Over 120 people were killed as Israel’s military pounded Gaza City on Wednesday prior to a planned takeover, while Hamas held further talks with Egyptian mediators.
The death toll was the worst in a week and added to the massive fatalities from the nearly two-year conflict that has shattered the enclave housing more than two million Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated an idea — also enthusiastically floated by US President Donald Trump — that Palestinians should simply leave.
“They’re not being pushed out, they’ll be allowed to exit,” he told Israeli television channel i24NEWS. “All those who are concerned for the Palestinians and say they want to help the Palestinians should open their gates and stop lecturing us.”
Arabs and many world leaders are aghast at the idea of displacing the Gaza population, which Palestinians say would be like another “Nakba” (catastrophe) when hundreds of thousands fled or were forced out in 1948.
Israel’s planned re-seizure of Gaza City, which it took in October 2023 before withdrawing weeks later, is probably weeks away, officials say. That means a ceasefire is still possible, though talks have been floundering and conflict still rages.
Israeli planes and tanks bombed eastern areas of Gaza City heavily, with many homes destroyed in the Zeitoun and Shejaia neighbourhoods. Al Ahli hospital said 12 people were killed in an air strike on a home in Zeitoun.
Tanks also destroyed several houses in the east of Khan Yunis in south Gaza too.
Starvation and malnutrition
Eight more people, including three children, died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza over the past two days, the territory’s health ministry said. That took the total to 235, including 106 children, since the conflict began.
Israel disputes those malnutrition and hunger figures reported by the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave.
Hamas chief negotiator Khalil Al Hayya’s meetings with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Wednesday were to focus on stopping the bombardment, delivering aid and “ending the suffering of our people in Gaza”, Hamas official Taher al Nono said in a statement.
Egyptian security sources said the talks would also discuss the possibility of a comprehensive ceasefire that would see Hamas relinquish governance in Gaza and submit its weapons.
A Hamas official said the group was open to all ideas if Israel ends the bombing and pulls out. However, “laying down arms before the occupation is dismissed is impossible”, the official said.
Global outcry
The Israeli prime minister’s plan to expand military control over Gaza, which Israeli sources said could be launched in October, has heightened global outcry over the widespread devastation, displacement and hunger in the enclave.
Twenty-four nations this week decried the “unimaginable levels” of suffering and urged Israel to allow unrestricted aid.
The Israeli military said nearly 320 trucks entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings on Wednesday and that a further 320 trucks were collected and distributed by the UN and international organisations along with three tankers of fuel and 97 pallets of air-dropped aid.
But the UN and Palestinians say aid remains far from sufficient.
Arab states and much of the international community want Gaza to be governed by the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited governance in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The authority’s foreign minister, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, told reporters it was ready to assume full responsibility in Gaza. Hamas would have no role and be required to hand over arms, she added, calling for an international peacekeeping force and withdrawal by Israel.
Israel says it does not trust the PA to rule Gaza.
Source: Dawn
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