GAZA: Israeli military pounded central Gaza with heavy air strikes on Wednesday as the United States, Qatari and Egyptian mediators planned to resume talks on a truce and hostage release deal as outlined by US President Joe Biden, AFP reported. Since October 7 last year, Israeli bombardment has killed more than 36,586 Palestinians, mostly women and children, the territory’s health ministry reported.
Tensions were high in annexed east Jerusalem, where Israeli police deployed in large numbers to oversee the annual “flag march,” a contentious event that has historically sparked clashes.
The bloodiest ever Gaza war raged on unabated with Israeli jets continuing bombardment overnight and Palestinian officials reporting yet more deaths.
Urban combat and shelling rocked Gaza’s southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border, the last area hit by the Israeli ground invasion launched in northern Gaza in late October. The Israeli ground invasion has extended to central areas, with the military announcing targeted operational activity in Bureij and eastern Deir al-Balah.
Bombardment of central Gaza killed 11 people near the Al-Maghazi camp and two near Deir al-Balah, said witnesses and Palestinian civil defence and hospital officials. Civilians, including children, were rushed to hospitals as families scrambled to flee the violence, loading belongings onto pickup trucks and wheelchairs.
Almost eight months into the Israeli bombardment campaign, global outrage has spiralled over the soaring death toll of Palestinians and the destruction in Gaza, where UN data suggests more than half of all buildings are destroyed or damaged.
On Friday, US President Joe Biden had outlined a proposed three-phase plan aimed at halting the violence, exchanging hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and increasing aid. While the proposal has garnered support from G7 powers and Arab states, significant hurdles remain. Hamas has insisted on a permanent truce and full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Israel has rejected these demands presented by Hamas.
Biden has deployed high-level officials, including CIA chief Bill Burns and Middle East adviser Brett McGurk, to Qatar for renewed negotiations. Egypt, Qatar, and the US are set to meet in Doha to discuss the mechanism for restoring truce talks, as pressure mounts for a breakthrough. Biden has also urged Hamas to accept the deal.
A source with knowledge of the talks said Burns would “continue working with mediators on reaching a peace agreement between Hamas and Israel on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages”.
Brett McGurk was also headed to Qatar, according to news site Axios which quoted an administration source as talking of a “full-court press… to get a breakthrough”.
Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News said an “Egyptian security delegation will meet with its Qatari and US counterparts in Doha today to discuss the mechanism of restoring the truce talks”.
Qatar said on Tuesday it had yet to see statements from either side “that give us a lot of confidence”, but that Doha was “working with both sides on proposals on the table”.
Despite international efforts, a senior Hamas official in Beirut reiterated the group’s rejection of any deal that excludes a permanent ceasefire. Meanwhile, Israel faces mounting criticism and diplomatic isolation, with cases against it pending before international courts and several European governments recognizing a Palestinian state.
Since October 7 last year, Israel has launched a relentless bombardment campaign killing at least 36,550 Palestinian people, mostly women and children, in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Amid the Gaza war, tensions have also spiralled elsewhere in the region between Israel and its allies on the one hand, and armed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen on the other.
The Israeli army and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement have traded near daily cross-border fire, causing deaths, forcing mass evacuations and igniting wildfires on both sides.
The violence since early October has killed at least 455 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but including 88 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, at least 14 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, according to the army.
