel has long waged a ghost war with its arch-nemesis, Iran, and armed teams allied with Tehran.
Israeli forces have exchanged fierce cross-border attacks with Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah since the start of the Gaza war.
On Friday the army said it struck “Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon” after rocket fire from there.
A U. S. warship on Thursday shot down a drone and anti-ship ballistic missile fired at Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, the U. S. military said.
The Huthis have repeatedly targeted vessels in the vital Red Sea shipping lane with strikes they say are in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Bur-ami/HKB/FZ
Originally published as Israel bombs Gaza as Egypt hosts Hamas to discuss truce proposal
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