Heavy shelling of a refugee-filled Gaza Strip city flattened a major mosque and killed or injured scores of people on Thursday, as Israel reiterated its intention to push into the area with ground forces if Hamas does not release hostages before the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan Muslims.
Nearly 100 people were killed across the enclave by Israeli strikes in the past day, Gaza health authorities said Thursday, bringing the total death toll after nearly 20 weeks of war to nearly 30,000.
About half of the Gaza Strip’s population of 2.3 million people are crammed into the southern town of Rafah along the border with Egypt, where the strike on the mosque took place on Thursday. Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reported that at least seven Palestinians were killed overnight in Rafah and dozens more wounded.
Israel’s preparations for an invasion of the region come as diplomats scramble to prevent it, with Ramadan starting around March 10.
President Biden’s Middle East coordinator, Brett McGurk, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday for “a good two hours,” focusing on whether negotiators could “solidify a hostage deal,” according to a White House spokesman. .
Talks last week in Cairo on a hostage deal broke down when Mr Netanyahu walked out on his negotiators, accusing Hamas of refusing to budge on what he called “ridiculous” demands and pledging to continue Israel’s offensive.
But on Wednesday night, Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, said there had been push for a new draft agreement that showed a “possibility to move forward”. But he also warned that if no deal was reached, the Israeli army would continue fighting during Ramadan.
A person briefed on the talks said there were indications that both Hamas and Israel were willing to negotiate an interim deal that could exchange 35 Israeli hostages who are either medically frail or elderly for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners. .
On Thursday, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the government “will expand the authority given to our hostage negotiators.”
According to Israeli officials, about 130 hostages are still being held in Gaza, although officials believe at least 30 of them are dead.
Senior officials from Israel, Qatar, the US and Egypt will meet in Paris on Friday to try to push for a deal on a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas, an Israeli official and a person briefed on the talks said. on Thursday. Qatar and Egypt act as intermediaries between Israel and Hamas, which do not negotiate directly.
Mossad chief David Barnea. CIA Director William Burns. Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani; and Abbas Kamel, the head of Egypt’s intelligence service, are among those expected to attend the Paris talks, the Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic developments, as was the person briefed on the talks.
On Thursday, Hamas praised a shooting near a checkpoint in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that killed at least one person, identified by local media as an Israeli man in his 20s, and wounded several others on Thursday morning. Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza began, underscoring broader stability and governance challenges in the occupied territories.
In Thursday’s shooting, three Palestinians used automatic weapons to fire from a car into traffic in front of the A Za’im checkpoint, which leads to Jerusalem, Israeli police said. All three attackers were killed, Eli Levy, a police spokesman, said in a video statement.
The Israeli military said on Thursday it was fighting Hamas across the entire Gaza Strip. Troops “continued to expand” their attacks in northern Gaza, the army said. At the same time, the Israeli navy targeted ships it said were being used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another militant group. And in the south, Israeli troops engaged and killed 15 militants in the town of Khan Younis, the army said.
In Rafah, heavy shelling on Thursday heightened the fears of residents who said it was the heaviest since 10 days ago, when Israeli forces raided there to free two hostages and launched a wave of attacks that health authorities said killed dozens of Palestinians.
“It was a very difficult night,” said Akram al-Shatri, who is sheltering in Rafah. “They destroyed the Al-Farooq Mosque, which is one of the biggest mosques in the region,” he added in a voice message on Thursday. Video released Thursday by the Reuters news agency shows a large pile of debris at the site of the mosque.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday about the Rafah strikes. Mr Netanyahu has described the city as a Hamas stronghold and says the aim of Israel’s campaign is to wipe out the militant group.
After the Rafah raid and Mr Netanyahu’s announcement of a planned ground assault on Rafah, some people there – many of whom had already been displaced several times – began packing up and moving north.
On Thursday morning, after a night of fear as drones buzzed and airstrikes began to arrive, more families displaced from Rafah arrived at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah, a city in central Gaza, said Beirut Hana, a lawyer located there. . They set up tents in and around the hospital and on vacant lots, he said.
“Ever since the Israeli army announced its plans for a ground invasion of Rafah, people got scared and started moving,” Ms. Hanna said in a telephone interview. “Every day since then, large crowds of people have been arriving in Deir al Balah and Nuseirat,” another city in central Gaza.
Ms Hanna said that although some people were returning to their homes in Deir al-Ballah, many others who were not from the city had come seeking safety. However, heavy shelling also continued in central Gaza, residents said.
“So many people leave Rafah and come here thinking they would be safer, only to be killed here,” Ms Hanna said, referring to the central strip.
Aaron Boxerman, Adam Sella Nader Ibrahim and Julian E. Barnes contributed to the report.
