CAIRO: On Wednesday, Israel started a new military operation against Hamas in central Gaza. Medics in Gaza said that airstrikes had killed dozens of people there before talks between US and Qatari mediators to try to finalize a ceasefire deal.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s armed wings said they had fought gun battles with Israeli forces all over the neighbourhood and fired anti-tank rockets and shells as they tried to get the upper hand while being told to put down their weapons.
Health workers in the enclave said that since Tuesday, Israeli airstrikes in the central Gaza Strip have killed at least 44 Palestinians.
Aya, 30, a woman who had to leave her home in Deir Al-Balah, said, “The sounds of bombs going off didn’t stop all night.”
Two kids were among the dead people who were put out on Wednesday. People who were mourning said that they and their mother had been killed because she couldn’t leave when other people in the neighbourhood did.
Their father, Abu Mohammed Abu Saif, told them, “This is not war; it is destruction that words can’t describe.”
The Israeli military said that jets were attacking Hamas resistance targets in central Gaza and that ground forces were working “in a focused manner with guidance from intelligence” near Al-Bureij, which has been a refugee camp in Gaza for a long time.
“The forces of the 98th Division began a precise campaign in the areas of East Bureij and East Deir al-Balah, above and below ground at the same time,” a statement from Israel said.
Residents said that Israeli tanks had gone into Bureij and that planes and tanks had hit the nearby towns of Al-Maghazi and Al-Nuseirat, as well as the city of Deir Al-Balah, even though the tanks had not gone into Bureij itself.
“Every time they talk about new peace talks, the occupation hits one town or refugee camp to put pressure on them.” People who are safe in their homes or tents shouldn’t have to pay the price. “Why can’t the world and the Arabs end the war?” Aya told Reuters through a chat app.
In Doha, CIA Director Burns talks about a truce.
Aya and many other people in the Gaza Strip said they were still hopeful that the talked between US, Qatar, and Egypt officials in Doha on Wednesday would lead to progress on a ceasefire deal that would free Israeli prisoners held in Gaza and some Palestinians jailed in Israel.
A person who knows about the talks said that CIA Director William Burns was meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister.
Jake Sullivan, the national security director for the White House, told reporters on Tuesday that the government was waiting for Hamas to respond to a ceasefire offer made by US President Joe Biden on Friday through the Qatari mediators.
Qatar said on Tuesday that the plan was now a lot more in line with what both sides wanted.
Hamas has said that it likes what’s in the plan and has criticized Washington for trying to blame the Palestinian group for making it harder to carry out.
But on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Hamas, which has been in charge of Gaza since 2007, said again that the group would not agree to any deal unless Israel makes a “clear” promise to end all fighting and leave Gaza completely. Tel Aviv says it can’t do that until Hamas is gone.
US sources say that Israel is likely to go along with the plan since it comes from them. Qatar has said that Israel needs to make a clear decision about the plan that is supported by the whole government. Some parts of the government have been against any kind of peace.
Islamic Jihad, a group that works with Hamas, said on Wednesday that its leader Ziad al-Nakhala was in Cairo with a group of people to talk with Egyptian mediators about how to “end the Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip and efforts to send aid.”
Rafah, the town on the border with Egypt that Israeli forces swept into last month in what the military called a limited operation to get rid of Hamas’s last fighting units that were still together, was still fighting.
“The forces found combat means and eliminated armed saboteurs who operated nearby and posed a threat,” it stated.
Most of the one million people who had fled to Rafah have now returned. People who still live there say that Israeli tanks have launched raids into the centre and deeper into the west before fleeing east and south again.
The UNRWA, the agency that helps Palestinian refugees, made a new call for a halt on Wednesday, X, talking about how the war’s effects will last for a long time.
“The war in #Gaza has turned millions of Palestinians’ lives upside down and done terrible damage to the natural environment that they depend on for food, water, clean air, and their jobs.” It said, “Restoring environmental services will take decades and can’t even begin until there is peace.”
After fighters stormed across the border into southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and holding more than 250 hostage, Israel began an air and ground offensive in Gaza last October. They said they would destroy Hamas. There are still about 120 prisoners in Gaza.
According to Gaza’s health authorities, the Israeli military operation has killed more than 36,000 people. Thousands more bodies are buried under the rubble, they say.
