Escalating Gaza Attacks Claim 16 Lives Amidst Renewed Truce Talks
Israeli Airstrikes Target Residential Areas in Gaza and Khan Younis as Death Toll Mounts, Raising Concerns During Ceasefire Negotiations
Watan-At least 16 Palestinians, including an infant, were killed and others injured since dawn on Monday in a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting various areas in the Gaza Strip, as part of the genocidal war Israel has been waging in the Strip since October 7, 2023.
The Gaza Ministry of Health stated that the raids targeted several residential locations and civilian facilities in Gaza City and Khan Younis, as well as camps in the central part of the Strip. Among the dead was a woman killed after a site near the Turkish slaughterhouse south of Khan Younis was targeted, while others were killed in a bombing that hit a clinic in the Al-Rimal neighborhood and a residential apartment in a residential tower southwest of Gaza City.
Local reports indicated that martyrs fell in a bombing that targeted Al-Bureij refugee camp and Bani Suheila area east of Khan Younis, in addition to shooting by Israeli forces towards eastern areas of Gaza City and the northern Strip.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced the arrival of 105 martyrs and 356 injured over the past 24 hours, and stated that the toll of the Israeli aggression has risen to 57,523 martyrs and 136,617 injured since October 7, 2023. A number of victims remain under the rubble and in the streets, unreachable by ambulance and civil defense crews.
These developments come as the Gaza Ministry of Health announced that more than 280 people have been martyred in the past 100 hours, including a number of citizens while trying to obtain humanitarian aid, amid humanitarian conditions described as catastrophic within the Strip.
Four Palestinians were seriously injured as a result of an Israeli raid targeting a tent sheltering displaced persons in Deir al-Balah, according to the same sources.
The Israeli occupation army continued its shelling of eastern Gaza and the northern Strip from overnight until dawn on Monday, in conjunction with ground military operations, with eyewitnesses reporting hearing violent and continuous explosions.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with American support, has been committing genocide in Gaza, including killing, starvation, destruction, and displacement, ignoring international appeals and orders from the International Court of Justice to stop it.
This war has left more than 193,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and a famine that has claimed the lives of many, including dozens of children.
These targeting operations come at a time when a new round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas began yesterday, Sunday, with the participation of mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and the United States in the Qatari capital (Doha). This round aims to reach a long-term ceasefire agreement that includes a prisoner exchange and humanitarian guarantees.
Despite the tense atmosphere on the ground, officials from the mediating parties expressed “cautious optimism” about the possibility of progress, amid increasing international pressure to stop the fighting after more than a year and a half of one of the most violent large-scale military operations launched by Israel on the Gaza Strip following an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israeli territory.
While negotiating delegations are trying to discuss a mechanism for resuming the entry of humanitarian aid and establishing a truce, warnings are escalating that continued military operations may complicate the chances of reaching any agreement soon.
An Israeli official described the current atmosphere in the Qatar- and Egypt-mediated talks as positive. Palestinian officials said that preliminary meetings held yesterday ended without decisive results.
Another Israeli official said that the issue of humanitarian aid was discussed in Qatar, without providing further details.
Ending the war has been the main point of contention in previous rounds of talks, with Hamas demanding a complete end to the conflict in exchange for the release of all detainees, while Israel insists it will continue fighting until Hamas is dismantled.
Some of Netanyahu’s hardline partners in the government coalition oppose ending the fighting. But with Israelis growing increasingly concerned about the 21-month-long war, his government is expected to support a ceasefire.
