Dozens of Israeli strikes pounded the Gaza Strip over the weekend as Israeli and Hamas officers continued oblique cease-fire talks by mediators in Qatar.
Israel’s army mentioned on Sunday that it had hit greater than 100 targets throughout the enclave over the weekend, together with websites from which militants had fired at the least 4 projectiles towards Israeli territory on Friday and Saturday. It mentioned that the strikes had killed Hamas militants and that the army had taken measures to mitigate the chance of harming civilians. The claims couldn’t be independently verified.
The Gaza well being ministry mentioned in a press release on Sunday that 88 Palestinians had 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 providers company, mentioned that its crews had responded to a number of airstrikes on household properties on Sunday during which a number of folks had 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 mentioned they had been sending delegations to the Qatari capital, Doha, in latest days to satisfy with mediators.
The Israeli delegation remained in Doha over the weekend, in response to an Israeli individual accustomed to the matter, who spoke on situation of anonymity due to an absence of authorization to debate the secretive talks publicly. The individual mentioned that the discussions in Doha had been making gradual progress and had been aimed toward reaching a restricted deal that may see a short lived halt within the preventing and a few Israeli hostages launched in change for numerous Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
Reflecting the abiding hole between the perimeters, at the least of their public positions, Hamas mentioned in a press release on Friday that the present spherical of talks would deal with an settlement main to an entire cease-fire and the small print for a withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. Israel had not dedicated to ending the conflict, an official who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate delicate diplomacy, mentioned final week.
Roughly 100 hostages are nonetheless being held in Gaza out of some 250 folks taken captive through the Hamas-led assaults in October 2023 that prompted the conflict. At the least 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 mentioned that they consider that Hamas is rebuilding its forces in Gaza. And the group seems to be recruiting new fighters sooner 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 models. Earlier than the conflict, Israel estimated that Hamas had roughly 25,000 fighters, although Hamas by no means confirmed that determine.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, mentioned in November that Israel’s army had killed shut to twenty,000 fighters.
In all, greater than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed through the conflict, in response to 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 Crimson Crescent Society mentioned on Sunday that in a single day Israeli airstrikes close to Al-Amal Hospital within the southern metropolis of Khan Younis brought about vital harm to a number of hospital services 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 army mentioned 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 army in opposition to what it says is a resurgent Hamas.
The World Well being Group mentioned 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 had been transferred to the Indonesian Hospital.
However on Sunday, Gaza’s well being ministry mentioned that the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza was now not offering providers 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.
