Dozens of Israeli strikes pounded the Gaza Strip over the weekend as Israeli and Hamas officers continued oblique cease-fire talks by way of mediators in Qatar.
Israel’s navy stated on Sunday that it had hit greater than 100 targets throughout the enclave over the weekend, together with websites from which militants had fired not less than 4 projectiles towards Israeli territory on Friday and Saturday. It stated that the strikes had killed Hamas militants and that the navy had taken measures to mitigate the chance of harming civilians. The claims couldn’t be independently verified.
The Gaza well being ministry stated in an announcement on Sunday that 88 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes during the last 24 hours. The ministry’s figures don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. The Gaza Civil Protection, an emergency companies company, stated that its crews had responded to a number of airstrikes on household properties on Sunday by which a number of individuals have been killed and wounded.
Strain has been mounting on either side to succeed in a cease-fire settlement that would come with the discharge of hostages held in Gaza earlier than President-elect Donald J. Trump takes workplace on Jan. 20. Hamas and Israel each stated they have been sending delegations to the Qatari capital, Doha, in current days to satisfy with mediators.
The Israeli delegation remained in Doha over the weekend, based on an Israeli individual aware of the matter, who spoke on situation of anonymity due to a scarcity of authorization to debate the secretive talks publicly. The individual stated that the discussions in Doha have been making sluggish progress and have been geared toward reaching a restricted deal that may see a brief halt within the preventing and a few Israeli hostages launched in trade for quite a lot of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
Reflecting the abiding hole between the edges, not less than of their public positions, Hamas stated in an announcement on Friday that the present spherical of talks would give attention to an settlement main to a whole cease-fire and the small print for a withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. Israel had not dedicated to ending the warfare, an official who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate delicate diplomacy, stated final week.
Roughly 100 hostages are nonetheless being held in Gaza out of some 250 individuals taken captive in the course of the Hamas-led assaults in October 2023 that prompted the warfare. No less than a 3rd of them are presumed to be lifeless.
A weeklong truce in November 2023 allowed for the discharge of 105 hostages, however subsequent efforts to succeed in a cease-fire have faltered amid gaps within the two sides’ calls for. Both sides blames the opposite for the failure to succeed in a deal.
Israeli officers have lately stated that they consider that Hamas is rebuilding its forces in Gaza. And the group seems to be recruiting new fighters quicker than Israel can remove them.
Safety officers reportedly instructed an Israeli parliamentary committee final week that Hamas has as much as 19,000 fighters, with about 9,000 of them in organized items. Earlier than the warfare, Israel estimated that Hamas had roughly 25,000 fighters, although Hamas by no means confirmed that determine.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated in November that Israel’s navy had killed shut to twenty,000 fighters.
In all, greater than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the course of the warfare, based on the well being ministry in Gaza.
And as hopes for even a restricted cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas rise once more, Palestinians and human rights organizations say the humanitarian scenario in Gaza is getting much more determined.
The Palestinian Pink Crescent Society stated on Sunday that in a single day Israeli airstrikes close to Al-Amal Hospital within the southern metropolis of Khan Younis prompted important injury to a number of hospital amenities and killed one individual.
Final week, Israeli forces raided the final remaining main hospital in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan, and compelled its employees and sufferers to evacuate. The Israeli navy stated that Kamal Adwan was a stronghold for Hamas and that it was finishing up “focused operations” within the space.
The hospital had been the principle supplier of medical care within the northernmost stretch of Gaza amid a monthslong offensive by Israel’s navy towards what it says is a resurgent Hamas.
The World Well being Group stated that the raid on Kamal Adwan “put the final main well being facility in North Gaza out of service” — and that the remaining sufferers, caregivers and well being employees have been transferred to the Indonesian Hospital.
However on Sunday, Gaza’s well being ministry stated that the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza was not offering companies to sufferers or the wounded, leaving the northern a part of the enclave with none functioning hospitals amid the near-constant bombardment.
Aaron Boxerman contributed to this report.
