CAIRO: Residents of Gaza City were trapped in houses and bodies lay uncollected in the streets under an intense new Israeli assault on Thursday, even as Washington pushed for a peace deal at talks in Egypt and Qatar.
Hamas militants say a massive Israeli assault on Gaza City this week could wreck efforts to finally end the war just as negotiations have entered the home stretch.
Home to more than a quarter of Gaza’s residents before the war, Gaza City was destroyed during the first weeks of fighting last year, but hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have returned to homes in the ruins. They have now once again been ordered out by the Israeli military.
The Gaza health ministry said it had reports of people trapped and others killed inside their houses in the Tel Al-Hawa and Sabra districts of Gaza City, and rescuers could not reach them.
The Civil Emergency Service said it estimated that at least 30 people had been killed in the Tel Al-Hawa and Rimal areas and it could not recover bodies from the streets there.
Despite army instructions on Wednesday to residents of Gaza City that they can use two “safe routes” to head south, many residents refused to heed the order. Some posted a hashtag on social media: “We are not leaving.”
“We will die but not leave to the south. We have tolerated starvation and bombs for nine months and we are ready to die as martyrs here,” said Mohammad Ali, 30, reached by text message.
Ali, whose family has relocated several times within the city, said they had been running short of food, water and medicine.
“The occupation bombs Gaza City as if the war was restarting. We hope there will be a ceasefire soon, but if not then is God’s will.”
FIGHTING IN RAFAH
Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip last year after Hamas-led militants stormed across the border fence into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel’s assault has killed more than 38,000 according to medical authorities in Gaza.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said Israeli forces had quit the Shejaia suburb east of Gaza after over two weeks of a new military invasion, in which dozens of people were killed and residential districts were destroyed.
At the southern edge of the enclave in Rafah near the border with Egypt, where tanks have been operating in most of the city since May, residents said the army continued to blow up houses in the western and central areas, amid fighting with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other smaller factions.
Palestinian health officials said four people were killed, including a child, in an Israeli air strike in Tel Al-Sultan in western Rafah.
The Israeli military said earlier on Thursday around five rockets fired from the Rafah area were successfully intercepted.
The negotiations in Qatar and Egypt follow important concessions last week from Hamas, which agreed that a truce could begin and some hostages released without Israel first agreeing to end the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces opposition within his rightwing cabinet to any deal that would halt the war until Hamas is vanquished, says a deal must allow Israel to resume fighting until it meets all its objectives.
Two Hamas officials contacted by Reuters had no immediate comment on the content of the ongoing talks, led by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States.
“There will be a meeting today between Hamas and the mediators to check on what responses they have received from the occupation,” said one Palestinian official close to the mediation, without elaboration.
Bodies trapped in Gaza City under Israeli assault as mediators push for truce
https://arab.news/cdp3z
Bodies trapped in Gaza City under Israeli assault as mediators push for truce
- Home to more than a quarter of Gaza’s residents before the war, Gaza City was destroyed during the first weeks of fighting last year
Israel struck Gaza ‘humanitarian zone’ almost 100 times, BBC analysis finds
- Naval, aerial attacks hit stretch of land housing more than 1m Palestinians
- ‘Heavy fire is recurrent in this area despite Israel’s unilateral ‘humanitarian designation,’ says aid official
LONDON: The Israeli military hit its own designated “humanitarian zone” in Gaza 97 times since May, analysis by the BBC has shown.
Israel established the area in October 2023, and told Palestinians in Gaza to relocate there for safety.
It was later expanded to include the urban centers of Khan Younis and Deir Al-Balah.
Despite intending to “keep innocent civilians out of harms way,” Israeli forces struck buildings within the zone 97 times since May 2024, according to BBC Verify.
The area covers a significant and densely populated strip of land on the Mediterranean Sea.
More than 1 million people — many living in tents — are believed to be living inside the Israeli-imposed zone, humanitarian groups have said.
Since the new year, Israel has carried out at least 22 strikes in the area.
The 97 strikes since last May have killed 550 Palestinians.
Israeli military officials have acknowledged 28 of the attacks, and the BBC said it could not confirm that all 97 are the result of Israeli operations.
In a statement to the BBC, the Israeli military said that it was targeting Hamas fighters in the “humanitarian zone.”
It accused Hamas of international law violations, using civilians as human shields and launching rockets from the zone.
Gavin Kelleher, Gaza access manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council, told the BBC that Israel had conducted “near daily” strikes inside the zone, using naval vessels and drones.
“Heavy fire is recurrent in this area despite its (Israel’s) unilateral ‘humanitarian’ designation,” he added.
“The Israeli military appears keen to maintain the illusion of a ‘humanitarian zone’ that remains a certain size, yet that zone can be subject to ‘evacuation orders’ at any time and be targeted.”
One resident in the zone, Khaled Abdel Rahman, told the BBC that fear was “dominating the lives” of Palestinians in the area.
“We were displaced to Khan Younis because it was designated as a safe zone, but in fact we find nothing here but insecurity,” he said.
