GAZA CITY: Israeli military strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians overnight in the Gaza Strip, most of them in the Nuseirat refugee camp at the centre of the besieged enclave, medics said on Friday as total death toll has surpassed 44,363 since October 7, 2023.
Medics said they had recovered 19 bodies of Palestinians killed in the northern areas of Nuseirat, one of the enclave’s eight long-standing refugee camps.
Some tanks remained active in the western area of the camp and the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said teams were unable to respond to distress calls from residents trapped inside their houses, Reuters news agency reported.
The rest were killed in the northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip, medics said as quoted by Reuters. There was no fresh statement by the Israeli military on Friday, but on Thursday it said its forces were continuing to “strike targets as part of the operational activity in the Gaza Strip”.
Meanwhile, the Israeli authorities released around 30 Palestinians whom it had detained during the ongoing offensive in Gaza in the past months. The released people arrived at a hospital in southern Gaza for medical checkups, medics said.
Freed Palestinians, detained during the war, have complained of ill-treatment and torture in Israeli detention after they were released. Israel denies the torture allegations.
US President Joe Biden, who has less than two months left in office, on Wednesday said in a social media post that his administration would quickly launch “another push” with international partners to secure a deal to end the even deadlier war in the Gaza Strip.
“Over the coming days, the United States will make another push with Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, and others to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza with the hostages released and an end to the war without Hamas in power,” Biden said on X.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden had agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu right before the announcement of the Lebanon ceasefire to try again for a Gaza agreement, which negotiators have sought unsuccessfully for months.
A ceasefire in the parallel conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah took effect before dawn on Wednesday, bringing a halt to hostilities that had escalated sharply in recent months and had overshadowed the Gaza conflict.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 44,363 Palestinians and injured 105,070 since October 7, 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement. The Israeli campaign has also displaced nearly all the enclave’s population at least once, Gaza officials said. Vast swathes of the territory are in ruins.
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Amos Hochstein, the US envoy who negotiated the ceasefire in Lebanon, told BBC that he was hopeful the deal could pave the way to a ceasefire in Gaza.
“I know I sound crazy, but then again people thought I sounded crazy when I said I thought I could get a deal in Lebanon,” he said. “I read many articles [about] how I was in fantasy-land.”
Despite insisting on three conditions – an Israeli withdrawal, a permanent ceasefire and the reconstruction of Gaza – Hamas has indicated to mediators on many occasions its willingness to make substantial concessions.
Meanwhile, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) noted that the plight of the Palestinian people remains the world’s longest unresolved refugee crisis and the people of Gaza.
“In the past year, Gaza has experienced the most intense bombardment of a civilian population since World War II,” UNRWA pointed out.
It’s the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
The plight of the #PalestineRefugees remains the longest unresolved refugee crisis in the world.
In the past year #Gaza has experienced the most intense bombardment of a civilian population since World War… pic.twitter.com/xkDNGP0XS3
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) November 29, 2024
