GAZA: Israeli military continued relentless bombardment in various parts of Gaza on Friday as ceasefire talks between Israel and Palestinian movement Hamas failed to progress. Meanwhile, tensions also surged on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
Reports from witnesses detailed strikes hitting various parts of the Gaza Strip, particularly central areas, causing widespread devastation. The morning’s bombardment claimed the life of an 11-year-old boy in the Bureij refugee camp.
Since October 7 last year, the ongoing Israeli military offensive has killed at least 37,232 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the territory.
Meanwhile, tensions surged on Israel’s northern frontier with Lebanon, where Hezbollah launched rockets targeting Israeli military installations. Hezbollah’s actions were reportedly in retaliation for the killing of one of its commanders by Israeli forces. The exchange of fire escalated on Thursday, with Hezbollah claiming to have deployed explosive-laden drones in addition to rockets.
Sirens sounded on Friday morning in northern Israel, where police said munitions had fallen in the Kiryat Shmona area, with no immediate sign of victims. Israeli forces responded with significant firepower, intercepting most of the projectiles launched from Lebanon but not without causing fires and raising alarms in northern Israel. The Israeli government reiterated its commitment to retaliate forcefully against any aggression from Hezbollah.
Since the Gaza war began, Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire, which have escalated. Thursday’s major attack involved rockets and “squadrons of explosive-laden drones”, Hezbollah said.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said his country, the United States and Israel would work together to ease tensions in the region. “We will do the same with the Lebanese authorities,” he added, speaking at a summit of the G7 democratic group of countries.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized the importance of resolving the Gaza conflict as a means to address broader regional instability.
During a Middle East trip this week to push a Gaza ceasefire proposal, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “the best way” to help resolve the Hezbollah-Israel violence was “a resolution of the conflict in Gaza and getting a ceasefire”.
At the G7 summit in Italy, US President Joe Biden called the Palestinian group “the biggest hang-up so far” to reaching a deal on a Gaza truce and hostage release.
Blinken has said Israel backs the plan, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose far-right government allies are strongly opposed, has not publicly endorsed it.
Biden’s roadmap for the first truce since a week-long pause and hostage-prisoner release in November includes a six-week ceasefire, an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and Gaza’s reconstruction.
On Monday, the United Nations Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution supporting the plan.
In the midst of geopolitical maneuvers and military exchanges, the human cost of the conflict remains starkly evident. As Muslims prepare to celebrate Eid al-Adha, the spirit of festivity eludes many in Gaza, where soaring prices and shortages amplify the hardships faced by the besieged Palestinian population.
“There is no Eid spirit,” Mohammed Shabat, who like most of Gaza’s population has been displaced by the war, said outside his tent in Deir al-Balah.
The World Health Organization said more than 8,000 Palestinian children aged under five in Gaza had been treated for acute malnutrition.