Due to Israel’s ban on foreign media operating in Gaza, BBC Verify used Palestinian and Israeli social media channels to document the strikes.
Researchers analyzed more than 300 photos and videos posted from the “humanitarian zone” since May.
The deadliest strike in the area came on July 13, and killed more than 90 Palestinians, Gaza’s Health Ministry, medics and first responders said.
Nine strikes hit within 100 meters of buildings belonging to Al-Aqsa Hospital complex in Deir Al-Balah.
Four struck within 150 meters of Khan Younis’ Nasser Medical Complex.
The Israeli military told the BBC that the attacks were launched “against terrorists and terror infrastructures including rocket launchers, weapons warehouse and manufacturing sites, operational apartments, underground infrastructure, operational headquarters and terrorist hideouts.”
Turkish prosecutors target the Istanbul Bar Association
ISTANBUL: Turkish prosecutors have filed a lawsuit against the Istanbul Bar Association for “terrorist propaganda” over its calls for a probe into journalist deaths in Syria, the country’s main lawyers association has said.
“The Istanbul public prosecutor’s office has begun legal action to remove Istanbul Bar Association president Ibrahim Kaboglu and his executive board,” Turkish Bar Association head Erinc Sagkan wrote on X late Tuesday.
The lawsuit was filed several weeks after the Istanbul Bar Association demanded an investigation into the deaths of two journalists from Turkiye’s Kurdish-majority southeast who were killed in northern Syria.
Nazim Dastan, 32, and Cihan Bilgin, died on December 19 when their car was hit by what the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said was a “Turkish drone strike” during clashes between an Ankara-backed militia and the SDF, a US-backed group of mainly Kurdish fighters.
Turkiye sees the SDF as a terror group tied to the PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.
The pair worked for Syrian Kurdish media outlets Rojnews and the Anha news agency, and the strike denounced by the Turkish Journalists’ Union.
The Turkish military insists it never targets civilians but only terror groups.
At the time, the Istanbul Bar Association issued a statement saying “targeting members of the press in conflict zones is a violation of International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Convention.” It demanded “a proper investigation be conducted into the murder of two of our citizens.”
Prosecutors immediately opened an inquiry into allegations of “making propaganda for a terrorist organization” and “publicly spreading false information” on grounds the two journalists had ties to the PKK.
The Istanbul Bar Association denounced the lawsuit as having “no legal basis” and said its executive council was “fulfilling its duties and responsibilities in line with the Constitution, democracy and the law.”
Turkish Bar Association head Sagkan said: “Although the methods may change, the only thing that has remained constant for the past half century is the effort by the government’s supporters to pressurise and stifle those they see as opponents.”
UNRWA chief vows to continue aid to Palestinians despite Israeli ban
OSLO: The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA will continue to provide aid to people in the Palestinian territories despite an Israeli ban due to be implemented by the end of January, its director said Wednesday.
“We will ... stay and deliver,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told a conference in Oslo. “UNRWA’s local staff will remain and continue to provide emergency assistance and where possible, education and primary health care,” he said.
Erdogan says Turkiye can ‘crush’ all terrorists in Syria
ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday urged all countries to “take their hands off” Syria and said Turkiye had the capacity and ability to crush all terrorist organizations in the country, including Kurdish militia and Islamic State.
Speaking in parliament, Erdogan said the Kurdish YPG militia was the biggest problem in Syria now after the ousting of former President Bashar Assad, and added that the group would not be able to escape its inevitable end unless it lays down its arms.
World must keep pressure on Israel after Gaza truce: Palestinian PM
OSLO: The international community will have to maintain pressure on Israel after an hoped-for ceasefire in Gaza so it accepts the creation of a Palestinian state, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa said on Wednesday.
A ceasefire agreement appears close following a recent round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying late Tuesday that a deal to end the 15-month war was “on the brink.”
“The ceasefire we’re talking about ... came about primarily because of international pressure. So pressure does pay off,” Mustafa said before a conference in Oslo.
Israel must “be shown what’s right and what’s wrong, and that the veto power on peace and statehood for Palestinians will not be accepted and tolerated any longer,” he told reporters.
He was speaking at the start of the third meeting of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, gathering representatives from some 80 states and organizations in Oslo.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, the host of the meeting, said a “ceasefire is the prerequisite for peace, but it is not peace.”
“We need to move forward now toward a two-state solution. And since one of the two states exists, which is Israel, we need to build the other state, which is Palestine,” he added.
According to analysts, the two-state solution appears more remote than ever.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, firmly supported by US President-elect Donald Trump, is opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Israel is not represented at the Oslo meeting.
Norway angered Israel when it recognized the Palestinian state, together with Spain and Ireland, last May, a move later followed by Slovenia.
In a nod to history, Wednesday’s meeting was held in the Oslo City Hall, where Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.
The then-head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Israeli prime minister and his foreign minister were honored for signing the Oslo accords a year earlier, which laid the foundation for Palestinian autonomy with the goal of an independent state.
