Israel steps up military offensive in Gaza as US presses for ceasefire
Israel announced a new military campaign against Hamas in central Gaza on Wednesday and Palestinian medics said airstrikes there had killed dozens of people ahead of talks between U.S. and Qatari mediators to try to finalise a ceasefire deal.
The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they had fought gun battles with Israeli forces in areas throughout the enclave and fired anti-tank rockets and shells as the two sides sought the upper hand amid pressure to lay down their arms.
At least 44 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military strikes in central Gaza Strip areas since Tuesday, health officials in the enclave said. “The sounds of bombardment didn’t stop all night,” said Aya, 30, a displaced woman in Deir Al-Balah. Two children were among the dead laid out on Wednesday. Mourners said they had been killed along with their mother, who had been unable to leave when others in the neighbourhood did.
“This is not war, it is destruction that words are unable to express,” said their father Abu Mohammed Abu Saif. The Israeli military said jets were hitting Hamas militant targets in central Gaza while ground forces were operating “in a focused manner with guidance from intelligence” in the area of Al-Bureij - one of Gaza’s long established refugee settlements.
“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,” an Israeli military statement said. Residents said Israeli forces had sent tanks into Bureij and planes and tanks pounded the nearby settlements of Al-Maghazi and AlNuseirat as well as Deir Al-Balah city, where tanks have not invaded.
“Every time they speak about new truce talks, the occupation uses one town or refugee camp as a pressuring card. Why should civilians, people safe inside their homes or tents, pay the price? Why can’t Arabs and the world stop the war?” Aya told media. Aya, like many in the Gaza Strip, said people held out hopes that reported talks between officials from the United
States, Qatar, and Egypt in Doha on Wednesday would advance a ceasefire deal involving the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and some of the Palestinians jailed in Israel. CIA Director William Burns was meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister, an official briefed on the talks said.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday the administration was waiting for a response from Hamas through the Qatari mediators to a ceasefire proposal that U.S. President Joe Biden revealed on Friday.
Qatar said on Tuesday that the proposal was now much closer to the positions of both sides. Hamas has said it views the contents of the plan positively and has criticised Washington for what it described as attempts to blame the Palestinian militant group for hampering it. But a spokesman for Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, reiterated on Tuesday it could not agree to any deal unless Israel makes a “clear” commitment to a permanent truce and complete withdrawal from Gaza.
Israel says it cannot do that until Hamas is wiped out.